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Most people are religious to some degree or another, but also have their heads planted in the real world. Religion is mostly something we inherit from our parents who inherited it from their parents … on and on. Religious icons are usually mother/father substitutes, and they offer great comfort to people in dealing with the inevitable pain and trouble and suffering that is part of life. So be it.
But there’s a portion of the population for whom religion is a club – a way of expressing their desire to control the behavior of other people, a way to self-justify while demonizing people who disagree with them. They are called fundamentalists, evangelicals, and other names. I’ve wondered for some time if there is some mental derangement that underlies such destructive belief systems.
Listen to Crazy Tracy – she’s only letting us in for a brief glimpse at her soul. She’s only telling us a little bit. But it’s enough. Barack Obama is not just a man with a world view – he’s some incarnation of evil, likely the devil, certainly Muslim. Tracy has a fire burning in her, a desire to see Obama punished, and likewise to all of us evil enough to support him. She’s not all there.
There are a lot like her. America is off-the-charts fundamentalist, a lot like Iran in that regard. Jimmy Carter was the first president in my lifetime who tapped the electoral potential of the Christian Right – he used them to some degree of success in his run in 1976. But the Republicans spotted the enormous potential for these people, who as a voting bloc tend to go all in or all out. From 1980 forward, the Republicans used the abortion issue enlist the Christian Right to their cause. Since that time, they have become an essential part of the party’s base.
The question is, of course, how much power they really have. The Republicans have skillfully managed them, taking their support and giving them little in return. But they are getting bolder, demanding more. Bush tossed them the Office of Faith Based Initiatives, and a couple of Supreme Court judges who may (or may not) overturn Roe v Wade. But the primary thrust of the Republicans has been far from religious – they are the party of top-down economics, and their art is to get people to vote against their own self-interest. The Christians have been an essential force in that effort, even as they fail to understand what it has done to them and all of us.
All things in moderation. A little religion is good, I suppose. A lot can be, and has been, very bad for us.
Footnote: If Roe v Wade is overturned, will the Christian Right recede again into the shadows? Will Republicans keep the issue alive?
Piece of Mindful 
Your second paragraph needs some work. Let me fix it for you:
But there’s a portion of the population for whom politics is a club – a way of expressing their desire to control the behavior of other people, a way to self-justify while demonizing people who disagree with them. They are called leftists, liberal, and other names. I’ve wondered for some time if there is some mental derangement that underlies such destructive belief systems.
There. All better now.
>>>>Listen to Crazy Tracy
I don’t see why you have to demonize this lady, who probably earns her way through life without committing any crimes. She has some genuine concerns about Obama that she articulated clumsily. Big deal. Obama hasn’t been all that forthcoming about the Muslim influence in his life, he wrote an autobiographical paean to his father, a Muslim. Obama has associated with some unsavory characters and belatedly distanced himself from them. What’s to like? We’ve been reduced to people like you telling us how great Obama will be.
>>>>America is off-the-charts fundamentalist, a lot like Iran in that regard.
You haven’t been to Iran in any meaningful way.
Your brand of leftism and Tracy’s fundamentalism are two competing religions. You are just mad ’cause she is not in your camp. What we have here are competing evangelizers.
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Over here on the left we have a wide range of views, from the racism and militarism of John Murtha to the quiet patriotism of Howard Zinn (Chomsky is not part of the left – he’s never mentioned). I see very little of the mental illness that I see in fundamentalism. And man, you ought to see the wingnuttery of the right wing from over here. I was just listening to your brighter minds discussing on the radio how it is that Barack could not possibly have gone to Hawaii to visit his grandmother, that there must be some nefarious purpose. You’ve got the addled drug addict Limbaugh, the domestic terrorist Liddy, the wild eyed preacher Dobson, the screaming maniacs Coulter and Malkin and O’Reilly – it’s just plain nuts over there. If someone speaks out against you, you drum him out (Christopher Buckley). Here on this side we debate a lot – you haven’t seen the many questioning posts I’ve written on Obama. I’m not starry-eyed by any means. There’s a calm reassuredness on what you call “the left” wherein we respect one another but allow our voices to be heard. We’re quite stable. Over there you’ve got your RINO’s and ostracize those who don’t toe the line. You yell and talk over one another. And you got your nutty Christians. It’s crazy.
