About that pedophile thing

See, wackos, I'm blessed

Rallying Wingnuts

This is funny. Focus on the Family founder James Dobson and Gary Bauer, chairman of American Values and the Campaign for Working Families, and similar radical Christianists have been trying to talk the so-called "values voters" to go to the polls on November 7 and to vote Republican. Bauer:

"You are Ted Kennedy and Nancy Pelosi and big media's worst nightmare," said former presidential candidate Gary Bauer. "You are values voters, and you intend to vote."

"There's an effort underway by the radical left and big media to suppress the Christian vote this year," said Bauer, chairman of American Values and the Campaign for Working Families. "They believe we are stupid enough to fall for it, and I believe with every fiber of my being you are smarter than all of them."

Mmm. Sort of like the war against Christmas, this effort?

In any case, what's funny is this:

The event was originally scheduled in arena with tickets to be sold, but later was moved to a church and free admission. Monday's crowd was substantially smaller than a "Justice Sunday" event held two years ago in the same church.

Dobson has been shined on by someone to minimize this.

What a lot of liberals have to realize that one of the reasons people go back to the church is security. Regardless of the demonination, people want to feel that the church is nurturing. One of the reasons they need that security has to do with child abuse, emotional, physical, sexual.

I remember reading a Kos post in 2004 about a working class single mom who was voting for Bush because she had joined a church and thought he was "godly".

She wasn't an idiot, but the church was a community. She had friends, people to talk to, a sense of security she didn't have. The church gave her a comfort level she couldn't find elsewhere. She may have a shitty job and a deadbeat dad owning her money, but for a few hours a week, she could be in a place where she was not only equal, but could maintain her dignity. And if the price of that was a vote for the GOP, so be it.

One of the reasons Amy Sullivan and friends missed for the popularity of the church wasn't values, but community. In places with a tight economy, and hard living, church is a comfort. How many places in life can we go where people want to welcome you? If you're a single mom with a shaky relationship with your parents, you have churches and bars. And bars aren't a solution. These churches offer child care, activities, socializing. If you were raised in the church or around it, it can work for you.

Economics drives this more than people realize. They have to work, they can't be around their kids as much as they would like to, so church serves as a backstop.

But there is a limit.

And fucking kids is it.

You don't have to be a fundie to know that ain't right. Part of the reason women are in the church, have their kids in the church is because of that creepy guy who came on to them, made their skin crawl. Dobson can't even keep his hometown base, much less tell people to ignore the pedophile in Congress. People just didn't want to hear that bullshit from Gary Bauer and James Dobson. Because they don't need any translation on this. This isn't complicated. Congressmen tried to fuck kids. It's real simple.

The GOP has betrayed them and they know it. One look at David Kuo and you know he's not lying. And events like this show what matters most to these people, political power. But to the single moms and the young families, the thought of a Foley sending dirty IM's to their kid enrages them.

posted by Steve @ 2:39:00 AM