Tennessee Tea Party Swings....and Misses

My mother always told me that using profanity in an argument just means you aren't smart enough to make a relevant point. I'm not sure if THIS qualifies as profanity, but the point is the same.

Long story short, the Tennessee Tea Party (which I can't abbreviate because it would have the same initials as my blog) took a parting shot at Rep. Barney Frank today when they bid "good riddance" to the "perverted sodomite POS" from Massachusetts.

Really, tea baggers? Sodomite? I mean, as a long-time supporter of GLBT issues, I've heared a number of slurs tossed around-with more than a few references to incest and bestiality thrown in for kicks. But I'm not sure I've seen this word since I sat in the back row of the Baptist church. I don't mean to make light of the situation, but this shows just how out of touch these people really are. They can't articulate a policy difference with Rep. Frank, so they resort to name calling--really, really, hilariously bad name calling.

It was also my understanding that the Tea Party was focused on economics, not divisive social issues. So obviously their detest for Rep. Frank must have something to do with the economy....right? It couldn't be that the Tea Party are just a bunch of bigots using "economic issues" as a Trojan horse to get right wing nut-fuckers (sorry Mom) elected....could it? <Insert sarcasm here>

My point is this, these people are irrelevant. They are a Century behind to be hurling insults like "sodomite" at a well-respected, openly gay Congressman. That might fly in some sectors, but thanks to the efforts of groups like the HRC and TEP, it's no longer the mainstream. The very fact that this is SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO laughable is a testament to how far we've come as a country. I know this tweet should make me mad or upset, but I am encouraged knowing this is just the last vestige of a dying issue. These people can't make a coherent point, so they've resurrected a King James Version of Insults for Dummies. They took a swing. They missed. And while GLBT rights are expanding across this country, the Tea Party will become more and more irrelevant.

Praise be to my “sodomite” loving God.

Statesmen, Not Politicians

Houston, we have a problem. It’s a ballooning national debt and the last, best hope—our illustrious supercommittee—has failed.

I am a member of the debt generation (now Betsy at TCP can speculate about my age, as well as my race andgender). Everything this current crop of leaders does will affect my tax rate, retirement plans, health care and overall financial stability for the rest of my life. Today, Senators from both parties showed complete disregard for this responsibility when they folded their tents and went home. Only the President, who promised toveto any legislation off-setting the automatic across the board cuts, showed concern for our plight today.

 

I am a Democrat, but I am as mad as I have ever been today. I don’t believe anyone in Congress wanted this committee to work; they just wanted talking points for 2012. Republicans wanted to cheer about how they kept Democrats from raising taxes and Democrats want to pontificate about how they protected Medicare from the evil Republicans. In reality, they all screwed my generation and my children’s generation when they couldn’t find a tangible solution for a very real problem.

 

If we’re going to solve his problem, each party and their respective bases are going to have to sacrifice. Below are some facts that each group needs to accept and act upon.

Republicans

-Taxes are going to have to be raised.

Compared to other nations, we have a relatively low tax burden. Given that the general public is unwilling to give up things like public education, roads, armed forces, social security and Medicare, they need to realize they’re going to have to pay. We can’t keep taxes at the same rate and expect more services. This is a fact, accept it and move on.

-Defense spending has to be cut.

We live in a post 9/11 world where suicide bombers and airplanes are the new nukes. In this world, we can’t out arm our enemies; we have to out innovate them. This means shifting funding from the large military industrial complex to areas like technology & education. We don’t need all the old hardware—the outdated bombers, airplanes and weapons that politicians support just to keep jobs in their district. It’s a new world, we’re broke and this is throwing money down a drain.

-You’re going to have to piss off your base.

The Republican base believes that we can cut our way out of this problem, that the Bush Tax Cuts should be made permanent and that getting rid of corporate loopholes is tantamount to raising taxes and they are prepared to primary anyone who disagrees. If Republicans in Congress really want to solve the nation’s problems, they have to realize they’re going to piss off their base. In other words, they’ve got to put it all on the line and become statesmen, not simply politicians.

Democrats

 

-Raising taxes on the top 2% isn’t going to solve the problem.

The problem is bigger than this group. To be sure, they need to pay their fair share, but so do the 46% of Americans who pay no federal income tax at all. Just like the TennCare reforms, we all have to put a little skin in the game. From raising taxes on the rich to doing away with education and child tax credits, we have to have a shared sacrifice to address a problem this large.

-Medicare and Social Security are getting reformed. Period.

I have paid into the system since I was 16, but I have no illusions I will receive the benefit of either because the baby boomers are going to suck it dry. (To be honest, it irks me that politicians think this group ought not have to share in the sacrifice, simply because they can out vote my generation at the ballot box.) The facts are these: both programs are headed towards insolvency. We have to raise the age to account for longer life expectancy, we have to means test it for benefits and we have to raise the taxable income cap.

-You’re going to have to piss off your base.

The Democratic base believes that taxing the rich is the main solution to the deficit problem, that Medicare and Social Security cuts are off-limits and that massive public spending projects will pull us out of this recession—groups like Moveon.org, labor unions and AARP stand ready to primary and Democrat who disagrees (a la Blanch Lincoln.) If Democrats in Congress really want to solve the nation’s problems, they’re going to have to ignore these interest groups and do what is best for the next generation, not the next election.

I am a Progressive Democrat, which means I believe in always moving forward. Sometimes moving forward means making hard choices, not putting them off for the next generation to solve. Tonight, the members of the super committee showed themselves to be regressive and worse—cowardly. This isn’t a political fight, it’s a very real discussion about how America will be handed off to the next generation—my generation. I hope and pray that someone in DC finds the guts to flip the bird to all special interest groups and do what’s right for the country, not just their party.  

