Darth Dubya and a Lesser god

The new Star Wars movie is spectacular. So much so, that the usual Lucas critics are harping about the 'stilted' dialogue and lack of profound discourse. These are usually the folks who can't or don't make movies, art or for that matter, much of anything except self important complaint.

For the general lot of us, however, the Star Wars cliches have a resonance because cliches are in fact, well worn reptitions of the real and true. What makes this Star Wars particularly delicious besides the gorgeous visuals is the only line worth remembering. It goes something like this: "So, this is how democracy ends--with thundering applause."

Imaging Dubya Bunnypants as a Darth Vader is admittedly hard to wrap one's mind around, if only because he's too immature to be truely evil incarnate--a spawn maybe, but not the 'Man.' That honor probably goes to Carl Rove, who looks remarkably like the evil Sith emperor. Al Bageant over at Counter Punch calls him "a plump little toad of darkness with poison sacs." A prescient vision, Lucas!

Lucas's stories are not just about spaceships and action heroes or magnificant cities that seem to have no poor people. They are about the corruption and end of democratic government. It's a story about fascism for kids of all ages. The essence of the Star War series is about America. The difference here is that America has no Jedi warriors, nor any unassailable tradition of incorruptable truth ouside of its founding myths and the legality of its Constitution. The fact is that the on going demise of our national, secular democracy, seems more than well under way in the name of a wrathful and lesser Christian god. Its happened before in the democratic republic of Germany and led to a world war that slaughtered tens of millions and decimated the face of the world.

Anyone with a computer and time for a smidgen of research could have predicted the rise of the Republican Siths even before the miraculous Baby Dubya took on the mantle of new emperor by means of a fraud made possible by his brother, Jeba the Governor of Florida.

Frank Schaeffer writing for the San Francisco Chronicle, Sunday, May 22, 2005 "With God on their side" should know. He is the son of Francis Schaeffer, one of the most famous fundamentalists of his generation. Among his followers are a legion of creepy Christians like Pat Robertson, James Dobson and Jerry Falwell. Schaeffer Jr. speaks out forcibly against the radical Christian agenda that has captured American democracy. He writes:

"---this weird convergence of liberal tolerance and fundamentalist absolutism offers and explaination as to why fundamentalisms dominate our world. Holy warriors confront tolerant folks who believe that all religions are fine, or at least equally irrelevant. Tolerant prople have trouble saying any beliefs are bad. It's an unequal contest. The new Pope will be welcomed by fundamentalists off all stripes. Evangelicals, Islamists, Orthodox Jews and the rest won't agree with his Catholic theology, but they will love his absolutist dedication to unchangeable "certainties." Certainties are what unite all fundamentalists: the fear of disorder and the unknown--in other words, the fear of freedom."

"THE FEAR OF FREEDOM" means returning to the dark ages and absolutest power. For Americans it means radical reformation of the judiciary, curbing civil liberties, suspension of habeaus corpus (trial by jury), right to dissent and assembly, establishment of a one party political system, elevation of the supernatural over science, theocratical systems of education, and all in the name of some old man sky god and his magic son, who among all the hundreds of billions who have ever lived managed to rise from the dead. The son's deeply compassionate and humanist teachings are the first to go in favor of the selective dominance of the Old Testament and its tribal focus on taboo, property-- including women, punishment and perpetual war.

Schaeffer continues, "The final irony of fundamentalism, and the scholastic Catholicism represented by the new Pope, is that fundamentalists turn out to be rationalists unwilling to abandon any part of their intellectual systems to embrace the mystery of spirituality." That is exactly why Dubya is a spawn of Satanapuss The Sith. He believes hairbrained, evangelical, dominionist rubbish. We think. And, why the true Sith Emperor is Carl Rove, whose Machivelian textbook schemings have zip to do with belief in god--only absolute, obtainable power.

Frank Schaeffer is also the author of "Portofino," "Zermatt" and "Saving Grandma, " a trilogy of novels about surviving a fundamentalist childhood. He can be reached at www.frankschaeffer.com.

Another excellent article on the subject of religious fundamentalism and American democracy is "Bush and the angry God" by Elaine Cassel. She reviews two books on the subject by authors Charles Tiefer's "Veering Right" and Esther Kaplan's "With God On Their Side" -- both make similar arguments: Influences of evangelical Christians and secular conservative are moving the Bush Administration to the far right. A full read and links to these authors can be found at http://www.counterpunch.org.

