Friday, January 31, 2014

Trying to analyze the Christian right-wing

Time Warp: The Modern Religious Right and American Theocracy (Click on this link to read more)

By: Trevor LaFauci more from Trevor LaFauci
Saturday, January, 25th, 2014, 11:38 am   
.
Today's Republicans are stuck in time.
.
Republicans in the year 2014 yearn for a past that fits their idyllic view of what life should be like.  They clamor for a time and place that they believe best represents their view of an ideal society.  For many Republicans today, it can be argued that their utopian society occurred during the 1950s, a time where America prospered both domestically as well as internationally and was seen as the envy of the world.  It was this time and place that many Republicans reference when they describe how far America has come since its "glory age" of the 1950s.
.
However, upon closer examination, the rosy retrospection that Republicans give this era does not hold up under scrutiny.  For example, the 1950s was a time period of extreme civil unrest and a period consisting of rampant discrimination of minorities, especially in the south.  Sure, American universities were the envy of the world, but it also helped that during that time period, the top marginal tax rate was 90% on the wealthiest Americans.  And, despite being the preeminent world power, the United States was not involved in any prolonged internationally conflict, thus leaving our military industrial complex starving as we as a nation were temporarily unable to quench our hunger for some kind of international conflict.
.
It is with this realization in mind that today's Republican Party has been forced to find an alternate time period that best exemplifies their views.  For them, it has to be a time period that is both well-chronicled as well as historically significant.  It has to be a time period viewed favorably by a large percentage of Americans and it has to be one where most Americans have an appreciation of the people and what they were going through at that time.  Lastly, it has to be a time period where the actions of the people could be understood as necessarily for a way to continue to live their life the way they most saw fit.

For today's Republicans the answer is simple:  They yearn for life in modern-day America to be exactly like it was 2,000 years ago in the Middle East.

No comments: