Friday Links - Plus a Special Song

Chart Via Ezra Klein's Blog

 

-President Obama said last night that the media was painting everything in terms of re-election, and that should not be the point.  I don't think that is going to change, and I also don't think 99.9% of politicians think that way either (nor should they? though that is a question for another day). 
-A number of other reactions to President Obama's speech, as put together by Andrew Sullivan.
-Paul Harvey (Religion Dispatches) argues that 9/11 did nothing to change the narrative of war in America.

As we think about 9/11 this weekend:

Gov. Perry and American Gladiators

I've had a few days to process the absolute shock I felt when I heard the audience at the Republican Debate last Wednesday break into applause when Brian Williams mentioned the huge number of executions that have taken place in Texas. If you missed it, here's a link to the video, courtesy of TPM.

I hardly remember Gov. Perry's response to the question because I was dumbfounded by the audience's uncontrollable joy at the death of 234 people. How could a group of people, no matter their political affiliation, join in such at outburst at the loss of human life, whether they understood it to be justifiable, or not? Did I somehow time travel centuries back to the Roman Colosseum? Or maybe just months back to the entire country's celebration of Osama bin Laden's death?

Bruce Reyes-Chow, in his reflections on the GOP debate, writes, "Revenge, payback and ultimate justice may work for the movies and it may indeed fall right in line with “American” triumphalism, but these are not Christian values." Perhaps the Californians were mourning their state's overwhelming debt or its overcrowded prisons, two issues not to be easily disregarded, but certainly they would not look towards Texas, a state with its own budget shortages, as an appropriate role model. It is almost impossible, though, to pinpoint the thoughts of each member of an audience, and harder to hold them accountable to a religion they may or may not follow.

However, for a candidate who has so unabashedly flaunted his faith, Gov. Perry has some explaining to do. When I looked back over transcripts of the debate, I saw someone who is not only blind to inherent flaws in capital punishment, but in the justice system as a whole. Gov. Perry called state mandated death the "ultimate justice." So I suppose Jesus' death, as ordered by the Roman empire, would be seen as ultimate justice, according to Perry? I'm sure he would disagree, but I would love to see the theological acrobatics that went into the backtracking.

The Presidency and Angry Progressive Christians

Jonathan Chait/New York Times:

Yes, Bush passed his tax cuts — by using a method called reconciliation, which can avoid a filibuster but can be used only on budget issues. On No Child Left Behind and Medicare, he cut deals expanding government, which the right-wing equivalents of Greenwald denounced as a massive sellout. Bush did have one episode where he tried to force through a major domestic reform against a Senate filibuster: his crusade to privatize Social Security. Just as liberals urge Obama to do today, Bush barnstormed the country, pounding his message and pressuring Democrats, whom he cast as obstructionists. The result? Nada, beyond the collapse of Bush’s popularity.

Chait, Obama defender extraordinaire (and I do not say that negatively), comes back with a follow up to his New Republic article defending Obama against those who feel our president is failing due to a lack of rhetorical backbone.

I highlight this quote because we should not lose sight of the fact that legislative success and failure is a part of every presidency.  Charisma is not the same as totalitarian power. 

Progressive Christians would benefit from harping less about Obama, and doing more to actually try and persuade our brothers and sisters (yes they still are our brothers and sisters are they not?) that Jesus was not a free market crusader.  Part of me always wants to give up on this task, because it seems like a giant waste of time.  But what is the purpose of the Church if not to make such a task worthwhile?

-Tim