"Bush's right-wing religious agenda is being played out not only in the Oval Office and the Congress, but in the halls of justice. Bush hopes to put his hand-picked judges on the federal bench and give them lifetime licenses to promote the evangelical agenda."

"Has the Republican Party Become the Christian Right Party? And Will It Stay that Way?" "Even Republicans are taking note of the sea change in their party. No less a Republican stalwart (and Bush and Ashcroft friend) than former Senator John Danforth has warned that this change is not for the good. In a March 30, 2005 New York Times op-ed focusing on the Schiavo case, Danforth wrote, "The problem is not with people or churches that are politically active. It is with a party that has gone so far in adopting a sectarian agenda that it has become the political extension of a religious movement."

"Will there be a backlash? Tiefer predicts that the Republican party will turn so far to the right that Americans -- whom, he believes, are mainly centrist -- will revolt. He points to how the country moved to the right after the liberalism of Johnson's Great Society and the Earl Warren Supreme Court, and predicts a contrary movement to the left (or at least, the center) will occur now."

"Unfortunately, however, there are few - if any - signs of an incipient backlash. Even as conservatism has grown, from the 1970s to today, civil liberties have weakened - and attention to the needs of ordinary Americans, and to human rights, has diminished."

"Maybe the great American experiment in secular democracy is coming to an end. If that is the case, Tiefer and Kaplan's books will help answer not just for today--but for tomorrow--the disturbing question of how it happened."

Elaine Cassel practices law in Virginia and the District of Columbia, teaches law and psychology, and follows the Bush regime's dismantling of the Constitution at Civil Liberties Watch. Her new book The War on Civil Liberties: How Bush and Ashcroft Have Dismantled the Bill of Rights, is published by Lawrence Hill. She can be reached at: ecassel1@cox.net

Think Star Wars is a juvenile analogy? Well consider the 'God Rods' weapons being proposed by the administration. The old Reagan Star Wars plans are alive and well. Part of the new stimulus is the fact that America's anti balistic missle system is an utter and complete failure. In spite of billions poured down the drain to save it after its inability to protect Israel during the Gulf War, it still appears useless to protect American lifestyle from, say, a North Korean lob. Although, it could be mentioned that the administration is no in great hurry seeing that such a lob would probably only reach blue state California.

The new arsenal includes orbital war stations, death lasers, and the 'God Rods', which can not only blow the turbans off evil ones in the Afgan mountains, but pin point a glass of white wine on any progressive poolside patio in any blue state in America. This stuff has been around for a while in 2003 Jack Kelly wrote on it in the Post-Gazette.com and most recently Tim Weiner at the New York Times http://www.nytimes.com/2005/05/18/18space.html
What is most obvious to everyone is the fact that future armed revolutions against an increasingly Christian fascist America would be utterly futile.

Carolyn Baker in "Spiritual Abuse by the Religious Right" at http://counterpunch.org writes:

"My focus here is on fundamentalist Christianity and Dominionism as religious systems which complement and support tyrannical political systems, specifically, fascism."

"Spiritual abuse is the manipulation, exploitation, and mistreatment-- mentally, emotionally, or physically of another individual or masses of individuals, in the name of promoting spiritual principles or values. As we have seen from the rampant sexual abuse of children in the Roman Catholic Church, spiritual abuse can open the door to every other kind of abuse."

"The mainstream media does not seem to comprehend the inherent danger of the religious right let alone report it accurately. All of us need to challenge the addictive tyranny of Christian fundamentalism at every turn--for the sake of our sanity and for the sake of our civil liberties. We don't allow street junkies into the halls of Congress, the Supreme Court, or the pulpits of America to admonish us how we should live and why we should demolish our Constitution. In fact, we confront the insanity and criminality of such individuals. Similarly, it's time to confront the domination drug for what it is--a grave and perverse spiritual and moral illness."

Baker's article on fundamentalism and its dangers for us all is an extrordinary read. Being a recovering religious addict like Schaeffer she speaks from first hand experience and takes the additional initiative to define a twelve step recovery program for religious addicts and considers radical Christian fundamentalism to be an insidious addiction.

Her thesis echoes that of Schaeffer who writes, " We stand in the path of a worldwide fundamentalist tsunami. Repeating mantras about sensitivity, inclusion and tolerance is no defense. Nor is hoping religion will just go away."

Its time to take the high holy ground and evoke the Force. Obiwan MandT