Recent polling shows Sen. Elizabeth Dole (R) trailing in her re-election fight in North Carolina against Democrat Kay Hagan, so it stands to reason that she's getting a little desperate.
I didn't think she'd get this desperate.
Sen. Elizabeth Dole's latest advertisement suggests her Democratic opponent, Kay Hagan, is a godless heathen.
"A leader of the Godless Americans PAC recently held a secret fundraiser for Kay Hagan," the 30-second spot says, showing footage of the group's members talking about their atheist beliefs on cable news.
"Godless Americans and Kay Hagan. She hid from cameras. Took godless money," the ad concludes. "What did Kay Hagan promise in return?"
At the very end of the ad, a voice sounding like Hagan's says: "There is no God."
Seriously, Dole used a Hagan impersonator to make voters think she's an atheist.
It's hard to know where to start with an ad this deplorable. First, Hagan is actually a Sunday school teacher and an elder in her church. Second, the fundraiser in question was co-hosted by 40 people, one of whom is on the board of an atheist political action committee. Third, there's nothing scandalous about non-believers.
And fourth, what the hell is "godless money"?
I don't know, Steve. All of mine still says "IN GOD WE TRUST" on it, so even though I've done my level best to get my atheist cooties all over it, I don't think it quite qualifies as "godless."
This is just fucking ridiculous. These people are so shit-scared of atheists that even a Sunday school teacher can't hang down with the heathens without getting smeared by a Rethuglicon hack. I think it says something about the strength of Kay Hagan's faith that she can rub shoulders with us godless sorts and remain unfazed. Whereas Elizabeth Dole apparently thinks atheism is a contagious disease along the lines of SARS, which tells you something about the strength of her faith and character. I.e., they closely resemble cardboard that's been soaking in an acid bath.
I'm sick to fucking death over the religious fuckery in this country. Religion or lack thereof was never meant to be the defining characteristic of a candidate for public office. I know this because our Constitution says so:
The "no religious test" clause of the United States Constitution is found in Article VI, section 3, and states that:
The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State Legislatures, and all executive and judicial Officers, both of the United States and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.
Yet we have a defacto religious test in this country. You can be the most appallingly insane, fundamentalist freak of a Christian and still have a shot, but by God, you'd better believe in God or kiss your chances at office goodbye (with, what, two exceptions?).
And you can't be just any sort of Christian. Catholics are somewhat acceptable but suspect. Mormons are right out. A Muslim snuck in, but good luck following in his footsteps, especially after the right-wing sturm und drang over Obama's supposed Muslim background. No, in this country, in this time, if you're not a WASP, you've got an uphill climb that makes Sisyphus whistle under his breath and exclaim, "Man, I don't even you a bit."
And while even frothing fucktards running for office tread at least somewhat carefully around outright calling folks of other faiths spawn of the devil, or being forced to apologize when they get too outrageous, it's perfectly fine in our society to disparge atheists as much as you like.
I have news for these assclowns. That is going to change. I guaran-fucking-tee it.
You know, I was going to dress as Neil Gaiman's Death for Halloween. But if I decide to head to North Carolina, it seems I'll be able to go as myself instead. Who else wants to see Liddy Dole piss herself when this godless heathen grabs her in a bear hug for a photo op?
Everybody go show Steve Benen some love. He was one of the loudest voices speaking up for us on the political blogs today. Most of the others just fell over themselves blurting out how Kay was a good Christian without mentioning that it doesn't fucking matter whether she's a good Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, or atheist just as long as she's a good human being.
More Steve, less pander, please.
9 comments:
Several states still have a religious requirement for holding office, including North Carolina. (Thanks to your research, I can now point out that NC's State Constitution is in violation of the US Constitution.)
On a vaguely-related note, I've been having a fascinating dialogue with my neoconned relative (whom I believe I've mentioned before). Apparently democracy is a bad idea, judges should not be compassionate, and we shouldn't have goals for society. (This fits in nicely with Dennis Prager's claim that equality is unamerican, of course.) Amazing what you find when you start looking under the rocks of contemporary "conservative" philosophy... though I'd much rather find worms and bugs than some of the nasty stuff I've been running into.
While there are many things about this that make it sad, for me the one that stands out is that it makes it quite obvious that being labelled an atheist is a smear. As with the Obama is a Muslim "smear", it takes as a given that being part of a religious minority is automatically a bad thing.
I suppose I should add that the only other place the Constitution makes any mention of religion is in Amendment I:
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof;
People who say this country was founded on "Christian principles" have it almost 180 degrees wrong. It's quite clear that the Founders didn't want Christian churches running things.
I have extensive collections of Stuff on the two items Cujo mentioned:
* The Muslim smear (need to add Powell's extremely relevant point)
* The US is a Christian nation
Further contributions, analysis, and criticism welcome (as always).
its actually not an impersonator who says "there is no god," just a woman from the godless american's PAC that gave an interview. they showed the same line earlier in an add with the appropriate woman saying it (although the tone of the ad was still OMFG KAY TALKS TO ATHEISTS). but putting the sound bite while showing just a picture of her does make it look like she is the one to have said it. I am not sure how this is going to play out here in nc...there seems to be a lot of support for hagen here. i am curious whether this ad will make a difference.
Fifty years of trying to sue faith out of public life, and here we all are, still. Atheists should learn to 'celebrate our diversity' a little more sincerely.
You sure have an ass-backwards view of what those suits were about, TSI. They were about making it possible for people of different beliefs to have their views respected, rather than having authorities attempting to make them pray in schools, or swear that there is a god they don't believe in in order to pledge allegiance to their country.
If you want diversity, you can start by demanding that minority views about religion be respected as much as the majority.
Then you might try to gain some appreciation for the irony of someone from the majority religion in this country congratulating himself for still having his faith despite the fact that every once in a great while you don't get things your own way.
Yes, you never mentioned you were a Christian, but I can't imagine anyone from another religion being as arrogant. Well, except for Micheal Medved, of course.
I like being a bogeyman, actually. I don't think anyone else should have to put up with it, but I find it to be quite fun.
TSI: It's smug, sanctimonious comments like that which sometimes make me personally want to obliterate religion from the face of the earth. You're doing no favors to the faithful with that kind of straw-man attack.
But keep it up. Go on, give me more reasons. (Then again, you kind of pale in comparison to the sacred-cracker-defenders and the apocalyptics, not to mention the whole God Hates Gays crowd.)
But seriously: I'd like some more diversity, please -- how about some religions that celebrate the universe rather than trying to pretend that large parts of it of it don't exist? Or religions that encourage people to get together socially and bond as a community without requiring them to believe utter nonsense as the price of admission?
The lawsuits were all about encouraging diversity, as Cujo points out.
You hypocrite.
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