by Catherine Giordano
 |
| The Republican Debate Lineup |
On Thursday,
August 6, 2015, the nation got to witness the first debate presenting the candidates
for the 2016 Republican nomination for president. A record
24 million people watched it. In comparison, only 3.2 watched the first debate
for the 2012 Republican nomination.
The
huge ratings were because Donald Trump, the clear frontrunner for the
nomination at this time, was going to be on stage. We all tuned in because Donald
Trump is so entertaining.
The
last question for the Republican candidates lucky enough to make it to the prime-time
debate on Fox News was a question submitted by a viewer and selected by the moderators:
"I
want to know if any of them have received a word from God on what they should
do and take care of first."
The premise
of the question stunned me. God is talking to the candidates about what they
should do when they become president? The fact that a cable news station would
actually ask that question also stunned me. It is like no one in that room had
ever read the Constitution.
Article VI Section 3
"No Religious Test shall
ever be required as a Qualification to any Office or public Trust under the
United States."
I guess I shouldn’t have been surprised. Fox News isn’t about news, it is about Republican propaganda. And the principle of the separation of church and state, so clearly stated in the first amendment is routinely violated by politicians. You
can read more about this in this essay: Is the United States a Christian Nation?
Senator
Ted Cruz of Texas was first up. He deftly avoided a hidden trap in this
question. It wouldn’t look good to be seen saying that God has you on speed
dial.
Ted
Cruz said. “Well, I am blessed to receive
a word from God every day in receiving the scriptures and reading the
scriptures. And God speaks through the Bible.
Governor John Kasich of Ohio was next. It looked like he was going to
evade the question entirely, but he finally got to it, being careful not to say
that he was God’s chosen one, but kind of implying that he was the one who
would do what God wanted.
John Kasich said: “… the lord is not picking us. But because of how we respect human rights, because that we are a good force in the world, he wants America to be strong. He wants America to succeed. And he wants America to lead.
Governor
Scott Walker of Wisconsin was not afraid to get all holier-than-thou. He
concluded his answer by implying that union-busting is God’s will. (Walker
brings up union-busting every chance he gets.)
Scott
Walker said: “It's only by the blood of
Jesus Christ that I've been redeemed from my sins. So I know that God doesn't
call me to do a specific thing, God hasn't given me a list, a Ten Commandments,
if you will, of things to act on the first day. What God calls us to do is
follow His will. … . living my life in a way that would be a testimony to Him
and our faith.
Senator
Marco Rubio of Florida wanted us to know that he is blessed by God. He said
blessed about a dozen times in the space of 30 seconds like he had a verbal
tic. It’s pretty clear that Rubio wants us to think that he is so God-blessed
that he should be president.
Marco
Rubio said: “I think God has blessed us.
He has blessed the Republican Party with some very good candidates. And I
believe God has blessed our country. This country has been extraordinarily
blessed. And we have honored that blessing. And that's why God has continued to
bless us.”
Dr. Ben Carson was the next candidate to answer the question, Ms. Kelly threw in a
secondary question about race relations. That’s right, the only person asked to
speak about race was the only black guy on the stage. Carson loves to talk about God, but the
race question clearly annoyed him, so much so that he even quoted Obama’s
famous 2004 speech at the Democratic national convention.
Dr.
Ben Carson said: I'm a neurosurgeon... when
I take someone to the operating room, I'm actually operating on the thing that
makes them who they are. The skin doesn't make them who they are. The hair
doesn't make them who they are. …our strength as a nation comes in our unity.
We are the United States of America, not the divided states.
After
that, the debate moved to closing statements. The remaining five candidates
were did not get a chance to tell us how blessed they are, and how much
scripture they read, and how well they know what God’s will is.
Four
of the other candidates--Chris Christie, Rand Paul, Mike Huckabee, and Jeb
Bush—would probably have given us more of the same so perhaps we were mercifully
spared more of this religious drivel.. However, I really wanted to hear what
Donald Trump had to say.
Donald
Trump is not a particularly religious person; maybe the only one on that stage
not dripping religious clichés. I really would have liked to see how he would
have answered the question. Would have stayed true to his political
incorrectness or would he have bowed to the pressure to sound pious.
