An Open Letter to All Republicans From a Former Religious Right Activist
Dear Republicans: This election all Republicans who love America must vote for Obama. A vote for business-as-usual and a continuation of the Neoconservative/Religious Right/ party of corporate American alienation is a vote against America. As a former Republican activist, I appeal to your patriotism and honor.
Unless you haven't been paying attention to the recent history of the Republican Party you will know that today Republican ideology and energy is derived from three sources:
* The Religious Right,
* The Neoconservative Movement,
* Corporate business interests.
You also should know that when it comes to the Religious Right my late father and evangelist, Francis Schaeffer, was the intellectual voice that made it happen. As his young sidekick (in the 70s and 80s) I helped take his message to a huge evangelical audience.
I mention this by way of saying that even if you hate my guts -- for having dropped out of the Republican Party, for writing novels that make fun of you, and for reregistering as an independent voter, let alone for supporting Senator Obama -- perhaps you should listen up. I happen to know what I'm talking about.
So let's look at the three power centers that drive the Republican Party today.
The Religious Right
The Religious Right came about for one reason and one reason only: it was a reaction to Roe v. Wade and the legalization of abortion in 1973. The Supreme Court essentially created the culture wars. (A state-by-state approach to legalizing abortion would have been better and resulted in much the same situation we have today in terms of the availability of abortion.) Take Roe out of the political mix and there would be no Religious Right.
That said -- certain power-hungry individuals (Dobson, Falwell, Robertson, Rove, Reed et al.) took the energy of our original pro-life movement and used it to build a hate campaign reminiscent of the early momentum that drove European Fascist parties in the mid-1920s through the mid-1940s. Fear of the "other" gays, immigrants, intellectuals, artists, the media, feminists, etc., morphed into a general critique of "the elite" which turned out to be anyone with an education or even big city dwellers. The Religious Right became a crude populist movement pitting the resentful rubes against the rest.
Take a hard look at yourselves. Play back this year's Republican convention and you'll see an all-white crowd of people screaming for offshore oil drilling -- fat lot of good that will do! more carbon! more polution! -- and essentially reacting like starved hyenas when presented with a piece of juicy carrion. At the convention Sarah Palin and others produced nothing more than a snide list of smart ass put downs aimed at the really dumb, with so little substance that former conservatives such the late William F. Buckley, for instance (let alone my late father) would simply have been ashamed to be in your company. You have become a hate-filled rabble proud of your ignorance and resentful of the rest of your own country, resentment that's exceeded only by your maudlin (and false) sense of victimhood.
People that hate half the population of their own country can scarcely be called patriots. On the contrary, people who exult in mocking as their only way to "contribute" to solving our huge environmental, energy, military and economic problems are true subversives.
The smell emanating from your convention was that of a beer hall putsch circa 1930s, not anything remotely like participation in a democracy. Now you all know what it felt like to be in a lynch mob minus the hanging. You should be ashamed. But shame is something that apparently Republicans are no longer capable of feeling, at least when you get together in a mob.
If you could feel shame there would have been a series of contrite public apologies at your convention for the incredible fiasco of non-governing that has typified the Bush administration. My pension, other people's pensions, our homes, jobs and economy are in chaos because of you. Young Americans are dying in Iraq because of you. The world is a more dangerous place because of you. America is hated because of you. Yes, that is you personally. I blame all of you.
You are the people who gave us eight years of Bush. My Marine son fought in his wars. Cowards, where were most of your sons and daughters? The President's daughters were getting arrested for under age drinking and harassing their Secret Service detail. The rest of you were shopping.
Far from saying you're sorry for the state our country is in you're trying to change the subject by reviving a culture war that has nothing to do with the principled fight against abortion of the 1970s that my dad and I began, and everything to do with simply hating people not like yourselves. The ultimate irony is that you're doing this in the name of Jesus Christ, someone, by the way, whom I try to follow as a Christian. You have become blasphemers by dragging our Lord into your political games.
