Wow. I inadvertently backed into that last post.
I had looked at the CNN report (the text, anyway), and the Perry “holiday greeting” from last year that made it look hypocritical. But I had failed to look at the ad that prompted the CNN report to begin with.
I thought I had seen Rick Perry take riding God like a hobby horse about as far as he could, in the ad I showed you last week.
But if that was Perry trying to be a holy warrior, in the latest ad, that war goes nuclear.
There is no way that I could ever support for president a man who tries so nakedly to bend God to his own ends. And that is a hard thing to explain to the sort of people Perry is trying to appeal to. And that just divides our country more and more (and leaves me feeling more and more alienated, since I can neither identify with secularists nor those who could actually believe the POTUS is engaged in a “war on religion”). And it’s so unnecessary.
How can a man think it’s SO important for him to be elected that he would do this? This is stomach-turning stuff.
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Boy, Perry is the all-time champion of erecting straw men, is he not? “I’m not ashamed to be a Christian”? What American politician have you ever heard proclaim that one should be ashamed of being a Christian?
Now, to see how utterly absurd that statement is, imagine the same ad, same setting, with a Presidential candidate’s first words of the ad being “I’m not ashamed to be an atheist.” How would THAT ad be received, eh?
Since it has seemed to be a de facto requirement of seeking the Presidency that one be a practicing Christian (44 to zero so far, for those keeping score at home), this sense of victimization Perry affects assumes an incredible obtuseness on the part of the electorate. If you add the nonsequitur indirect attacks on gay rights that he adds to this ad, it becomes even more despicable. (apologies, Brad, for strong language but at least I didn’t use the v word.)
As Alex Ross, music writer for the New Yorker, pointed out in a tweet, it’s deliciously ironic that the music in the background of this ad is pretty much completely derivative of that “open-prairie” sound invented by Aaron Copland, a Jewish gay Communist from urban America (besides one of America’s most beloved and imitated composers).
Aaron Copland, degenerate, infiltrates American psyche, twists it for his own nefarious ends, makes it unsafe for an ordinary, decent, God-fearing Christian from Texas to have a Christmas party!
Bull$%#@, it’s what’s for dinner!
I don’t know, but he’s getting desperate, which hopefully means that he has no chance of getting the nomination.
Folks, as one who is unashamedly an evangelical Christian, I just want to say that I am ashamed of this kind of advertising–pandering, as well as an expression of historical and political ignorance at its absolute worst.
Rick Perry does not speak for me and many other evangelicals. This is not what our faith is about. Not at all.
In the irony department…take a look at the jacket that Rick Perry wears in the ad, then compare it to the one worn by Heath Ledger in Brokeback Mountain. Pretty identical. Who says God doesn’t have a sense of humor? And Perry is a total joke.
Phillip, one minor point of contention, I don’t think Perry’s attacks on gay rights were at all indirect. They seemed pretty direct to me when I watched the ad.
Ah, the wisdom of my (evangelical) Quaker heritage growing up, where many didn’t even vote, just because of the dangers of mixing Jesus and America illustrated so well here.
I do vote now, but the lesson of separating God and politics and not confusing what I can expect from each was a good one. As well as the legacy of a deep distrust of anyone who tries to combine them.
Here is a wonderful video riposte to the Perry ad:
http://bit.ly/rLZzx0
Good one, Phillip.
My very observant Jewish friend shared this one:
One of my Jewish friends, Fred Green, was alarmed when he came down from Massachusetts to visit one December to see that so many Baptist churches were advertising “The Hanging of the Greens.”
We had a felt Advent calendar with pieces of candy pinned to each day. We got a piece every day. It was a big deal, back then. A whole piece of hard candy! We also had an advent wreath on our table. It always bugs me that the earlier candles are so much shorter than the newer ones. Not balanced! And then, you have some burn out early, if you aren’t careful–and do you replace them? What about the longer, but partially burned ones. Do you save them for next year, to supplement earlier candles that burn out? Kind of like Palm Sunday ashes for Ash Wednesday….Advent can be so stressful that way.
Actually, as satire goes… nice turnaround time, but not very funny.
And I’ve seen the Colbert/Stewart thing before. Personally, I prefer the SNL Hanukkah Harry skit.
By the way, within my extended family, we celebrate Hanukkah as well as Advent and Christmas. My sister-in-law brings along the menorah when they visit my parents during the eight days, and does the lighting with my little nieces. For me, it adds a lot to the season (and bears a very close relationship to the Advent wreath lighting my wife used to lead our kids through each night when they were little). I hope to be present for that again this year.
This morning, I smiled when I read Kathryn’s comments about Aaron Copland, because it made me think of this line from “Bananas,” said to describe Woody Allen’s character, Fielding Mellish:
“He’s a bad apple, a commie. A New York Jewish intellectual communist crackpot. I mean, I don’t wanna cast no aspersions…”
@ Brad: You did get the reference to the old Beef ad campaign, an all-American ode to hearty manliness rivaling the Marlboro Man ads, set to music from Rodeo, a ballet written by Mr. Copland, who was indeed far more Fielding Mellish than an avatar of the sort of virtues Rick Perry extols. (See also, Irony)
Who is proposing to fix problems instead of “feel good” issues such as Mom, Apple Pie, and Chevrolet?
Some opponents are going down the wrong rabbit hole!