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REPUBLICAN, from page 10
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Republican Gomorrah:
Inside the M ovement That
Shattered the Party (Nation .
Books, $25) is available a t
Powell’s Books.
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11
Education ^Dialogue * Independence
church. They’re part of a movement that
believes that places and people can be
possessed by demons. And that those places
and people need to be anointed and purged
of demonic possession. One of the followers
of this movement, Ted Haggard, was seen, in
his city — Colorado Springs — anointing
intersections with a bottle of Crisco and a
garden sprayer to purge the demonic
influence from the intersection; or banging
out outside gay bars, praying that the
demons would be lifted. He called gay bars
» rtf
,
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covens- Of course, he wound up in the
arms of a gay male escort, snortipg meth.
But back to Palin
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1 went to her church and saw a pastor by
the name of Bishop Thomas Muthee
preach. He is a self-identified witch hunter,
who said he battled a witch in his hometown
of Kiambu, Kenya. And in 2005, when he
first came to Wasilla, he anointed Sarah
Palin against the spirit of witchcraft. He laid
hands on her and basically consecrated her
run for governor. When she was elected,
she credited him with propelling her into ;
power. So she believes in this stuff. It's all
in a video I did called “In the land of Queen
Esther,” so, anyone who doubts this —
because I know it sounds like I’m the
lunatic and I’m the one who’s making this
all u p c a n see it, including the anointing
ceremony of Sarah Palin.
The reason John McCain selected Sarah
Palin — someone who, I think, badly
damaged the Republican Party and
continues to damage it by driving it so far
out of the mainstream — is because McCain
was loathed by the Christian Right If was
the only way to bring the movement that
controls the Republican Party around for
McCain. But at the same time, it,
marginalized McCain, and Obama was able
to capture a lot of moderate Republican
votes.
And Palin’s still out there, claiming
Barack Obama wants to institute death
panels in his health care plan, to pull the
plug on grandma. Which is suggesting that
he has a euthanasia program like Hitler did.
for the elderly and mentally retarded. She -
said, “This plan could kill my son, who has
Down Syndrome.” It’s an absurd thing to
say.
So Sarah Palin, while we might look at
her as an extremist, is a folk hero to the
Republican base. And that shows you where
the Republicans are with respect to the rest
of America. •
■ R. R.: How about Dick Cheney}
M. B.: He’s not from the Christian Right.
Couldn’t appear less to care about the
so-called “homosexual agenda” or abortion.
In fact, his daughter’s a lesbian. And bis
wife, Lynne Cheney - who’s a culture
warrior on some levels, very conservative -
wrote a book called “Sisters,” which is just
' brimming with homoerotic lesbianism and
scenes of lesbians. Anyone who finds
lesbians erotic should read that book.
But Cheney is a typical Western
conservative: Get the government out of my
life and let us exploit the land and let us
fulfill the manifest destiny of the settlers.
He’s an imminent domain conservative, and
that extends to Iraq. He’s a sadist, but he’s ,
not a sadomasochist. In other words: He
enjoys kicking down evildoers, those who
are perceived to be weaker than him. He
enjoys torturing terrorists. But he’s not
masochistic, because he follows ho higher
power. Unlike Bush, who says he has a
higher Father than his own father. And he’s
also totally Machiavellian and cynical, and
requires someone like Bush - who’s beloved
by this movement — to puppeteer.
R. R.: 77ns is not even a person, but: What
about Proposition 8 in California?
movement: People who have had a personal
crisis and use this extreme right-wing
religion as a way of medicating their anxiety:
When they try to cleanse the land of sin,
what they really want is to cleanse their own
soul.
Another figure I talk about in relation to
Prop. 8 is Rick Warren, who is a mega
church pastor from California —
R. R.: And was at the Inauguration.
M.B.: — despite telling his followers to
back Prop. 8. So where does Barack Obama
stand on this? Where does he draw the line?
