Weekend Open Thread
Welcome to your weekend open thread. What are you doing this weekend? I’m doing a little spring cleaning. It will feel good to get rid of some of this stuff!
So is hatred of Obama now the test for office for conservative Christians? Franklin Graham (son of Billy) has endorsed Donald Trump.
Putting aside, for now, whether the Rev. Franklin Graham should be held up by major media outlets as a credible American religious leader, this is just odd.
The Rev. Franklin Graham, whose family has served as spiritual advisers to numerous prominent political figures, told “This Week” anchor Christiane Amanpour that businessman Donald Trump might be his candidate of choice in 2012….
“Donald Trump, when I first saw that he was getting in, I thought, well, this has got to be a joke,” said Graham. “But the more you listen to him, the more you say to yourself, you know, maybe this guy’s right.”
“So, he might be your candidate of choice?” Amanpour asked.
“Sure, yes,” Graham responded.
Three-time married, four-time bankrupt Donald Trump is Graham’s choice? Don’t forget Ralph Reed (Christian Coalition) has signed on with trump as has the founder of World Net Nut Daily. It’s hard not to get the impression that birtherism is some kind of religious test.
After years of “Dems in disarray!” stories, we are really starting to see the cracks in the right. The establishment Republicans are desperately trying to shed the Tea Party, they’ve already served their purpose and are a bit of an embarrassment now.
There he was on liberal Bill Press’s radio show, telling guest host David Shuster that Glenn Beck had thrown him “under a bus.” There he was on MSNBC, complaining to host Dylan Ratigan that the Tea Party had been led astray by religious conservatives. He protested to the Daily Caller that Beck had stolen material from him, and he told the Daily Beast that Beck was trying to “appease” liberal critics.
To test the newly fratricidal Breitbart, I went to his book talk at the Heritage Foundation on Thursday and invited him to dispense more friendly fire. He obliged, with complaints about Beck’s rally on the Mall and the birther movement.
Breitbart’s criticism of fellow conservatives is part of a new wave of infighting on the right. Three months after the conservative coalition gained control of the House, cracks have begun to appear.
The most obvious is the birther dispute, in which figures such as Donald Trump and Sarah Palin perpetuate the calumny that Obama wasn’t born in the United States while Republican leaders urge sanity.
I find the Beck-Breitbart feud delightful!
Tags: Open Thread
You’d think that an evangelical Christian like Graham could never endorse someone like Trump who makes his money off inducing people to gamble. But once you realize that fanatical Republicanism demands that one sacrifice his non-political principles for the believed success of the party, then ignoring one’s spiritual principles is a small sacrifice indeed.
American evangelicals don’t get to live as large as they do without making common cause with the moneychangers.
A Reminder that this weekend is the annual blogswarm for the Blog Against Theocracy. This year, instad of posting up all of the blog links to the pieces written, each writer has taken to twitter to promote their writing. If you are interested, look for entries under the hashtag #AgainstTheocracy.
Breitbart is an oxymoron.
How is answering “yes” to the question of whether someone MIGHT be your candidate of choice an “endorsement”???? One suspects that there are any number of candidates who MIGHT be Graham’s candidate of choice. I think someone is reading way too much into this.