Dominionism & the GOP

I can't support this party any more. After the Arizona thing and everything I've read about the rise of Dominion Theology [yes, it's RollingStone, no I don't normally read it, yes they did leave out the father of the movement, RJ Rushdoony - but it is RollingStone so you can only expect so much] (more info here) in the Republican party, it's painfully obvious that it's not the party it was, or the party it's supposed to be. Granted, I haven't called myself a Republican in quite a while, but I still harbored hope that it really was the party of individual empowerment first and government empowerment only when absolutely essential. I hoped that it would soon return to its roots of limited government and personal liberty. I hoped that it would recognize its fiscal responsibilities by the next election cycle. I hoped that the extremist theocrats were only a small group of morally corrupt fanatics at the edge of the party. I really wanted to believe that it was still a secular party, just friendly to and tolerant of Christianity.

Unfortunately heretics like Ted Haggard and Pat Robertson - the driving personalities behind individually oppressive charismatic Christianity - have commandeered the party. Most of the the Republicans in both legislative houses now score near-perfect ratings from the Dominionist Christian Coalition and its ilk, and this is no accident, since the congress we have now was funded and propelled largely by evangelical activists. Consequently, this increasingly activist Christian theology has steadily eroded popular support for church-state separation. We've seen bills introduced like the wildly-unconstitutional Constitution Restoration Act, which insulates and ensures the primacy of the Bible and its devotees over the Constitution. This barbaric Christian fanaticism needs to stop - it's sickening and dangerous. I hate you people so much.

I've come to see this filibuster episode for what it is too. These extremist judicial candidates do not belong on the bench. From truthout.org:

There's Priscilla Owen, the token white woman and Texas judge whose eagerness to substitute her own values for the rule of law was too much for even Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, who rebuked her for it when both served on the same court.

[...]

There's Brett Kavanaugh, who has never tried a case, but rose from Ken Starr's impeachment crusade to become a White House operative.

[...]

There's William G. Meyers III, who also lacks trial experience but who has put in plenty of time rabidly fighting against environmental laws and in favor of mining interests.

The filibuster clash is over turning a blind eye to these woefully unqualified and dangerously ideological candidates, positioning them for nothing more than to further a brutal religious agenda hell-bent on theocracy.

Almost the complete Republican congressional leadership consists of born-again Dominionists. I don't know any such statistics about the cabinet yet, but I have a great deal of respect for Donald Rumsfeld, Condi Rice, Colin Powell, Dick Cheney, etc. and I tend to agree with them on foreign policy issues (Iraq, terrorism) while being outraged by Bush's domestic policies (illegal immigration, stem cell research). If, however, I find the same Dominionist beliefs among the cabinet, I will be confirmed third-party for the foreseeable future.

For the moment, the scope of my alarm is limited to Congress. I can't be part of this new, horrifying direction they're taking the GOP in, but being an individual who believes in his own potential, and not simply a representative of a demographic, I will never, ever have anything to do with the Democratic party. Thanks to the consolidation and reanimation of their "fringe, kook bases," the choice between these two has become Theocracy or Socialism. Kathy Martin or Noam Chomsky.

I choose freedom.