Has the Republican Party Become a Religion?

Discussion in 'Political Opinions & Beliefs' started by ImNotOliver, Feb 21, 2021.

  1. ImNotOliver

    ImNotOliver Well-Known Member

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    I grew up in a conservative Christian family. However, I had never come to believe. From an early age I began to question, why anyone would want to attend a church service. When I came of age and left home I become highly involved in the freedom from religion movement, as a way of fighting back, for the anguish of other people pushing their religion on me. I got it out of my system and moved on.


    A few years later I began to see the rise of the new Republicanism. As it rose, it occurred to me that the new Republicanism was little more than the more conservative Christianity repackaged as a political ideology. Time and time again it has occurred to me that it is a religion. In the same way that hard core Christians read their bible daily and attend religious services as often as thy can, the new Republicans also began the need for daily affirmation of faith, not through a bible, but through the wonders of right-wing radio. Time and again, as a right-wing pundit laid out his arguments, I kept seeing the parallels with Evangelical Christian preachers. It even blended well as both Christianity and conservatism are quite opposed to liberalism. Conservative children are taught to hate liberals in their churches. Some of them even sing little songs, to remind them that liberals are bad. When the pundits repeat it, they question it not.


    Turns out, right-wing radio got its start on Christian radio. At first all radio stations had to provide counterbalancing programming for political talk. Then during Reagan’s presidency they did away with that rule. This is were Rush Limbaugh got his start. A three hour show on Christian radio stations. He was openly racist, homophobic, misogynistic, a religious bigot, anti-intellectual, anti-science, and above all, anti Democrat, anti liberal, and everything else not Republican. With no opposing, or moderating voices. It was those listening to Christian radio, those who needed their daily fill of the Holy Spirit and the love of Jesus in their hearts and all that, who initially listened to and supported Rush. Discovering such a detail surprises me not as these were the same sentiments that I often heard among the conservative Christians I was forced to live among.


    Early support for the Trump also came from conservative Christian quarters. Preachers were telling their flock that the Trump was their champion. That he and he alone was going to stop those evil liberals from taking their religion and their guns away from them. That he alone was going to end abortion. Jesus himself, came down from heaven, and whispered in the ears of influential Christian spokespersons, telling them all, Donald J Trump was their man, personally approved by Jesus, our great Lord and Savior. Just like when Jesus liked lil George Bush so much.


    When the violent right-wing gangs began attacking liberal strongholds in the West, at first they had the appearance of White Supremacists. Yet, upon closer inspection, one saw that they were Christian Nationalists. To them liberalism is a bit like Satanism, as a curse, something to be erased from earth. Even democracy is seen as inconvenient, something to be restricted. The same group of people who stormed the capital in delusion of grandeur.


    In every presidential election, the various political parties have offered a platform on which their party intends to govern, if they win the elections. In 2020, the Republican Party offered nothing other than the Trump. The only time that has ever happened. But then have we not been seeing elected Republicans bowing to their champion, singing it praises it did not deserve, almost as if it were a deity. Even though it lost, fair and square, half of Trump supporters insist that the election was stolen through fraud. Now that Joe Biden has become president, many Republicans are now insisting that he has dementia and is in failing health. Like him or not, any objective observer can clearly see that Biden is quite alert and healthy. It is as if belief is the most important characteristic amongst Republican voters, just as in Christianity. Your eyes are not to be trusted.


    Has the Republican Party not become a religion? Do not the majority of their adherents prefer a Christian theocracy over our current system? Have not the pundits, like Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson, become like preachers. People like Rush Limbaugh, a prophet and saint, like the great Saint Ronnie, who led the people out of the darkness? Is the Trump not in the process of being made into a martyr? Has not the fabled antifa become the new demons, sent to pester the faithful? The liberals sent to test the strength of their faith.
     
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  2. Daniel Light

    Daniel Light Well-Known Member

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    MAGA is a cult. Their elegance is to one person, not a philosophy.
     
