What also irritates me is the media double standard. Perry is ON RECORD as saying the nation needs to come to Jesus. Yet the media gave him a free pass on that, whereas Obama has relentlessly been hounded about his alleged Muslim ties. I find it scary that a candidate believes only Christians are welcome in his America, and the fact that the media are not probing this is shameful.

con artist

Henry Hill in The Music Man, as portrayed by Robert Preston: handsome, vigorous, preternaturally confident, compelling.

That which Halford Luccock spent a career speaking and writing out against.

To me, he comes across more like that marvelous portrayal by Robert Preston in the The Music Man, of the character Harold Hill: handsome, exuding confidence (the “con” in ‘con artist’ and ‘con game’ is a diminutive for “confidence”), compelling, with a seemingly inexhaustible supply of ready come-backs, cure-alls, and superficially pithy platitudes; the most dangerous example yet – more even than Ronald Reagan, because he’s got the part down so well, he doesn’t need to memorize his lines, he can extemporize, and because he comes toting a bible and a gun – of the flag-wrapped fear monger Halford Luccock spent his career speaking and writing about.

One post script, however: Sinclair Lewis warned us that when fascism comes to America, it will come wrapped in the flag and carrying a Bible. I will add what Lewis couldn’t know, since he died long ago: “his name well could be ‘Rick Perry’.”

I can’t say Perry IS an actual believer in Dominionist theology, but he sure sleeps around with a lot of them. I genuinely fear a Perry presidency. While he might not be able to do much to push Dominionism forward on the domestic scene, he sure could, as The Mann= with His Finger on the Nuclear Trigger, wreak all sorts of serious havoc on the world stage. Sick to death of those damned Iranians? “Nuke ‘em!” Perhaps not with major megaton ICBM’s, but more surgical nuclear air and missile strikes. (Taking out, say, “just” a third of a city instead of the whole kaboodle.) And the far evangelical Christian Right that buys into Dominionism would cheer loudly from the sidelines. After all, he would be carrying out “God’s will” by exterminating those evil heathens. (Never mind the small Christian and Jewish communities in Iran that would go up in smoke, too — “collateral damage,” as our military is pleased to call it.)

At least in the case of Michele” of the Mad Eyes Bachmann is, I think (and fervently hope) is beginning to get exposed for the fraud she is, so her particular “submission theology” and apparent love affair with Dominionism don’t represent the existential threat to the Republic that Governor Perry does. She shouldn’t be in Congress at all, let alone in the White House. (Remember her call to subject everyone to McCarthy-era loyalty backgrund investigations? Or, more comically, her many example of fact-free history?)

Anyone inclined to give benefit of the doubt to Governor Perry on this front is well-advised to do some serious research. Yes, Texas is a whole lot better off than much of the rest of the country, but that’s of little credit to our (I’m Texan) constitutionally weak governor, though Perry has proven a true master at making end runs around constitutional limits on his gubernatorial power. How did he “balance” or bienniel budget? — largely by using the EVIL, FILTHY FEDERAL LUCRE he so loudly damns at every turn. When the bagmen arrive from Washington, he mocks and demeans them from the steps of the state Capitol building — then, off-camera, arranges for them to sneak around to the back door of his rented Governor’s mansion (since the real one is being repaired after a major fire) in the dead of night to slip the mullah into his hands. “Job growth?” Yeah, right. Much of that “growth” was in public-sector jobs saved by that same dirty money from inside the Beltway. Another huge swath of it has been in minimum-wage “McJobs,” often part-time, temporary, benefit-free, or some combination of those. It also helps that the military is a major employer in the state.

He’s a crony capitalist, too. For instance, he set up a state-funded innovation fund to attract companies to relocate to Texas or open up satellite branches there — a move I initially applauded. But then he turned around and gave away barrels full of money to cronies who promptly took the dough, drove their companies into bankruptcy– and walked away scot-free. (Think of something along the lines of Enron.) Some thoughtful Texas conservatives — the real deals, not frauds like Perry — remain deeply disturbed by that expansion of state intrusion into the private sector; they see the innovation fund — which is really a public eqquvalent of privbate venture capital — as disturbing, especially coming from a man who claims to make government as invisible and inconsequential in our lives as possible.

Perry is a perfect example of the “Parody Republican” so many Republicans have become, beginning at least with President Reagan’s ascendency in 1981, and more markedly in the last decade or so. A Republican today wouldn’t even be allowed into President Lincoln’s presence, they’re so alien to what he stood for.

I used to vote for Republican candidates and causes 70%-80% of the time, but my faith has been pretty much destroyed as the party has veered further and further off towards Planet Bizarro. It’s not that I’m impressed with President Obama’s record thusfar, though I do think he has made some significant achievements. I’m not, and in some ways, I find him at lest worrisome, such as his persecuting whistle-blowers in the federal government — “Bush II Lite,” if you like.

If I believed for a second that President Obama’s faith was a danger to this country, I certainly would be howling far and wide. I most certainly DO believe that Perry’s, in particular, is a “clear and present danger.” I’m not going to go so far as to say he himself is a Dominionist or Christian Nationalist, but he certainly is very closely allied with some of the chief architects and proponents of that thread of thought, which identifies seven “mountains in national life — not just government — they seek to dominate, which they believe isn’t just their God-given *right* duty their God-ordered DUTY. In short, they seek a Christian theocracy that looks very much like a Christian version of sharia law, as practiced by the Taleban and to an extent, in Saudi Arabia (a considerable extent, I might add).

I singled out Perry because he is currently a front-runner — though I realize that could change — making him possibly the most like candidate to win the GOP’s nod. I personally would prefer Romney out of the current declared candidates, and his religion isn’t something I view with alarm, or even much care. Bachmann will, I ferv ently hope, be seen as eminently UNqualified to be President.

Unless President Obama gets some wins in his corner, some significant ones — improved unemployment figures top the list, of course — he could be in real trouble next fall. And if Perry is the GOP’s candidate, it’s downright frightening to contemplate him having his finger on the nuclear trigger. He might (or might not, granted) do little or nothing to advance the domestic agenda of the Christian Nationalist/Dominionist movements — but I have zero difficulty imagining him to decide something such as, “To hell with the Iranians. Nuke ‘em — they’re a bunch of godless heathens anyway. Let ‘em glow in the dark.” And I’m quite serious about that.

My hope is that as his background and record in Texas — his REAL one, not the fictional one he peddles — is brought out into the cold, clear, merciless light of day, he’ll be seen as the potentially dangerous disaster he has been — and would be as President. BTW, I’m Texan, and yes, I voted for him early on — but stopped when I realized what a snake oil salesman he really is.

http://www.austinchronicle.com/rick-perry/

The republicans bring it on themselves. They’re the ones promoting religious ideas so vigourously.