The Republican Party and the Religious Right have become "Christian" warmongers who applaud the use of torture, start needless wars, fight against civil rights for gays and other disadvantaged Americans, and perhaps worst of all, in terms of the long-term impact, have literally turned your hands against God's creation.
You have a little fool for a vice presidential candidate who says she doesn't believe that human beings have anything to do with the phenomena of global warming and the endangering of all human life on this planet. Dream on. This fool claims to know what she knows because of an absolute "I don't blink" confidence in herself. So on top of everything else this fool who says she is a Christian, proves she is not. She lacks any shred of decent humility, the most basic biblical virtue.
The Neoconservative Movement
Let's be honest: the Neoconservative Movement is nothing more than an kill-all-the-Arabs, pro-Israel-at-any-cost, morally bankrupt lobby that actually turns out to be anti-Israel. Why? Because taken to the logical conclusion the neoconservative's position on everything--from illegal West Bank settlements, to making war on Iran, not to mention the absolutely useless waste of life that's taken place in Iraq, warlike preparations against Syria and just about every other Middle Eastern country, no, scratch that, every other country in the world--puts Israel in worse jeopardy than ever before.
Fortunately for everyone, it seems that most Israelis "get" this, as well as most Jewish Americans (who vote Democratic) even if a few Neoconservative Jews, most Evangelicals and all the other Republican zealots don't. (Most Jews also know that the idiot fringe so-called Christian Zionists like Rev., Hagee, are no friends to Israel, rather they are perpetuating a doomsday nineteenth century Armageddon/ "Rapture" cult that wants to use the Jews as cosmic "End Times" cannon fodder.)
Get it through your thick heads: a state of permanent war between the West, including Israel and the United States, and the Muslim world is a war that Israel will eventually lose. Do the demographic math!
Republicans: You have been tricked and misled by; Irving Kristol, Norman Podhoretz, Paul Wolfowitz, Richard Perle, Douglas Feith, Lewis "Scooter" Libby, John Bolton, Elliott Abrams, Robert Kagan, Michael Ledeen, William Kristol, Frank Gaffney, Jr. Dick Cheney. These neofools have unwittingly set in motion the destruction of Israel (probably in our lifetimes) and have maybe killed America too. Bastards! Republicans: It will be remembered that you embraced these world-hating self-deluded paranoid blabberers and made their twisted sound-bite polemics your own.
Those who, like me, actually believe that Israel has the right to exist should look on the Neoconservatives listed above with the same loathing that we look back on the idiots who goaded Europe into World War I, also in the name of "nationalism," "democracy" and "freedom."
Belligerent posturing is not a policy, it is idiocy. You Republicans have become the party of perpetual fear and aggressive non-provoked war, seeing enemies where there are none and/or provoking former friends to become our enemies, and/or faking reasons for war and/or wasting our soldier's blood in places such as Afghanistan, where our cause was just but you fumbled the ball.
Your moron vice presidential candidate is still at it! While turning her son's deployment to war into a flag-dishonoring political circus stunt she repeated the Bush lie and said that her son was going off to fight the perpetrators of 9/11. This is a barefaced lie and you all know it. Iraq had nothing to do with the 9/11 attack. The only reason we attacked them is because the fools listed above decided it would be good for Israel and our stupid "president" went along.
Now you belligerent asses are supporting the same idiot (McCain) that helped bring us Iraq. He is now champing at the bit to revive the cold, and maybe a hot war with Russia! Have you gone mad? Can't you see you have an old foolish semi-senile man mired in the bathos of post-Vietnam "we were denied victory" psychosis for a candidate? Don't you know that Bush has made us weak?
You Republicans did to our military what the USSR could not do: demoralize it, stretch it beyond breaking and set it back decades. And now you want MORE wars?!
