I spend a fair amount of time ridiculing the left, particularly regarding their insane hatred of George W. Bush. As Bush passes from the scene, and with him (hopefully) Bush Derangement Syndrome, there are already those on the right exhibiting the same sort of unhinged hatred of Obama -- even though he's just now being inaugurated, and hasn't even done anything yet as president. Case in point, well-known nutcase Joseph Farah, founder of World Net Daily. In his endless quest to make the right look bad, Farah has a new column up called "Pray Obama Fails." When I saw this I thought, maybe it's just a sensational title for a critique of Obama's bad ideas, and a hope that his policies can be blocked. Oh no, it's much more.
Farah's article starts out noting that
Many American Christians believe, as an article of faith, that we are to pray for the success of our leaders.He then spends the rest of the column demolishing that notion. Why? Because Obama is evil. That's right. According to Farah, Obama wants to
change our country from one anchored on self-governance and constitutional republicanism to one based on the raw and unlimited power of the central state.I guess I must have missed the "raw and unlimited" central state power part of Obama's platform. Farah argues that Christians should oppose this "evil campaign." What about non-Christians? No doubt to Farah we are already on board with evil anyway.
Farah also says "Obama's agenda is 100 percent at odds with God's." Wow, that's a quite a statement right there. A hundred percent? What is God's agenda for U.S. presidents, anyway? I don't remember anything about that in the Bible. I guess that's why we need people like Joseph Farah to tell us. Farah then reminds everyone that the Bible doesn't say we have to support "evil rulers," and calls for "principled biblical resistance" -- whatever that is. So basically his article calls for all good people to resist the evil Obama and his evil plans.
Joseph Farah is a right-wing version of the same type of lunatic that has infested the left side of the spectrum for the last eight years. He can't just disagree with Obama's policies -- none of which have even been implemented yet -- he has to characterize the man and his motives as evil. Every rational person on the right side of the aisle who reads Farah's garbage should cringe at the thought that this guy is on our side. I hope there are others at much larger right-wing blogs than mine who have spoken or will speak out against this sort of idiocy.
I hope the right-wing blogs excoriate him. They would never do that in 2005, when conservatism seemed strong, but failure can and should make people reconsider their views. Wasn't it only in 2007 that there was any significant conservative backlash against Ann Coulter?
ReplyDelete(Not that it's that much worse than Paul Krugman's Michael Moore apologetics, but still...)
It would be refreshing indeed to see both left- and right-wing pundits take a strong anti-demonization stance, as you've done. As a frequent Bush critic, I might be considered at odds with your overall philosophy. On the other hand, I suspect we're not that different, as I've also described myself as a lesser-of-two-evils voter (but mostly for Democrats).
ReplyDeleteAs a tangential closing, I will note, however, that I saw the Obama/McCain race as one between two decent candidates, both worthy of serious consideration and both with many admirable qualities as well as policy prescriptions. Moreover, I suspect that the differences in outcomes will be not nearly "100%", though pundits love stark contrasts. Of course, we'll never know -- which is the thing pundits love best.
Best regards,
Jim Vernon