Trump doesn't seem impressed by the religio-wingnuts and has shown no
signs that he feels the need to impress them, or even that they matter…
This is nothing new, of course: Tony Perkins of the Family Research Council told a caller
that
dog would no longer protect the United States, thanks to
marriage equality. Ever since the Manichaean Augustine of Hippo opened
his mouth, religio-wingnuts have been looking for the city of dog, an
effort which has left a morose dunghill in its place.
“Absolutely, absolutely,” Perkins replied,
enthusiastically agreeing with the caller: “[We] put ourselves in a very
vulnerable position” just like in “1973 when the court basically said
it’s open season on the unborn, there were consequences to that and I
believe it’s a part of removing dog’s hand of protection upon a nation.”
Right. Open season against blacks doesn’t presage anything dire, and that
has been with us since the first slave arrived on these shores,
centuries before Roe v. Wade. How about the genocide of the Native
Americans, which began even before the first slave arrived? Or how about
beating gays and transgenders? Or raping women? Or abusing the poor of
any background? None of that bothered dog?
Or if none of that moves you, how about what we do to our own children in this country?
When jesus said, “Let the little children come to
me” he didn’t mean hurry them on their way to heaven.
But once they’re out of the womb, that is precisely what Republicans do.
Where is Perkins’ head that only the unborn matter
to him, and not the living? jesus didn’t preach about or to fetuses. He
preached to the living.
And Perkins is not alone. Take Santorum, Paul, or Cruz
who insists freedom is tyranny.
Walker, for crying out loud, after doing his best to destroy Wisconsin,
said its dog’s plan that he now destroy the entire 50 states by becoming pretender.
Trump is crass and boorish, but he may prove
to be the dung-covered gem in the dunghill. He will not win, but for a
moment, a whole bunch of Republicans are forgetting about this dog thing. Unlike Walker and Cruz, Trump hasn’t claimed dog wants him to
run, or that he’s the messiah.
Trump says, “I’m a religious person. I go to cult. Do I do things that are wrong? I guess so.”
Compare this to Jeb,
who eagerly explains he does so often. (You think you’ve been cringing? Put yourself in the shoes of the religio-wingnuts):
I’m not sure I have. I
just go on and try to do a better job from there. I don’t think so. I
think if I do something wrong, I think, I just try and make it right. I
don’t bring dog into that picture. I don’t.
We I take, when we go, and church and when I drink
my little wine – which is about the only wine I drink – and have my
little cracker, I guess that’s a form of asking for forgiveness, and I
do that as often as possible because I feel cleansed, OK? But, you know,
to me that’s important, I do that, but in terms of officially, I could
say, ‘Absolutely!’ and everybody, I don’t think in terms of that. I
think in terms of, let’s go on and let’s make it right.
We all missed this thanks to his next dissing John McCain, but think about how far off the reservation he has gone with this.
His little glass of wine and his cracker. And he got a standing ovation at the end of his talk.
Trump, alone of all the Republican candidates, isn’t
acting like a frothing-at-the-mouth religious zealot. In fact, Ed
Kilgore at the
Washington Monthly said, “everything about Trump screamed the oafish tycoon speaking the unaccustomed language of delusion.”
And yet it is Trump who is leading at the
polls. Attacking John McCain didn’t hurt him. Dismissing dog didn’t hurt
him. Of the two, I would argue that the latter is the more important.
It is an importance which cannot be overstated.
Erick Erickson claimed,
over at Red State, where pregnant women are animals, that, “Donald
Trump made a potentially fatal error yesterday in Iowa…. The media might
not have noticed. But it was the talk of evangelicals yesterday and
today at cult.”
But I don’t think anybody is listening to Erick Erickson. Certainly not enough to hurt Donald Trump’s polling numbers.
We can read at
Right Wing Watch
that “Russell Moore of the southern baptist coven’s 'ethics' and 'religious 'liberty' cabal and Samuel Rodriguez of the mational hispanic 'christian' 'leadership' coven said last week that they didn’t
know a single evangelical who supports Trump…”
I don’t think anybody is listening to them either.
Is there actually a niche for a Republican pretender candidate who is not in the thrall of the likes of Tony Perkins?
Will all this come back to haunt Trump? Will the
bubble burst? Sure, it’s possible. It is also possible he can provide wingnuts a moment of clarity, to show the Republican base that
politics can be about something other than religion.
After all, Trump has yet to say a word about mantles
of protection or divine snit fits dropping flocks of birds out of the
sky. He just eats his little cracker and tries to do better.
This is not to make an argument for Trump. Rather,
look at the significance of the moment. However far Trump may go in the
2016 presidential race, he may have shown a way forward for Republican
candidates who are not in thrall to the religio-wingnuts, a sort of
anti-Reagan, which is ironic given all the comparisons being made to
Reagan by his adoring followers on Twitter.
For Trump, this isn’t a war of dog’s 'righteous'
Republicans against Liberal Satan-worshipers, but a war of Trump
against idiots and fools.
And you know what? That’s kind of refreshing.
***
Damn,
who would have thought Trump could do any good for America, but putting
the religio-wingnuts where they belong would be a great thing for
America. They do not matter - they never have - they are just
self-inflated perverted blowhards who's time it never was and it has
passed.
Part of what makes this a special evening for me is the presence of my family members who are here. My grandmother, Mama Sarah, who told me I had to come back to Kenya. And when she says you should do something, generally you have to do it. I’ve told this story before — the first time that I visited Kogelo, Auma and I and my brothers were there. Mama Sarah speaks Swahili and Luo, and I speak neither –and so Auma was serving as a translator. And I think about a half a day had passed before suddenly she turns to Auma and says something. And Auma starts laughing, and I say, what did she say? She says, he goes to Harvard; if he’s so smart, how come he can’t talk to his grandmother? Which was a good point.
My siblings are here, aunts, uncles. And so, tonight, I welcome all of them to a somewhat unusual Obama family reunion. I suspect that some of my critics back home are suggesting that I’m back here to look for my birth certificate. That is not the case.
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