Corporate Business Interests
The Republican Party claims traditional values. It has propagated a laissez-faire attitude toward corporate interests and has -- literally -- stood back and encouraged the rape of the earth. You are the party of the earth-hogging SUV. You have literally sowed the wind and reaped the hurricanes.
This is as self-defeating as it is embarrassing for those claiming the moral high ground, particularly those who say that their philosophy represents traditional Judeo-Christian values. We all live here for crying out loud! Will you now fight our God and Creator too for the "right" to burn the last drop of oil while on a weekend jaunt to nowhere in your all-terrain piece of garbage?
Conclusion
The Republican problem is a systemic disparagement of government, community, faith in our institutions, family, God's creation and the mitigating institutions that put a check on something any party aligned with a religious movement should know all about: sin. Greed is not the only problem. Human weakness and stupidity (i.e., "sin") is the problem! And the genius of the American system is supposedly that we have a system of checks and balances to mitigate our fallen state. You have destroyed those checks and balances.
Bush felt no guilt about promoting completely unqualified people to high posts merely on the basis of social, ideological or political connections. I'll take that a step further: I don't think Bush ever wanted the government to work. You Republicans hate our government as bitterly as our terrorist enemies do. You have been trying to deconstruct it. Since the government is seen as the enemy of freedom by you, if it doesn't work so much the better!
We have met the enemy and he is us! When Islamists tried to destroy our country by flying planes into the Pentagon and the World Trade Towers, we rightly called them terrorists. When the Republicans in the Congress and the White House set about destroying our country, our standing in the world, our military and our economy, but much more effectively, you called them statesmen. It is time for all Americans -- including all you who are patriotic Republicans -- to sweep away these putrid earth-consuming, family killing, government bashing "me" worshipping individualistic fools--that or to watch our country be swept away by them. We can't afford eight more years of this willful ignorance. Obama in 2008!
Frank Schaeffer is the author of CRAZY FOR GOD-How I Grew Up As One Of The Elect, Helped Found The Religious Right, And Lived To Take All (Or Almost All) Of It Back.
NOW IN PAPERBACK
Follow Frank Schaeffer on Twitter: www.twitter.com/frank_schaeffer
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Wonderfully said. I'm tired of Republican appeals to me to, as a Jew, put Israel ahead of my own country. My country comes first so I vote for Democratic candidates. Turns out it is better for Israel as well as it takes a more balanced friend to be an honest broker in the mid-east.
"As a former Republican activist, I appeal to your patriotism and honor. "
They don't have any.
One other thing: the Neocons and Religious Right Republicans seem to believe that they should be in power FOREVER. Their attitude strikes me as a little different than just trying to win honestly, rather it is one of going for the jugular, fighting dirty and winning at all costs. Since they have already been in power for eight years (or more, if you count how they behaved under the Clinton Administration) , and the country is completely screwed up, would not a sense of fairness and a healthy respect for our traditions dictate that they might be willing to fight fairer and possibly be prepared to lose graciously this time? Or do they want to turn America into a one-party oligarchy?
Thank you Mr. Schaeffer for expressing what I feel but have been too angry to express.. I , too, was a republican. I have been sick with guilt at my participation in the past eight years by the vote I cast in two elections. I thought most of my life that having the congress and the presidency in the hands of my party at the same time would bring a multitude of good things for my counry. What I got was lies, the Iraq war, torture, sacrifice by a few while the rest go shopping, a president who uses his soldiers like throw away matchsticks, a financial system on the verge of collapse. I remember the old adage, "fool me once its your fault, fool me twice, it's mine. I do not believe I will be fooled a third time. Frankly, I hope there are many more like me out there!
Mr. Schaeffer, my hat is off to you. That was the most breathtakingly honest piece about the Republican Party and its adherents that I have read in a very long time.
As a Blue-state agnostic and progressive, I should mention that I've had the good fortune to meet many REAL Christians in my life. I am proud to share a country with people who actually practice the values they preach. The rest? They should go hang their heads in shame.
