Q & A: 'Joe the Plumber' | Christianity Today | A Magazine of Evangelical Conviction
I kinda like Joe. Hardworking. Easy going. Down to earth kinda guy. Seems like the guy next door who just wants to do the right thing & be left alone to live his life.
Then I read this interview.
Now I'm scared that the millions of guys next door are closet theocrats, ignorant of history & have no clue about anything except what they have been led around by the nose & their pastor to believe.
Don't seminaries teach history anymore to have pastors tell their congregants the truth?
He starts out by repeating the Big Lie that our nation was founded on Christian Values. Really? I challenge anyone to point out one --- a single, solitary ONE --- uniquely Christian Value in the Constitution. Just one. Please. Only one will do. That statement shows a complete & utter lack of historical knowledge about the Enlightenment & all the events around our founding. Preposterous.
Then it gets better ... er, uh, worse: Joe actually proposes that civil liberties be a state decision & the equal protection provision of the 14th Amendment be nullified. Now I'm sure he has no clue that is what he just called for, but it is what he said. When calling for states to make the decisions about civil liberties, there is a problem. Why? Because states have a poor record of being fair. States usually end up with minorities being disenfranchised.
Now Joe goes from bad to worse & shows his bigotry when he says he has no problem with gay people but he doesn't want them around his kids. Uh? Like being gay implies a propensity for being a child molester? Or that a gay person will "rub off" on his kid & make his kid gay? So sad. Complete ignorance.
Next comes the idea that the God needs to be more than lip service in the GOP. Does he not see? The Taliban actually implemented that idea & look what it did in Afghanistan.
I think I'm gonna take some Pepto & pray extra hard tonight that the Religious Right doesn't win more political power, lest dissent be given the Faith Based Initiative of the Spanish Inquisition.
God help us.
4 comments:
The media and everyone else has no business taking this man seriously. He is an intellectual lightweight, thrust into the limelight, when the Republicans apparently planted him to ask a question of Obama on camera so that it could be used in the campaign. He was in no position to purchase the business he talked about, nor was he a licensed plumber. He certainly has little knowledge of history, the Constitution or social issues. More than likely he gets what little information he can absorb from FOX News.
I firmly believe in States' rights over those of the Federal government. There should be much, much more that is up to the individual States than now. Every time Congress convenes, more & more States' rights & our individual freedoms go right out the window in obscurity.
The ones to blame for states having poor track records in anything are . . . US, the voting public. Since state elected officials are far more localized than Congressional officials, they can (& should be) held accountable by us. If we would ever wield our voting power, & let those that need to go why we're voting against them come election time, I think we'd all see dramatic improvements.
One of the problems with Washington is once elected, they're immune until next election when they promise to fix what they themselves caused.
Joe was right on point about the Republican party - no leadership, basically in shambles without the backbone to stick to their principles.
Dirk
THE FIRST AMENDMENT, NOT POLITICALLY CORRECT II
http://tsalagiman2.blogspot.com/
Dirk: I certainly agree with you about the Republican Party. Much like the DEMs moved very left in the 70s, the GOP has moved to the extreme Right & has, I'm ashamed to say, been taken over by Xian Dominionists.
Ont he civil liberties & states rights, I do disagree.
Maybe you ought to consider being on an internet radio show with me ... I'm thinking about bringing GA Mtn Man in as well.
Hi Ryan,
I would be very interested in being on internet radio with you & Ralph. Thanks for asking!!
Dirk
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