Rick Perry only just announced his presidential run Saturday, but out here in the blue-blue City of Angels I am already detecting severe signs of PDS — Perry Derangement Syndrome.
Usually it goes like this: Okay, the economy is a little better in Texas than it is here (of course that’s the oil companies), but why does he have to be sooooo religious? What’s with all this Christ business all the time?
Most of this comes from liberal christians and jews (lower case deliberate) for whom public displays of faith are considered vulgar, even suspect. An Elmer Gantry lurks around every corner.
For the jews…okay Jews (I made my point)… their age-old knee-jerk response to evangelicals is heavily at play. This attitude is so outdated as to be laughable, but it is so ingrained in their psyches that these Jews have lost the ability to distinguish between friends and enemies. Even a cursory Google search reveals that Rick Perry is one of the greatest supporters of Israel ever to run for high office in this country. Of course, it’s quite possible that many of these Jews don’t care about that. But they should.
Nevertheless, who am I to talk? As the title of this essay indicates, I am an agnostic.
That may be one of the few things I share with the incumbent president since it’s hard to believe that he is even remotely devout. Recent liberal Democrats, Clinton and Obama, have a kind of wink-wink relationship with religion, largely attending church for political purposes. This is particularly true of Obama who, as we all know, rarely attends now, but spent two decades in the fold of the execrable race-hustler Jeremiah Wright, a man who would make Elmer Gantry blush. If his allegiance to the reverend wasn’t for political purposes, what was it? Let’s hope it was anyway. If he looked to Wright for spiritual guidance, Obama is suffering from some kind of delusional psychosis.
So what this agnostic observes is a general atmosphere of religious phoniness — a baseline hypocrisy — on the liberal side and what is often genuine religious faith on the conservative side. (Not all, of course. A number of libertarians are agnostic.).
Frankly, I prefer honesty. So I respect Perry for his faith.
A response to Roger Simon’s article:
Agnosticism is a quasi-intellectual position designed to offend a few people as possible in the political sphere. It’s a mediocre term that stands in line with the old adage, “if you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything”.
Perry’s faith doesn’t represent anything to respect. His Fundamentalist beliefs is similar to the left-overs from the Pilgrims, who still burned people at the stake–while the rest of Christianity was moving beyond that sort of barbarism.
Obviously Mr. Simon has fallen for Perry’s crap.
@Liberal1 (objectivity):
Really? You know what church Perry attends when he is home in Austin? You know his minister and what that minister preaches? Please, give us the benefit of your well informed knowledge.
You gotta love Ed Driscoll’s graphic!
Especially in light of the fact that so many Obama surrogates are parroting the meme that job growth in Texas is (only) because of oil, military bases and low wages.
I saw Axelrod AND Donna Brazille parrot those exact same points within a day of one another.
OK.
CA has MORE military bases than Texas.
CA has a whole lot of oil, too!
And CA has a lot of people working at minimum wage.
Heck, CA has an entire underground economy where who-knows-what -they-are-paid, for that matter.
And yet, look at the graphic again.
Texas +223,600 jobs
California -1,299,400 jobs
Roger L. Simon is an agnostic.
And he is pro-Perry.
I imagine there will be a lot of those agnostics voting for Perry as we move forward.
Roger L. Simon is also a man.
Perry seems to be sewing up the MAN vote, too.
Obviously libtard 2 is a Christianity hating bigot
Since I’ve posted at length on this article at PJM, I’ll be brief. To me his prayer meeting came across as cheap, political theater. If Palin doesn’t get in the race he already had a lock on the Christian right vote.
My initial perceptions of him after watching what he’s actually done here in Texas are negative. He talks a good line on some issues, but I’m reserving final judgment.
What really disturbs me as I blogged around about Perry is how many seem to want him just because he’s religious or just because he’s from Texas. Some of his supporters are uncanny in their similarity to leftists I’ve encountered with name calling, innuendo, and very few supporting facts.
Regulars here will get a kick out of this. According to some of the posters at PJM, I am a “Stalanist,” “Obama Troll”, taking orders from my Leftist leaders as their “Zombie”. All because I dare to question if Perry really is the best we can do.
@JustAl:
So why don’t you ask a Texan, that you know is conservative, what they think of Perry? HERE I AM.
Voter I.D.
Sonigram requirement for everyone who is seeking an abortion 24 hours prior to the abortion.
Elimination of ad valorum taxes for veterans with 100% service related disabilities.
Blocked state income tax.
Reduced ad valorum taxes for seniors to a greater extent, and for all on a less extent.
Vetoed the bill that would have required Texans to pay sales tax on internet purchases from other states, like Amazon.
Pushed to make sanctuary cities illegal in Texas (killed by Joe Strass)
Requested the special session pass the “Stop the TSA Groping” bill (again, killed by Joe Strauss)
Is not ashamed of being a Christian and refuses to play that game.
Our nation is a mess. We are now involved in FOUR wars, the economy is sinking again with the threat of a second recession, 14 million are out of work, Obama has dropped 1,000,000 from the workforce rolls to keep the unemployment percentage down to 9.1%, stock market going nuts, an out-of-control EPA and you are worried about a call to prayer for Texans by the governor of Texas?
Tell me, do you think we should removed FDR’s face from Mount Rushmore since he prayed on national radio that went out to millions of people?
@JustAl:
I’m not wild about Perry either, but you’re talking to a West or Cain supporter.
@retire05:
Not sure why it happened, but FDR’s face is already absent from Rushmore.