Very eloquent piece.
Pretty near Ironclad.
Gratifying to read an article where the bones of modern "conservatism" are laid bare by one of their own. I only want to point out one missing piece of the pie. JFK and LBJ introduced and passed civil rights legislation after a few years of social activism by numerous groups and individuals, Brown vs Board of Education being the first great victory in that fight, perhaps. We all know the story, but when these laws were passed, the conservatives, democrats and republicans alike, joined in opposition. This racist faction, is the other part of the puzzle, that is conservatism today. From the days of the "Silent Majority" and the Law and Order platform of Nixon, this has been another dependable voting bloc. Now in 2008, they'll get their percentage once again. but this time, God willing, they won't prevail.
Its evident this guy has his issues to the right wing party lol that goes without saying,but some people on the left are just as extreme as the right.Granted im a center left kind of guy who reads this blog knowing and sensing the anger this guy has.But i do agree with him that abortion is what started the whole religious right party.My personal view on abortion is basically that if u took away roe vs wade i think alot of abortions would be happening in hotels,alleys,etc all without the doctor or nurse being there by the way.Its just religious leaders who preach against abortion and people follow them and think like them but overall in the end,Nobody knows when life begins or when life ends.
Hallelujah! This is the best piece of righteous indignation yet. Thank you for covering all the bases that I have been trying, and pitifully failing, to convey to my "Christian" and "Jewish" Republican friends. I am sending this letter of yours to everyone I know. The ones who are of like-mind, regardless of party affiliation, will sing your praises too. The ones who are staunch Republicans, and especially those who are part of the Religious Right, may not even finish reading your "open letter" for fear that they would have to face some very hard truths. To them, I say "shame on you" for being part of the problem, and further shame on you for being so arrogant that you cannot admit the least error in your thinking. So, once again, Mr. Schaeffer, thank you for this comprehensive appeal to the stilted masses. I truly hope that your words will help turn this tsunami-like tide!
If all Republican voters had to read your article, this would maybe get through to them. Unfortunately most of the lemmings are taught their 'personal truth' by absorbing the propaganda perpetrated by the right wing 'news', or better said, 'theater' organizations such as Fox. These outlets spend millions twisting the facts to spread the messages of hate and stupidity created at the top levels of our Republican government. The likes of Hannity and O'Reilly et al are but a couple of puppets serving this administration by instructing the loyal listeners what to believe. This reaffirms my belief in reincarNATION. I can't escape this putting me in mind of Geobbels decades ago. And all the 'patriotic' people' who cheered at the concepts he put forth, and voted that direction. We all know how that turned out.
Mr. Schaffer, you are a very wise man..
Mr. Schaeffer,
I am an atheist, and I want to say that your post was one of the most accurate and righteously angry pieces I have ever read. I have wondered for years where the decent and intellectually honest faction of the Christian faith has been hiding. Very well done. People like you help me re-establish "faith" in some religious activism.
I agree entirely with MSB. Although many friends have told me that the politcally active loudmouths don't truly represent Christianity, I've often wondered where the others have been during the polical discourse of the past thirty years.
Mr. Schaeffer thank you for your sanity. You deserve the SPEAKING TRUTH TO POWER ranting award of the Century!
I am an agnostic, who believes the message of the man named Jesus is profoundly wise. I am not "religious" but because I understand the wisdom in the message, I try to apply it to my everyday life...because I believe the survival of mankind and our Earth, depends on it.
I'd like to shake your hand.
Great piece. This republican party has effectively locked the majority of the american people out of a shot at the American Dream; and it has made either Jesus or The Almighty Corporation the gatekeeper. Too many people are so clouded by the notion of party loyalty that they don't even realize it is happening to them as well.
I really miss the days when the ideals of the Republican party and the ideals of the Democratic party forced intelligent debate in congress; and from which came bipartisan solutions that would actually put the needs of the public first.
