Obama Without Illusions

The Single Issue: Shutting Up the Fundamentalists

We are getting ready to vote in what will hopefully be the first unsuccessfully manipulated presidential election this century, and it’s important to do so without illusions.

We hear that Obama is a socialist. If only! He’s not, and he in fact agrees with McCain on most issues. Let’s not deceive ourselves about what’s at stake here.

There is one issue – and one alone – that makes it worthwhile, perhaps even vital, to ensure that John McCain and his witchcraft-vaccinated sidekick do not make it into the White House: It is high time that we finally kicked these fundamentalist clerics out of the White House.

Domestically, the last eight years have been an all-out war on women, gays, lesbians, transpeople, non-fundamentalists, and anyone who fits in more than one of these categories. We have seen a rapist put in charge of reproductive health at the FDA, seen a judge appointed to the Supreme Court who believes that a man should have the same power over his wife that the law gives him over his minor children, seen the beginning of an offensive against birth control, and we have heard the words “homosexual agenda” so often that we GLBT folks have to wonder whether it isn’t time to actually create one. We have seen the forces of ignorance, superstition, and bigotry attack every facet of our national life, while trying to convince us that it’s the Muslims (the Jews of our time) we should be afraid of.

Is there a single honest, self-respecting person in this country who isn’t sick of this shit? Is there any woman in this country who doesn’t look with dread on the possibility that Justice Stevens’ replacement may be chosen based on the jurisprudential philosophy of Ms “Pay for your own rape kit” Palin? Is there anyone who thinks of the chance that foreign policy will continue to be determined by people seeking to fulfil the prophesy of exterminating Jews and Muslims without being overcome by nausea?

Obama won’t end the murderous wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, but at least he’ll give us some respite from the fundamentalist Christian war against the people of this country. We’ll have four years in which the White House isn’t issuing the press releases of clinic bombers and Christian Dominionist militias.

Those of us who are distracted from fighting against the war and insurance industries will have four years in which we don’t be fully consumed by defending shit we thought we already had. Four years in which women’s chief worry doesn’t have to be whether we’re headed for the 1950s or the 1850s. Obama won’t be handing us what we want, but his election will allow us to focus our energies on our ultimate goals.

As the late Georgie Carlin said 20 years ago, “I have just about had it with these fucking church people!” After eight ears of watching them define the domestic agenda, haven’t we all? Who among us doesn’t feel just a little joy at the thought of the crestfallen faces of our homegrown Taliban? Who doesn’t want to see Ted Haggard, James Dobson, and the Southern Baptist Conference shitting themselves with rage rather than coming in their pants with glee?

Let’s deal these fundamentalist motherfuckers a blow that doesn’t come from their teenage meth connections!