Riders of the New Crusade

Liberty by the Sword:
Quest and Empire in an Age of Fear

"To McCain, a commitment to universalism
requires American expansionism. Indeed,
to McCain it is precisely commitment to
this imperial vision that makes American
patriotism superior to other brands of
nationalism. Our own patriotism would
become compromised by stinginess and
selfishness were we to show more restraint
in world affairs."
(Matthew Yglesias, on theatlantic.com, February 25, 2008)

"Our pioneer ethos, inspired our belief in ourselves
as the New Jerusalem, bound by sacred duty to
suffer hardship and risk danger to protect
the values of our civilization and impart them to humanity."
(from a John McCain speech at USC in 2002, extolling the virtues of Teddy Roosevelt's brand of patriotism)

"Proclaim liberty throughout all the land, unto all the inhabitants thereof."
(from Leviticus 25:10, inscribed on the Liberty Bell in Philadelphia)



sits high in his saddle, the reins of his mount coiled around the gloved hand in his lap. In his other hand he holds a bell-shaped lamp, given to him by the priests of Columbia. His red mantle is piped in white stars that bob on a wave of blue like gulls on the ocean. The early morning January sun glints of his gold helmet with a light so bright, it is as if God himself were winking at those gathered around.

"Oh," gasps the crowd at this regal sight. "So majestic," exclaims an awed onlooker. "So brave," adds another. "So holy," affirms a third, and they all nod in agreement. "Yes, holy. Yes."

"We are born with responsibilities to the country that has protected our God-given rights, and the opportunities they afford us," says McCain to those attending the spectacle, while waving freedom's lamp for all to see. "I owe my country every opportunity I have ever had. America has given my life the sense that I am part of something greater than myself. We're the world's leader. So stand up with me, my friends. Stand up and fight for America -- the last, best hope of mankind!*"

Turning his horse to the noblemen seated in the gallery, he adds, "I want to thank those of you who have generously financed this campaign through the indulgences you purchased form Pope George the W. You will surely be rewarded in this world 'with lower taxes and less regulation*', enormous profits and golden parachutes."

Cheers erupt from the well-heeled noblemen and gentlewomen seated just below Pope George,who is shuffling his golden shoes in a dance of exultation. Their enthusiasm is so great that even those who stand across the pitch, ankle deep in muck, with collars of blue, even those who mourn the bravery of young blood, cannot help but shout with excited glee.

Turning back to the noblemen, McCain the Grey says, "We're not a country that prefers nostalgia to optimism. We don't hide from history. We make history.*" He then turns his horse and rides to the city gate, waving his lamp of Liberty all the way.

The children of the blue collars chase after him, their hearts filled with optimism, their pumping fists filled with the promise of destined glory. They howl and shout, "Make way for McCain! Make way for McCain!" They follow him out of the city, and for the next hundred years they fall, their blood turning deep, sandy hoofprints into pools of red mud.


change awaits its turn. Obama the Good watches as clouds of enraged dust swirl and settle on stone streets and hapless shoulders of ragged men, women and children. In this corner of the town, the sun is obscured by flies as hungry as the people they feed on.

Obama turns to a sea of expectant faces. Bright, haunted eyes look to him - eyes of innocence opening to a well of experience, and reaching into the bottom of a heart where stone walls once awash with endless hope long ago dried up and shrank away to pebbles holding only small puddles of despair. They long to have their hearts refilled. They long for a time beyond cynicism and defeatism.

As if in response to McCain's exhortations, he says, "It's the same course that offers the same, tired answers to workers without health care, and families without homes, and children who go to bed hungry in the richest nation on Earth.

"Americans know that we need to take responsibility for ourselves and our children, that we need to spend more time with them and teach them well. But we also believe that there is a larger responsibility that we have to one another as Americans.**"

In his own heart, Obama is in despair. He has renounced a revered teacher, something he shouldn't have had to do. But in order for his campaign for a hopeful city to continue, he knows he must turn aside anger and fear. "We believe that we rise or fall as one nation, as one people, that we are our brother's keeper, that we are our sister's keeper.

"I will not allow us to be distracted by the same politics that seeks to divide us with false charges and meaningless labels. In this campaign, we will not stand for the politics that uses religion as a wedge and patriotism as a bludgeon.**"

Even now, while McCain is off bludgeoning the world with Liberty in the name of patriotism, his minions run with axes high toward the valley to try to keep Obama and his hopeful hoard from climbing up. But as they get to the edge of the valley, they here these words coming from Obama:

"I have asserted a firm conviction -- a conviction rooted in my faith in God and my faith in the American people -- that working together we can move beyond some of our old racial wounds, and that in fact we have no choice if we are to continue on the path of a more perfect union.

"It means taking full responsibility for own lives -- by demanding more from our fathers, and spending more time with our children, and reading to them, and teaching them that while they may face challenges and discrimination in their own lives, they must never succumb to despair or cynicism; they must always believe that they can write their own destiny.^"

The enraged crowd's weapons withdraw at his words and they begin to quiet. "Is this man not also a patriot?" they wonder.

"What we know -- what we have seen ," continues Obama, "is that America can change. That is the true genius of this nation. What we have already achieved gives us hope -- the audacity to hope -- for what we can and must achieve tomorrow.

