Bush’s Secularist Triumph

Charles Johnsonfollow me on twitter
Tue Nov 9, 2004 at 7:10 pm PST • Views: 211

A good one from Christopher Hitchens: Bush’s Secularist Triumph.

Only one faction in American politics has found itself able to make excuses for the kind of religious fanaticism that immediately menaces us in the here and now. And that faction, I am sorry and furious to say, is the left. From the first day of the immolation of the World Trade Center, right down to the present moment, a gallery of pseudointellectuals has been willing to represent the worst face of Islam as the voice of the oppressed. How can these people bear to reread their own propaganda? Suicide murderers in Palestine—disowned and denounced by the new leader of the PLO—described as the victims of “despair.” The forces of al-Qaida and the Taliban represented as misguided spokespeople for antiglobalization. The blood-maddened thugs in Iraq, who would rather bring down the roof on a suffering people than allow them to vote, pictured prettily as “insurgents” or even, by Michael Moore, as the moral equivalent of our Founding Fathers. If this is liberal secularism, I’ll take a modest, God-fearing, deer-hunting Baptist from Kentucky every time, as long as he didn’t want to impose his principles on me (which our Constitution forbids him to do).

One probably should not rest too much on the similarity between Bin Laden’s last video and the newly available DVD of Fahrenheit 9/11. I would only say that, if Bin Laden had issued a tape that with equal fealty followed the playbook of Karl Rove (and do please by all means cross yourself at the mention of this unholy name), it might have garnered some more attention. The Bearded One moved pedantically through Moore’s bill of indictment, checking off the Florida vote-count in 2000, the “Pet Goat” episode on the day of hell, the violent intrusion into hitherto peaceful and Muslim Iraq, and the division between Bush and the much nicer Europeans. (For some reason, unknown to me at any rate, he did not attack the President for allowing the Bin Laden family to fly out of American airspace.)

George Bush may subjectively be a Christian, but he—and the U.S. armed forces—have objectively done more for secularism than the whole of the American agnostic community combined and doubled.

Advertisement

239 comments

^ back to top ^

Name:

Pass:

Register Forgot Your Password? Re-send Confirmation (To log in, cookies must be enabled in your browser!)

Turn off ads by subscribing!
For about 33 cents a day, our subscription option turns off all advertisements at LGF!
Read more...


► LGF Headlines

  • Loading...

► Tweeted Articles

  • Loading...

► Tweeted Pages

  • Loading...

► Top 10 Comments

  • Loading...

► Bottom Comments

  • Loading...

► Recent Comments

  • Loading...

► Tools/Info

► Tag Cloud

► Contact

You must have Javascript enabled to use the contact form.
Your email:

Subject:

Message:


Messages may be published in our weblog, unless you request otherwise.
Tech Note:
Using the Contact Form

More Partners

Compare Electricity Prices in your area. Texas Electricity is deregulated; you have the right to choose Texas Electric Rates from among many Texas Electric Companies.

Unh. can't help myself.

TwitterFacebook
LGF Pages
Recent Pages

researchok
Lost Classics: An Address Delivered in 2009 to Graduates in Classics at UC Berkeley
1 hour, 21 minutes ago
Views: 29 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 0

Haywood Jabloeme
SWATting the Ericksons
4 hours, 25 minutes ago
Views: 46 • Comments: 1
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 0

Mostly sane, most of the time.
So wake up and notice already
4 hours, 33 minutes ago
Views: 35 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 0

MikeySDCA
Czech Pride in Jan Kubis, Killer of Reinhard Heydrich
12 hours, 28 minutes ago
Views: 111 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 1

Daniel Ballard
Late Afternoon Light-Kalanchoe
1 day, 9 hours ago
Views: 177 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 5

Eclectic Infidel
City College of San Francisco Budget Update
1 day, 9 hours ago
Views: 200 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 1

Aigle
National Geographic Traveler Veers Off Track
2 days, 14 hours ago
Views: 760 • Comments: 16
Tweets: 25 • Rating: -6

MichaelJ
Apple TV Slated to Debut in December?
2 days, 15 hours ago
Views: 285 • Comments: 0
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 1

Ascher
Israeli Who Saved Turk on Everest: You Never Abandon a Friend - Israel News, Ynetnews
2 days, 16 hours ago
Views: 359 • Comments: 1
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 4

Curt
Brian Banks: (Video) Falsely accused of rape speaks out
2 days, 19 hours ago
Views: 326 • Comments: 3
Tweets: 0 • Rating: 5

 Frank says:

Freak me out, Frank!