AYE Was it removed because he prayed on national radio or national T.V. like Joe B. said? Didn’t they try to replace it with Wendall Wilkie?
@retire05:
It’s always a pleasure to talk to a conservative in Texas, that’s why I talk to myself all the time.
His role in removing the ad valorum taxes is good. But I don’t think he had to “block” a state income tax, that’s been tried for years before Perry and failed then to.
What about the trans-Texas corridor, stealing property from Texans to enrich a Spanish construction company so the Chicoms can flood North America with their goods faster?
What about in-state tuition for illegals, but not for Americans from other states?
What about dismissing the AZ border law as, “not for Texas” immediately when it came out?
What about forcing the HPV vaccine despite parents’ objections?
As I said, Perry talks a good game on social security, medicare and gorebull warming. But, has he tried to do away with medicaide in Texas? Has he proposed anything to stem the tide of anchor babies being born in the hallways and parking lots of hospitals in the valley?
He doesn’t seem all that consistent to me yet. Maybe I’ll warm up to him. But he’s certainly no Col. West and politicians have had very little to do with the economy in Texas thanks to our strong state Constitution.
As for FDR, despite the whole not on Rushmore thing, in my humble opinion he did more long lasting harm to this nation than Tojo and Hitler combined. Pretty much every economic woe we have today had either it’s roots or it’s inspiration in his new deal vote buying schemes.
Praying may not be a reason not to vote for somebody, but it certainly isn’t a reason to vote for them.
I have a hard time squaring that idea with over 60 years of increasing prosperity for a steadily expanding American middle class. That wasn’t accompanied by a skyrocketing national debt, either.
Well Greggy,
It’s like this. You sit behind a couple of really big oceans and let all of your industrial competitors blow the hell out of each other, then join in and finish blowing the hell out of them and anyone’s economy is going to prosper for 60 years. And make no mistake, a determined United States in WWII could have defeated the Axis with anyone in the White House. America won the war, not FDR.
FDR had zero to do with anything resembling prosperity, Zero. But his legacy of buying votes with taxpayer money established a permanent presence on the government teet that has sucked the life’s blood out of our country.
Squaring your beliefs with reality seems to be a recurring theme with you. . . just sayin’
Right-wing revisionist bullshit. This is your child’s brain on the Texas Department of Education.
I didn’t know that Perry has attended Bilderberg meeting(s) and is endorsed by them (supposedly).
http://www.infowars.com/bilder…
Justal, I see another hate filled lefty dropped in and proved that he has the same problem as greg. They both can’t accept that reality proves them wrong.
Well, they are both going to get a dose of reality come 2012. 🙂
I still suspect that Perry is one of those professional politicians who has recognized an excellent opportunity to reach out and grab hold of the Tea Party Express and ride that baby all the way to the Whitehouse! Then turn right around and promptly forget them and their social and fiscal values. One other troubling issue is how Perry has solved the “Gay marriage issue” with-out a big time risk of losing potential votes. Leave it up to the states! How easy, is that? Tied his answer in to the 10th amd., and went for that old Tea Party Spirit! He is missing a major point about gay marriage, legalizing it opens the door to other individuals wanting the same rights as the gay people. And please don’t say it can’t happen, it already has and more special groups will be demanding the “same rights”. Also, I am no expert on the bible, but I do know that many people are furious at perry for this issue alone. I am more curious as to does he really believe that marriage and sex is between a man and woman like the bible tells some people it is. I say some people because other christians have told me that the bible was wrong on that, and gay marriage, and sex with the same sex is cool with the Bigman himself, not Perry but the Main Man God himself. So his weak stance on the conservative social issue of marriage leads me to suspect that Perry may have a little Elmer Gantry in himself as well. But then again how do you judge a man/woman on their religious faith. Are their values congruent with their behaviors? I have know some of the most religious people one can imagine and was appalled at their crookedness, and decietful ways, then again a very few christians who practice the bible as it is written, and are some of the best friends and people I have ever know in my life. Obama being religious was a disgraceful joke. How in Gods name could anyone sit in a church, claim to be friends with the pastor and not have any idea that he was/is an angry racist. That is the scary part right there. Whats that say about Obama?
I support Governor Perry. I’m hearing “Rino”, “Professional politician”, “Stealth Jihadist” and other ad hominim attacks coming from several conservative blogs. I personally believe that he is sincere in his conservative beliefs and has learned from his mistakes. The Gardiasil vaccines had an opt out provision for any parent whom so chose to opt out. The TTC is another issue that he backed initially but learned quickly from voters it was not what they wanted and backed off. That’s a plus because so many politicions seem to forget who elected them and turn a deaf ear to the constituancy that got them there. Remember the debt ceiling debate. As far as the stealth jihadist meme: Do a little bit of research and make an informed decision for yourself. Don’t just parrot something you read on another blog, that’s what lefties do. Knowledge is power.
Hey Wilson,
Thanks for the ad homoniem, why didn’t you call me a racist for double points?
Here ya go. I didn’t learn any of this in Texas schools (didn’t go to any actually). But I’ll check back tomorrow to see your rebuttals to each of the sources here since you think FDR was such hot shit (at least we agree on half of that description):
http://whatreallyhappened.com/WRHARTICLES/pearl/www.geocities.com/Pentagon/6315/fdr.html
Also, I will say that I am less negative about Perry because of retire05’s post, which aside from one other I saw on PJM is the only one that actually gives back up to Perry’s small government claims in all of the hundreds of comments in roughly a half dozen Perry Puff Pieces PJM has run over the last few weeks. Well done retire05!