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And it’s good to know you’re one of the idiots who thinks Obama’s a Muslim, Fred. I don’t name call often, but when it comes to this, I do. It’s off the charts crazy that so many of you believe that nonsense. There’s absolutely no proof of it except a self-satisfying circle of viral e-mails and right wing blogs.
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Calm down, Steve. I don’t think Obama is a Muslim. I was pointing out that along with the general thinness of Obama’s credentials, he is not forthcoming about his past associations, and that could unsettle some people. We have spun the grassy knoll into a cottage industry: I’m sure Obama’s stint in an Indonesian Muslim grade school should be good for a shift or two at the factory.
>>>>I see very little of the mental illness that I see in fundamentalism.
I’ve been spooked by some of the extremist rants I’ve seen by the political Left. It strikes my that the Left doesn’t like fundamentalists because they are more like the Fundies than they want to admit.
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Don’t mince words, Fred. Tell us how you really feel.
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There are fringe elements in every philosophy. I’m talking about your mainstream, these Christian nuts. There’s millions of them.
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By the way, it is noted that you think that being Muslim is part of being evil.
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Muslim is not part, it is the WHOLE of being evil. BWAHAHA.
(Really, though, Muslims tend to be conservative. Conservative = good.)
I was pointing out that Obama has a crafted background message that mainly consists of omitting some key influences, such as Rev. Wright. But I realize your mode of operation is to put people into groups so you can hate them.
>>>>I’m talking about your mainstream, these Christian nuts. There’s millions of them.
I’m afraid this bogeyman isn’t as big as you imagine. Look who “their” party nominated, someone who pretty much sneers at them. Of all the Republicans who ran, only Huckabee could be considered “their” candidate. Christianity has been pretty well scrubbed from public life: Xmas, no public prayers, no displays with Christian images. I imagine you’ll soon have to find another group of kinsmen to hate.
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Yes, he is the Manchurian candidate. No doubt is marching orders come from the hills of Pakistan. You’re right to be paraoi … suspicious.
You’re nuts.
Without your Christian wingnuts, there is no Sarah.
I’m not the one who hates. I’m merely more understanding of the fact that a good percentage of the human race is crazy, and one manifestation of craziness is religious fundamentalism. DO I hate them? No. I fear them.
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>>>>I’m not the one who hates.
You are someone with strong views who strongly dislikes the other side. Maybe hate is too strong, but not too far off.
>>>>I’m merely more understanding of the fact that a good percentage of the human race is crazy
Facetious on several levels. This lets you dismiss your opponents, a too often used tactic of the Left.
>>>>and one manifestation of craziness is religious fundamentalism.
And one manifestation of craziness is political fundamentalism, so j’accuse.
>>>>Do I hate them? No. I fear them.
Don’t these arise from the same emotional soup?
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>>>>I fear them.
I still wonder why. The fundies have a low incidence of violent crime, property crime, financial crime, and low usage of insurance and entitlements. Methinks they have this urge to use policy as a way to order and control civic behavior, just like the marginal left has this urge for policy to do their bidding. Thus we have this Sunni/Shia resonance of two sides with a similar type of agenda but with historical differences of orthodoxy.
Like they say, academic infighting is so intense because the stakes are so low.
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Only Iran has a higher percentage of the population claiming to be fundamentalist.
Nuff said.
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We might have to parse those stats. I would think Saudi Arabia would make the list.
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Point is, we’re up there with them. We just don’t think of Christian fundamentalism as batshit crazy, the way we do the Muslim variety. But it is.
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