Where do the Democrats draw the line on
the anti-gay crusade? You know, if Rick
Warren had told his followers to back an
initiative that banned interracial marriage or
interracial relationships, would Barack
Obama have let him speak at the
"People who have a personal crisis and use this extreme rightwing religion as
a way of medicating their anxiety. When they try to cleanse the land of sin,
what they really want is to cleanse their own sonl,"
M. B.: There’s'so much to say about i t I
write about one of the figures who funded
Prop. 8: Howard F. Ahmanson Jr. He is the
son of the founder of Washington Mutual,
Howard F. Ahmanson Sr., who was a
mainstream Republican philanthropist
When Ahmanson, Jr,, turned 18, his father
left him with $300 million. And his mother
died, too: So he’s alone in a mansion with
$300 million, an 18-year-old kid. And he
goes crazy: winds up iii a mental institution
for two years. When he comes out, he meets
an extreme rightwing theologian named R.J.
Rushdoony, who advocates for replacing the
Constitution with biblical law, and executing
rail evildoers, from homosexuals to
disobedient children, to w itches and
blasphemers. And Rushdoony helps
Ahmanson reorder his life through this
Calvinstic, ultra-right-wing religion, becomes
his surrogate father. And Ahmanson
becomes Rushdoony’s financial angel, the .
sugar daddy of the Christian Right. And
then in 1985, Ahmanson declared,'“My goal
is the total integration of biblical law into
our everyday lives.” It was part of biblical
law, and Leviticus case law, (that)
homosexuals are imprisoned or they’re
killed. So of course he’s going to fund anti
gay initiatives. . jg
First he funded Prop, 22 in California in
1996. But it was overturned by a court. So
Prop. 8, it just repackaged Prop. 22 in a way
that could pass muster with the courts. And
it did. It succeeded in banning same-sex
marriage (in California). And he put up a
million or a million-five, for i t But it has to
be seen as an effort beyond the anti-gay
agenda to establish at least a soft theocracy
or influence secular law.
He shows the sensibility of the
inauguration? He’s wavering on “Don?t Ask,
Don’t Tell,” he’s wavering on getting rid of
the Defense of Marriage Amendment, which
is totally unconstitutional, because it allows
one state to reject another state’s rulings,
which violates a clear provision of the
Constitution. So I think it’s all redly
troubling what happened around Prop.. 8,
especially in a state like California, which
has always led the country in progressive
legislation.
R. R.: So, the assessment of the left: Will
that happen?
•
M. B.: Well, you can See what the stakes
are. W hat I do in my book is offer a critique
of a radical movement that took over a
major political party that was once a big-tent
party and is now a one-ring circus. So I
think there’s.a lot of lessons that people on
tile left can learn. And there are lessons
that Republicans can learn from it, too.
But all I tried to do is provide a really
entertaining and informative critique, with a
unique analysis of the psychological ’
sensibility of people in this movement.
Martin Luther King said the arc of history is
leading ta justice. And I think that’s true.
My book hints that this is a movement that
sees itself dying in a culture that’s
increasingly diverse and increasingly
progressive.
So really, I think there should be a sense
of confidence on the left People should see
that the initiative is theirs to seize. But at
the same time, they need to understand
their own limitations and be self-reflective.
The movement in my book never
understood its own limitations and still can’t
reflect on its own failures.
The People Behind the Paper: A special Street Roots photography exhibit
Street Roots, Albina Community Bank in the
Pearl and some of Portland’s best
photographers are teaming up to present Street
Roots vendors for a monthlong photography
exhibit.
You are invited throughout the month of Nov. to
visifthe. exhibit at Albina Community Bank a t .
430 NW 10th Ave. in the Pearl during normal
business hours.
The exhibit features the work of photographers
Leah Nash, Ken Hawkins, John Ryan Brubaker,
and Elizabeth Schwartz, shot exclusively for Street
Roots.