Once upon a time I could actually understand what the conservatives were about. I didn't agree with them, but I at least understood where they were coming from.
This distorted ideology of which Frank speaks is a dangerous and slippery slope. At the very least, all conservatives should be forced to own exactly what they are supporting in the name of party loyalty. A true conservative would vote for Bob Barr, or write in Ron Paul. Or they would recognize how conservative Obama really is - he is honestly not liberal enough for my taste, but I understand the importance of pulling our country back to the center from the extreme where it currently lies. I hope it's not too late.
"A true conservative would vote for Bob Barr, or write in Ron Paul. Or they would recognize how conservative Obama really is - he is honestly not liberal enough for my taste, but I understand the importance of pulling our country back to the center from the extreme where it currently lies. I hope it's not too late."
Hear hear. Now you know why I voted Libertarian 6 elections in a row (yes, Ron Paul in 88) but at the time I didn't appreciate the symbolic aspect of elections. Sometimes voting for the other side, just to send a message, becomes the only PRACTICAL option. Being an independent who most might call a practical conservative and social liberal, I have voted GOP as often as Democratic in the past ... but this year no Republican at any level is getting my vote.
I don't feel I've changed - they've run so far down the path to the Dark Side, I can't even consider following. Hence, Obama.
As a Republican, I am astounded at the level of paranoia and hatred exhibited in this article and the accompanying comments. Here's a newsflash people, there is no "vast right wing conspiracy" and believe it or not, most Republicans have the best interests of the country in mind. You could say the same things about the various special interests of the Democratic party. Plaintiff attorneys and public employee unions would bleed the country dry and not think twice about it. AARP would deplete Social Security and Medicare for present beneficiaries, resist any reforms and the hell with the next generation. The ACLU would hamstring our military and government by applying procedural rules meant for US citizens to enemy combatants in a war. University professors make a mockery of "intellectual freedom" and nobody on the left says a word. Activists want us to expose our military in Darfur where we have no strategic or economic interest. No one is pure in a complex, difficult world.
enochsmoky, It IS a complex, difficult world and that is why you should be concerned who President McCain might be influenced by since candidate McCain has bowed down to people like Dobson, Hagee, and Robertson. He was desperate for the Religious Right vote. What a world we live in when a candidate for the Presidency of the United States places his own desperate need for votes over what is best for the country. Are you aware of the qualifications of people like Mitt Romney, Tom Ridge, Kay Bailey Hutchison,Tim Pawlenty, and Bobby Jindal?
Concerning paranoia and hatred, have you ever read Ann Coulter or watched the 700 Club, or listened to Dobson?
See? This is the problem. Nobody denies that extremes exist on both sides. But extremes exist so that we come together to find solutions as a nation.
The republican party has gotten drunk with money and power and they have totally lost sight of this, and this is the point of this piece.
Instead of "plaintiff attorneys and unions bleeding the country dry" trying to make things better for the working class, our own government and the private sector has bled us dry filtering wealth and power to the military industrial complex and the elite. How is that "in the best interest of the country"??
And if you honestly believe no right wing conspiracy exists, I implore you to read Naomi Klein's "Shock Doctrine". It is important to note that there has been no valid rebuttal to her claims, all of which are heavily cited from sources within. "straight from the horse's mouth" so to speak. We can only thank god the neocons haven't gotten ahold of social security and medicare - those are the only programs still working for the american people right now - which a McCain administration would fight tooth and nail to privatize, and subsequently destroy.
(1) Yes, there is a VRWC. Look up Richard Mellon Scaife. Like all real conspiracies, there's nothing secret about it.
(2) Plaintiff's attorneys do not "bleed the country dry". If you ever get injured due to severe negligence, you'll be calling for them just as much as anyone else.