On his Friday night show, Bill Maher on Real Time with Bill
Maher (#259, aired on August 7, 2015) said that he timed his return so as to be
able to comment on the Republican debates. He asked the audience, “Did you ever
take ecstasy? He followed up with, “This was the opposite of that. It was a
tsunami of stupid.” “It was like a Comedy Central roast of the Constitution.”
Maher asked the panel if they
thought it was appropriate for the moderators to ask the candidates about what God
was telling them to do. Lt. Governor Gavin Newsome CA, D) said it was a “cringe-worthy”
moment.
The conversation veered away from
the debate into a discussion of atheism. Maher said that atheists and agnostics
are the same thing. I’m glad he said that because that is what I have been
saying and getting a lot of pushback from some in the non-believer community
who prefer to split semantic hairs. He pointed out that 38 million people in
the U.S. are “Nones”, the second largest group surpassed only by evangelical Christians.
Mary Matalin, Republican operative, would have been right at
home on that debate stage. Earlier she hissed at Maher imitating a snake, and said, "I have never seen someone work so hard to deny the existence of something." She was referring to what Maher called her "imaginary friend." Now she again showed her ignorance by saying “Atheism is
a belief.” Maher explained, “No it’s not. It’s an absence of belief. Saying
atheism is a belief is like saying abstinence is a sex position.”
Matalin responded by shouting, “But it is! It is! It is!” [Maybe
abstinence is her favorite sex position—she was very insistent-- and maybe that
is why both she and her husband, James Carville, always seem so emotionally
anorexic.]
Maher said that Dana Perino, former press secretary to
President George W. Bush, once said “If they [atheists] don’t like it, they
don’t have to live here.” Matalin tried to deny that Perino said it, but when
forced to back down, she sanctimoniously replied, “I believe in tolerance—it is
the essence of my faith.”
Maher pointed out that the debate had time for questions
about religion but no time for the really important issues like global warming
and other real problems. He said that the candidates apparently think ISIS and
Iran are the same thing, when in fact they are bitter enemies.
Steve Schmidt (former Republican campaign manager for McCain
Palin), said, “They [the moderators] should have asked if they knew the
difference between Shia, Sunni, and a kangaroo.” This gave Maher the
opportunity to say, “Once again you say these people are utter idiots and they
are my people.” [It appears that Schmidt sometimes forgets what team he plays
for and gets as exasperated with the tsunami of stupidity as the rest of us.]
I
like to think that if God existed he’d be on the side of intelligence and not
stupidity. Or maybe to paraphrase a common saying, “God must love stupid
people, he made so many of them.”
I
hope, going forward, we can at least try to keep God out of politics. [Ha! Fat
chance!]
An excellent
book about religion and politics is The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion. Author
Jonathan Haidt, a social psychologist who doesn’t take sides as to who is right
or wrong, shows why liberals, conservatives, and libertarians
have such different intuitions about right and wrong. (Click the link to see
this book and many others on the topic of religion and politics.)
See
the full review and recap of Real Time with Bill Maher episode 359, 8/7/2015: Tsunami of Stupid
In the December 15 debate, Carly Fiorina one-upped all the Republican candidates with her big Christian cross necklace. I bet the male candidates were furious.
Bill Maher’s Guests: August 7, 2015
Caitlin Flanagan: Journalist, national correspondent for The Atlantic, former staff writer for The New Yorker The September issue of The Atlantic will feature Flanagan’s new article, “That’s Not Funny: Today’s College Students Can’t Seem to Take a Joke.” She is also the author of To Hell with All That: Loving and Loathing Our Inner Housewife and Girl Land
Lt. Governor Gavin Newsom (D-CA): Former Mayor of San Francisco, candidate for the Democratic nomination for Governor in 2018. He is the author of Citizenville: How to Take the Town Square Digital and Reinvent Government
Steve Schmidt: MSNBC analyst, Vice Chair of Public Affairs at Edelman Public Relations, former Senior Advisor to the McCain-Palin presidential campaign
