Rise of a New Religion

Vision of Peace (detail), pastel

Much digital ink has been spilled (that must be what's on my shoe!) about how weird politics has become of late. As a political satirist I have to admit I am flummoxed by the situation as there's no way to make fun of behaviors this bizarre! We can only shake our heads in disbelief and hope for the return of normality for the sale of– if nothing else– some welcome contrast that could allow the return of humor.

But recently I heard a view that really helps explain things for me. In recent articles bloggers Mike Lofgren and Andrew Sullivan point out that the GOP has come to resemble not so much a political party as a religion! The problem-solving party of the Eisenhower years has dissolved into a kind of fundamentalist cult that cares little for science or facts or indeed reality. Instead it features a certain tightly closed world-view in which only those who spout the rigid dogma are tolerated. All else is its enemy, including, sadly enough, the very welfare of the nation.

Suddenly this bizarre behavior begins to make a kind of 'sense'. The GOP is no longer oriented toward either the improvement or even the survival of the nation. It's interested only in furthering the glory of its circle of saints (the super-rich), while all others will be sacrificed in a kind of Judgment Day soon to come. And as with any fundamentalists, there will be no dialoging. They are engaged not in democracy but in holy war.

I can only assume that what drives people down this suicide path is a hope for some brand of personal salvation but I really don't know. It could as well be a simple lust for blood (or weariness with this world)! I find that I take refuge in the hope that LOVE, after all, shines steadier and brighter than any hateful dogma. May the journey forward together– and the Love that inspires it– eventually prevail!