Fred Clarkson couldn't be more right in his analysis of the dog whistle the religious right uses to keep "values" voters doing the bidding of the political right. As I noted earlier today, he points out that the religious right pushes the meme of life, marriage, and religious freedom, sometimes varying the terms used in the formula, but always enunciating them in that order.
Just now, I've clicked on the Catholic Vote.org website after somebody connected to my Facebook page shared a statement by Thomas Peters which says that Bart Stupak has indicated that he's disappointed with the current administration's HHS guidelines because they call for the funding of abortions.
And what pops up when you go to the Catholic Vote.org site? A big banner with the inscription, "Life, Family, Freedom? Follow us on Facebook." Precisely Fred Clarkson's summary of the religious-right dog whistle, which, as he states, is embedded in the Manhattan Declaration by its primary author, Catholic right-wing activist Robert George.
As to Peters's article and Stupak's statement about the HHS guidelines subventing abortions: this is that same tired and long since exploded claim that the healthcare guidelines will require us to pay for abortions, since the "morning-after" pill, which the guidelines cover, is an abortifacient.
The religious right, including its Catholic "pro-life" adherents, just doesn't intend to give that claim up, no matter how clearly and consistently one medical authority after another patiently points out that the "morning after" pill works by preventing ovulation--not by aborting a fertilized ovum.
They don't intend to stop lying, that is to say, and calling the lying a moral act. The comments of Catholics responding to the Thomas Peters link that someone has shared at Facebook are positively nauseating in their self-righteous assertion that the GOP is the party of life, and no Catholic who votes Democratic can do so and still call herself a Catholic.
For links to Frank Cocozzelli's masterful analysis of Catholic Vote.org as a right-wing Republican PAC, see this previous Bilgrimage posting. They're working overtime to try to secure enough Catholic votes in swing states to throw the election--and I suspect they're going to succeed.
And what's a bit of duplicity, after all, when it's the greater good of further enriching the already super-rich promoting God's glory that you're after as you tell your little whoppers?
No comments:
Post a Comment