(3) Public employee unions are looking out for their own, true. They're quite upfront about it. Again, they're not "bleeding the country dry". They're not the ones spending billions of dollars in Iraq or trillions on financial bailouts; they're just trying to get slightly better wages.
(4) The ACLU is fighting for your rights. I'm sorry you don't understand this, but perhaps if you were kidnapped and locked in a Syrian prison like Maher Arar, with no judicial review and no recourse or recompense, you would understand.
(5) Yep, far right-wing university professors like John Yoo do make a mockery of intellectual freedom, violating all the codes of conduct of their profession, and yet we on the left, because we believe in intellectual freedom, do not try to censor them.
(6) Activists do what they do.
There really is a serious problem with misinformation on the right. And that is what the "vast right wing conspiracy" is all about: spreading *disinformation* to the Republicans in order to get them to vote against their own, and everyone's, best interests. Not all Republicans fall for it, thank God. Bob Barr didn't, for instance.
You also apparently failed to note that Frank came by his opinions honestly. As he noted, in the 70s and 80s he spent a good deal of time and energy directly involved with the Republican and Religious Right figures mentioned, along with his father. He does indeed know what he is talking about on this subject. If you trouble yourself to read the book mentioned (*Crazy For God*) you'll get the whole colorful (!) history. You'll also find that he's man enough to hold himself responsible for having helped bring this situation about, and to be forthright about his regrets for having done so.
I'll add that I am a longtime reader of Frank's work, have corresponded with him in the past, and can vouch for his sincere and passionate concern - quite the opposite of the "paranoia and hatred" you accuse him of.
(if you're reading this, Frank, a shout-out from Port Orchard WA via South Korea - it's been a while, but I'm probably still on the ROP mailing list somewhere!)
I'm pretty astounded that you're astounded. Don't you realize that this is how a lot of Republicans sound to those on the left? Or even those who have ties to the center like me. Of course, I'm gay, so that puts me on a level with the 9/11 terrorists to the Religious Right.
When you have the "joke" poisoned creme brulee for a Supreme Court Justice or the "joke" about one reverend in his madrassa killing gays who look at him the wrong way, what do you expect? That your opponents are going to be better Christians than the "Christians"? I'm astounded that you're that naive.
Could you imagine strengthening marriage, not by campaigning against gays getting married, but by stopping support for serial biblical adulterers like some of the highly placed politicians supported by the Republicans or the rampant adultery among the "Christians" in the Bible belt? How about ending corporate and Bible belt welfare - yeah, those, earmarks that no Republican can dare end, no matter how much they talk about it? How about dealing with abortion by both sides listening to each other, instead of namecalling? Or do you find yourself more easily persuaded by being called filthy names? I certainly don't.
Hopefully you get the idea, but I doubt you will.
Wow, Frank, what an impassioned document! I wish it could "wake up" the people it needs to snap into reality. Unfortunately, many are too wrapped up in the certainty (arrogance) of their own self-righteousness that I don't know if anything save the end of the world will sink past this. Of course, in this delusion, it will pass for "being right" whereas, as you point out, this recklesskless would be the prime cause.
I have some questions: what would God say about essentially, deliberately ending the world? These folks seem to think doing it in God's name makes it okay. I know about the greed and the dehumanizing treatment of other people and would imagine their actions speak of a hubris that God would smack down. But I also imagine the "president" thinks God will welcome him as a conquering hero of the likes of Roland from "The Song of Roland." Well?
FYI: The actual Beer Hall Putsch was 1923 but I think that's why lowercased your reference. Did you mean Frederick Kagan? There seems to be more than one neo in that family; I can't keep 'em straight.
In "The Song of Roland" Roland leads a rear-guard action against the pursuing enemy and he and all his troops are wiped out. So much for the conquering hero.
If you think about it, in your "what would God say..." phrase, you might as well have been describing the fundamentalist Islamic terrorists. The same idea, they both claim acting in God's name justifies their hatred. Pretty scary!
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