A long quote.

[ysobelle]

The lovely and insightful autumnyte said it best. I'll copy her here, as she's saved me so much trouble:

:::::::::::::
I don't know how to even live in this country right now. I just cannot wrap my brain around the religiosity that seems to have permeated the majority. How can people have been flat-out lied to for four years and say "four more please!"? WTF? The economy is still in the toilet from where I'm sitting. There's no plan for Iraq. Ugh.

Back when Bush took the presidency in 2000, I'll confess that I thought that the rants about how horrible things would be were an overreaction. Not this time. Bush was much worse than I ever thought he'd be. We've got a Republican House, Senate, White House and there will be at least two conservative judges appointed to the Supreme Court. This time, the administration doesn't even have to worry about re-election.

Things in this country that I remain convinced are going to hell in a handbasket:

-The Environment: Bush's environmental record has been poor, and no one in this country even seems to give a damn about the environment. Corporations will be allowed to continue "self-regulation" and things will only get worse.

-Women's rights: And by this I don't just mean Roe V. Wade, though I'm convinced that will be overturned during Bush's tenure. I also mean the right to family planning, to birth control. With abstinence only education, young women will have less knowledge of and access to birth control methods. With Bush's faith-based initiatives, in order to get a low cost insurance plan, government employees currently have to go through a Catholic insurance provider. Under this provider, birth control, vasectomy and tubal ligation is no longer covered. And Bush wants to extend this plan so that citizens can buy into it. No thank you.

-Gay rights: I hope I'm wrong, but given what happened across ten states yesterday, and given that the evangelical Christians are some of Bush's base, I don't hold out any hope that the government will intervene in a number of states depriving gay people of basic human rights. And I don't want to hear anything about states rights. It wasn't right during racial segregation, it isn't right now.

-Separation of Church and State - This is the scariest of all, IMHO, and encompasses everything I've mentioned above. I have never in my lifetime felt that someone else's religion and morals were being forced onto me. I can't believe this is America.



:::::::::::::

Comments

[maskm.livejournal.com]

"Separation of Church and State - This is the scariest of all, IMHO,"

As a friend pointed out to me today, the Christian Right got Bush in office. And they are going to want some things in return...

Amen

[gypsy-baroness.livejournal.com]

My fears are the same - and what makes me sad is that good people, like my mom, still think the republican party is the party of her younger years standing for fiscal responsibility and conservatism. It's not - and I've been physically ill today. Why? I live in Missouri (Misery) a state that went to Bush. A state that back in the day was hugely democrat - representing people of color, workers, the poor, the socially aware.

Now? When I drive past a house sporting all republican political posters and the house is run down - a vehicle parked on blocks in the driveway - a WWJD bumper sticker on the 1982 pickup truck - I know exactly what it is - it's the "new" republican party - the one run, not by Bush, but by the old white bubba members of the Good Ol' Boys Club who've used fear and non-issues to rally a majority of supporters from the religious right wing. The religious wrong, as I like to call 'em. I can just imagine the reasoning, "Mah pastuh wuz a preachin' las Sundee an he tol us we wuz s'possed ta vote fur Bush cuzuns he'll keep dem gays and lezbeans from a marryin'. It's ag'n the Bible - youz s'possd ta marry yer kind - like me an' mah wife Lula Jane - wez been fambily all along cuzn' we're cuzzins."

I'm watching in horror as my rights as a woman are eroded, my gay and lesbian friends are subjected to horrible injustices, my non-Christian friends are demonized, and non-issues are used as smoke screens to keep old bubbas in power, the idiot masses living in fear and under their thumbs, the rich and connected getting richer and good young people dying in the Middle East over American greed for oil.

Can I just go to sleep and wake up in four years? Of course, it may be more horrifying than being awake.

Re: Amen

[ysobelle.livejournal.com]

No, you may not go to sleep. We need your voice! Stand up! Scream, yell, rant right along with the rest of us! March on Washington! Okay, Kansas City. Still-- stand and be a bitch with me!