-

Of Abrahamic Faiths & Ignorant Politicians

This past week, Rep. Rick Womick (R-Murfreesboro) decided to give a pseudo lecture on the Islamic faith. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m always a little skeptical when politicians start talking religion. I find that more often than not, it follows a scandal or precedes an ignorant statement. In this case it is the latter.

I’ll post the video HERE so you can see for yourself what Rep. Womick had to say about the Muslim faith, but here’s a brief summary of Womick’s Islam for Dummies:

-Not  “a single Muslim” in the US Army is to be trusted, even those translators who save the lives of US soldiers every day.

-The Koran requires Muslims to kill anyone who refuses to convert to Islam.

-There is no middle ground in the Muslim faith. You either have to take it all literally, or you’re out.

-Islam is not a religion; rather it is a “rope” consisting of religion, political ideology, financial rules & legal regulations.

I want to take just a few moments and rebut these comments from a Christian perspective. I am a lifelong Christian—a United Methodist to be precise. I am actively involved in my congregation, I regularly attend a study group and I spend personal time in prayer each day. I say this not for my own gain, but to rebut any comment from those who might agree with Rep. Womick and charge that I am not sufficiently Christian.

As a Christian, I am appalled by the comment that we can’t trust any Muslims in our military. Each Sunday during the Prayers of the People, my congregation prays for all the men and women serving the country at home and abroad. During the prayer, we don’t delineate between Christian & Jew, Muslim & Buddhist, Agnostic & Unitarian—we pray for all those who make our religious freedom possible. Our men and women in uniform are from a variety of religious backgrounds and they are all fighting for the same cause—freedom. This freedom includes the freedom of religion. A great many of our Islamic brothers and sisters have fought and died for this country. Rep. Womick, himself an Air Force veteran, should understand this better than anyone. That he doesn’t is a sad commentary on my own faith.

I am not a scholar on the Koran, so I have no idea what it says about conversion. As a Christian, however, I know that before we start pointing fingers at the Koran, we better look at our own holy book. I have recently been in a Discipleship class at my church. In the class, you take a year and make your way through the Bible. We have just gotten to the book of First Samuel and, let me tell you, it’s been a rough ride so far. Up unto First Samuel, the Christian God looks like a real bastard. He wiped out the entire planet with a flood, reigned fire on a city because its inhabitants were rude to visitors, killed every first born child in Egypt, arbitrarily chose a small race of people to call his own, directed the slaughter of foreign women & children after battles, caused famine to reign over entire countries and held numerous generations accountable for the sins of their fathers.

Now, as a Christian, the preceding description is not my understanding of God. Why? Because I know that you have to read the Bible, especially the Old Testament, in context. You have to understand when it was written, where and by whom. What was the perspective, what was going on at that point in history? I realize that God didn’t hand this down from on high. It was written by man, with all his biases and prejudices built into the text. Because I understand this, I am free to see the grey area between scripture and personal experience. While I am not an expert on the Koran, my suspicion is that Muslims have a similar relationship with their holy book. This means they don’t have to take every word literally, anymore than we do.

This brings me to my second point, as a Christian I don’t take every word of the Bible literally. I don’t believe the earth was created in seven literal days. I don’t believe that Jonah lived in a whale. I doubt that Job existed. I find historical inaccuracies throughout the Exodus experience. Bel & the Dragon never happened. St. Paul was a bigot who wrote letters he never thought would become scripture and Revelation is a classic example of the literature of the oppressed. In short, a lot of my holy book is allegory, parable and even fable. While, again, I don’t know anything about the Koran, my guess is that the children of Mohammed are smart enough to know fact from fiction. This means they can, in fact, divorce themselves from a literal understanding of their holy books. Those who can’t separate the literal from the allegorical are called fundamentalist. In either faith, this is a group of misguided individuals whose represent a minority of their faith.

Finally, Rep. Womick should read the Levitical Codes before he goes on about Islam being a way of life, not just a religion. If he were to read the beginning of his own holy book—which has parts shared by all three Abrahamic faiths—he would know that we too have a set of rules concerning religion, politics, finances and law. In fact the Levitical Codes cover pretty much every aspect of life. From who you can sleep with to what fabric you can wear to what kind of bath to take after your period (gross!) Now, as a Christian, I don’t follow these codes because they are part of the old law. At some point, they probably served a purpose but, again, my intellect and reason allows me to see these rules from a different perspective. I know that they are not practical to today, nor were they meant to be. They were given to a small group of people, at a certain point in history for a specific reason. While again I am no expert on the Koran, I certainly believe that my Muslim friends are intelligent enough to apply this same logic to their own rules from their own scriptures.

This Wednesday, West End United Methodist Church, a very progressive congregation in Nashville, will host Family of Abraham-Toward a CommonVision. This event is an interfaith dialogue between Jews, Muslims & Christians. It will be a discussion on the very things Rep. Womick brought up and that I have discussed above. A close friend of mine has invited Rep. Womick to attend, but has yet to get an RSVP. I hope he will attend and I hope my Nashville friends will attend as well. As human beings, God has allowed us all to share this tiny planet for a fraction of a second. We owe it to him—and to each other—to make the best of the small time we have together. When politicians make ignorant comments like these, we set up artificial dividers. These dividers have caused war, holocaust and genocide throughout our history.

I pray every night for the people who lead this country and this state. Tonight, with tears in my eyes, I will say a special prayer for Rep. Womick. That God might soften his heart and show him that whether Muslim, Jew, Christian, Buddhist or Agnostic, we are all children of the same God and citizens of this great country.