tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33424426.post9202859776426046642..comments2023-09-01T07:04:13.381-07:00Comments on Reflections on Faith and Culture: "Populist Constitutionalism"Gil Bailiehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04481878663941134090noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33424426.post-67602554091343529252010-02-11T15:25:38.456-08:002010-02-11T15:25:38.456-08:00Gil, I'm not sure that all those U.S. Consitut...Gil, I'm not sure that all those U.S. Consitutions really mean much. They may be mostly symbolic, like Bibles that many Christians carry around without ever reading them. <br /><br />Last weekend (2/6/10) a self-described conservative journalist named Jonathan Kay was at the Tea Party convention in Nashville. His conclusion afterwards(published in <a href="http://www.newsweek.com/id/233331" rel="nofollow">Newsweek</a>): <br /><br /><i>The movement is dominated by people whose vision of the government is conspiratorial and dangerously detached from reality. It's more John Birch than John Adams.</i><br /><br />The first speaker at the convention was Steve Malloy, author of "Green Hell: How Environmentalists Plan to Ruin Your Life," who claimed that Obama is an international socialist who envisions one-world government.<br /><br />Kay writes,<br /><br /><i>Within a few hours in Nashville, I could tell that what I was hearing wasn't just random rhetorical mortar fire being launched at Obama and his political allies: the salvos followed the established script of New World Order conspiracy theories, which have suffused the dubious right-wing fringes of American politics since the days of the John Birch Society.</i><br /><br />Among the claims voiced by convention speakers:<br /><br />--Obama is seeking to destroy America's place in the world.<br />--Obama is seeking to sell Israel out to the Arabs.<br />--Obama is a sort of Manchurian candidate, with Jeremiah Wright and William Ayers being the real brains behind the presidency.<br />--Liberals engineered the financial crash.<br />--Superannuated flower children engineered the financial crash.<br />--Obama is an illegal alien. (the "birther" claim)<br /><br />Kay concludes:<br /><br /><i>Perhaps the most distressing part of all is that few media observers bothered to catalog these bizarre, conspiracist outbursts, and instead fixated on Sarah Palin's Saturday night keynote address. It is as if, in the current overheated political atmosphere, we all simply have come to expect that radicalized conservatives will behave like unhinged paranoiacs when they collect in the same room.</i>Doughlas Remyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18421275276424774845noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33424426.post-64086492310403150872010-02-07T15:24:45.122-08:002010-02-07T15:24:45.122-08:00No substanceNo substanceUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16276186005598606154noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-33424426.post-45461038475109697082010-02-07T15:23:35.758-08:002010-02-07T15:23:35.758-08:00No substanceNo substanceUnknownhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16276186005598606154noreply@blogger.com