"At this moment, in this election, we can come together and say, 'Not this time.' This union may never be perfect, but generation after generation has shown that it can always be perfected.^"

And now, for the first time, Obama the Great looks around at those who had come to quash him and his beliefs and sees they are actually listening. They call to him, "You talk of unity? What about our jobs? What about our children? What about what we believe? Unless we feel safe, what good is it to talk of fixing ourselves? We like the idea of a fight, of forcing a fix on those who aren't like us, better than giving our taxes to you to for your huddled masses. "

"It is not enough to give health care to the sick, or jobs to the jobless, or education to our children," returns Obama, "but it is where we start. It is where our union grows stronger, and as so many generations have come to realize over the course of the two-hundred and twenty one years since a band of patriots signed that document in Philadelphia, that is where the perfection begins.^"

___________________________________

In the end, "Proclaim Liberty throughout all the land" is not an edict to take liberty to the world by violent means. It is a reminder that we are free, that we must remain free. Our proclamation comes in our actions, in the values of respect, tolerance and a healthy generosity to our fellow human beings. We act and therefor we live free. No one ever got closer to freedom at the business end of a bayonet, and no one ever got closer to God from behind the butt of a rifle.

* words from Sen. John McCain's victory speech in Texas, after clinching the Republican nomination, March 4, 2008.

** words from Sen. Barack Obama's speech in Texas that same night.

^ words from Sen. Barack Obama's speech addressing racism and the Rev. Wright controversy, March 18, 2008.

-PBG

For God and Country

"I do solemnly swear..."

"Hear O Israel the Lord our God,
the Lord is One."

"...that I will faithfully execute..."

"I believe in God, the Father Almighty
... and in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord;
Who was conceived of the Holy Spirit, born of the Virgin Mary..."

"...the office of President of the United States..."

"There is no God but Allah
and Muhammad is His prophet."

"...and will to the best of my ability..."

"This is suffering;
this is the origin of suffering;
this is the cessation of suffering;
this is the path to the cessation of suffering."

"...preserve, protect and defend
the Constitution of the United States."

SO, HELP ME GOD.*
*comma optional

SO HELP ME GOD: Washington, DC is not Jerusalem.
SO HELP ME GOD: The Constitution is not the word of God.
SO HELP ME GOD: The President of the United States is not descended from the House of David.

Meanwhile, the evangelical voice of the U.S. charges forward
with a programmed zeal, droning in an Orwellian trance:

Sunrise in America. It's another chance to face the light.
Why wouldn't you want to? Who wants to keep walking in darkest shadows
when one need but turn around to change direction and go toward the light?

Honestly, I hate that drivel. It is presented as if we are all bats in the shadows, flitting through the darkness after sinful and misguided prey. Sadly, they fear us, because to them, we operate hidden in a veil they cannot penetrate. It's like on those cop shows, where the suspect is interrogated in a bright room behind one-way glass, while the minions watch from a darkened space. We can see them, but they can't see us. We could be corrupting their children, and they wouldn't know it. We could be sinning and they wouldn't be able to see us, that they might save us.

I suppose it bothers them that we are blessed (you should pardon the expression) by the Constitution with a right: the right to choose how we live our lives. The door to the church is just as accessible as the door to the bar (though only relatively recently on Sundays).

With all the talk recently about the three branches of government, it is still somewhat comforting to know that Theocracy is not the fourth. Citing God as the "creator" in the Declaration of Independence does not automatically mean that we have been deified. I know there have been many polls recently that have dealt with Americans' beliefs about the existence of God. The Founding Fathers believed in God too. That doesn't mean that they wanted to establish a holy and sacred country.

In fact, the founding principle is that God loves the entire creation, that we are all imbued with rights by virtue of being a piece of that creation. The architects of our republic understood that the moment we begin to raise ourselves, to declare ourselves as better in the eyes of God and first in the heart of Destiny, we will no longer tolerate the possibility of God's blessing in others.

These days, other countries, their regimes and their people are non-grata unless and until our government bestows a "most favored" knighthood upon them. The result: what our leaders hope is setting the devil to quivering in his boots, is actually a descent into global resentment.

Humility. You were wondering how we counteract the resentment? Humility must replace blind Texas machismo. It also happens to be the one quality that defines Moses, Jesus, Muhammad and Buddha. Truth and strength will out with just a little introspection. Otherwise we're just big gorillas with small guns and lots of money.

-PBG

Manifest Destiny: The Crusaders in the Capitol

This is my response to the "Blog Against Theocracy" blogswarm that I missed this weekend. Please check out all the entries by following the link.

(Tengrain of Mock, Paper, Scissors designed the "Blog Against Theocracy" logo.)

When a government is allowed to hold its people hostage at the end of a crusader's sword, assembling armies of red-tie legislators and black-robed judges, spouting totalitarian, pseudo-religious, master race moral superiority, it is our own moral imperative to draw a line in the sand and hold it. Manifest Destiny may have been a convenient excuse to build this country, but it is a weak and insecure administration that uses a land grab policy as a way to take control of the moral compass line we toe.

I used to think that Americans were smart enough to know when this type of abuse of might had gone too far. I always thought there were enough of us who saw through political demagoguery to know the difference between political pandering and god-awful policy. It seems I was wrong.

Even the changes in Congress last year are only a burp, more about Iraq than anything related to God and morals.

The problem is we count on politicians to do right by us much in the same way some parents expect their children's teachers to parent their kids. It is a responsibility we cannot, must not, abdicate to those in power. They will only do as much as they can get away with, and maybe slightly more if there's enough money involved.

God, like good character, starts in the home, not on Capitol Hill. Like past mistakes, one's feelings toward God should inform one's actions, not control them. If those who would put our necks to the sword could understand that, perhaps they would stop trying to control the rest of us.

-PBG