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  3. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    You mean like the Progressive Left did, at the turn of the century?
     
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  4. crank

    crank Well-Known Member

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    Cool!
     
  5. 61falcon

    61falcon Well-Known Member

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    The VAST MAJORITY of them believe in guns and violence and hate people that do not look act and behave as they do, they have no real concept of CHRISTIANITY.
     
  6. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    Absolutely. I was a Republican but the party went right over a cliff. They went from a party of principles, to a church party, to an evangelical church party, and finally to the church of trump.
     
  7. PanMonarchist

    PanMonarchist Well-Known Member

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    Only because the right of ownership is constantly under threat.

    Try to restrict my rights and I will see you as an enemy to be resisted at every turn. This isn't even a Republican vs Democrat thing.
     
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  8. Cybred

    Cybred Well-Known Member

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    The problem is you guys think your guns will protect you from govt tyranny, they won't.
     
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  9. PanMonarchist

    PanMonarchist Well-Known Member

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    I don't care what they do. I have the right to own them and do as I like with them. Anyone who says otherwise is an authoritarian whose opinions I immediately discard.
     
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  10. HereWeGoAgain

    HereWeGoAgain Banned

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    So you have a right to kill innocent people?

    Do I need to report you to the FBI?
     
  11. Esdraelon

    Esdraelon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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  12. Esdraelon

    Esdraelon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    He said nothing threatening against anyone. IMO, the one with the dangerous pathology is the one who's willing to create a potentially deadly situation for a complete stranger on the internet simply because you disagree with them.
     
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  13. Esdraelon

    Esdraelon Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    So, your answer is to, what? Bend over and shut up?
     
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  14. Hey Nonny Mouse

    Hey Nonny Mouse Well-Known Member

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    On both sides of politics, you have people who view the opposition as pure evil and who aren't open to having any of their views changed by evidence.

    Gun control is a good example. Most people aren't open to having their minds changed about gun control. Most people aren't seriously interested in evidence that is in tension with their own view.
     
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  15. PanMonarchist

    PanMonarchist Well-Known Member

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    And the first straw man appears.

    My rights end where the rights of another begin (including the Right to Life). Didn't think anyone would be so dense that I would have to spell that out, but I'm constantly being disappointed by others so I probably should not have been surprised.
     
    Last edited: Feb 22, 2021
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  16. Steady Pie

    Steady Pie Well-Known Member Past Donor

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    The GOP isn't a religion. The only real difference between ideology/values and religion is that they lack a deity or supernaturalism.

    Besides, I wouldn't give them any ideas. They might register as a religion and evade tax!
     
  17. Chrizton

    Chrizton Well-Known Member

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    I don't think you have gotten it out of your system. That some Christians---the kind you don't like--migrate to the GOP does not mean that the GOP is a religious party or that the GOP is a "religion". You are just seeing what you want to see about them. I don't especially like the GOP in my state because it too often allows the ubber religious to hijack caucuses to nominate less popular evangelicals over more popular secular republicans, but nationally I do not see that. I see the GOP mostly as the party of last resort for the not big city, not far left-wing state voters. I very very reluctantly voted for Trump because I thought and think Biden is too old and in too much of a physical and cognitive decline to last 4 years. I almost didn't vote at all. It took me weeks and weeks to be able to force me to cast for that jackass.
     
  18. ImNotOliver

    ImNotOliver Well-Known Member

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    I used to be very active. I used to publish a newsletter, sat on the board of a couple of atheist organizations. Debate preachers. I used to joke that if atheists were organized like the Catholics, I’d be an archbishop. But in the end, there are no gods, so what is the point of arguing over something that does not exist.

    I’m not a fan of Joe Biden and never have been, and most likely never will be. However, any objective observer can see that, even though advanced in age, he is clearly in command of his senses and quite healthy for his age. When I hear someone say that Biden is in decline, and then votes for Trump does not sound to me like one who made a rational choice. Or not a very well informed one. More likely a religious choice. One based on one’s belief system.

    The Trump couldn’t even debate Biden. Biden has displayed none of the insanity that stirred around the Trump on a daily basis. None of the over arching ignorance. About the only exercise the Trump gets is from walking from vehicle to vehicle, even while golfing. He is clearly overweight and not very fit. A prime candidate for cardiovascular disease. Biden is fit and trim. He even gets out and rides his bicycle. Could you imagine the Trump on a bicycle? Jogging? I’ve always thought that it would be entertaining to see the Trump and Obama in a quick game of basketball, one on one. Could you imagine such a game. The Trump would just stand there in the middle, uncoordinatedly waving its arms, while Obama danced around him and sank ball after ball until the Trump gave up and walked off in frustration.

    While past his prime, Biden is clearly capable, and, I’m sure capable of more complex thought that most of those who insist that he is in decline. Such is the nature of belief. The right-wing preachers have been preaching this meme for quite some time, and many have come to believe it.
     
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  19. FatBack

    FatBack Well-Known Member

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    Wow, what a load of crap, written with the smug superiority of one who fancies his notions to be infallible
     
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  20. ImNotOliver

    ImNotOliver Well-Known Member

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    Have a cookie, sit down and learn a thing or two.

    When one looks through the demographical data across the US a very interesting pattern appears. That is, the more religious a population, the more conservative it is and the more likely that Republicans will be elected to office. Take for instance the Bible Belt. The less religious an area is, the more liberal it is, and the more likely to vote Democratic. Places like the Pacific Northwest and New England. Evangelicals vote overwhelmingly Republican and non-believers vote overwhelming Democratic. The demographically derived stereotypical Republican voter is shaping up to be a non-college educated blue collar worker who attends church on a regular basis. The Democratic voter a college educated professional who does not believe, and likely to be employed in a creative industry. Most of the objections to, from the Right, over education, has to do with the fact that higher education, especially in the sciences, is not accommodating of religious belief.
     
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  21. Ronald Hillman

    Ronald Hillman Banned

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    Writing from the UK I am amazed at how much religion is tied up in politics in the US, apparently you cannot be an atheist and not be a liberal, who knew? Are there no atheist right wingers in the US? Totally different here in the UK where religion tells you nothing about a persons politics. I know devout Methodists here who many in the US would consider communists and likewise atheists who make Attila the Hun look liberal!
     
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  22. ImNotOliver

    ImNotOliver Well-Known Member

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    Does that make the Trump a prophet? Or a god? A demigod perhaps, like Hercules?
     
  23. ImNotOliver

    ImNotOliver Well-Known Member

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    By Pew research, religiosity in the UK is only 10%. 27% according to Gallup. In the US, Pew says 54% and Gallup 69%. Any way you slice it, the US is significantly more religious than Great Britain. There are atheist right-wingers but they are rare, mostly because the right-wing in America is dominated by religious sects.
     
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  24. Ronald Hillman

    Ronald Hillman Banned

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    Ironic is it not that your excellent constitution that separates church and state has led to what I perceive as more religion in your political system. I agree with your OP from over here it does look like the republican party has become a religion. With the fringes looking very cult like.
     
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  25. freedom8

    freedom8 Well-Known Member

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    Very lucid analysis. The GOP might not be a religion, not yet. However many repubs seem to think it is; and for the trumpists, it definitely is.

    And it looks like, the GOP, or what's left of it, is now even indulging in its very own schism: a faction,(shall we call them protestants?-lutherians or calvinists-), is considering that their clergy has become too rotten for their taste and trying to drift away but they are risking not only excommunion but apparently the wrath of inquisition as well.

    Being a repub, Kasich style, I consider a true GOP party with a moderate conservative approach to politics is necessary to the country in order to prevent/balance some of the excesses of the far left.
     
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