The Audio Stylings of Chris Levens
"I'm a Gangster"

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Progressive Critique of Obama

I guess I'm a bit proud of Progressive political critique. I wasn't sure what song Progressives were going to sing when Obama became president. Would they keep up their unforgiving critique of power, or would they over look the flaws of a moderately liberal president?

I've been hearing a lot of negative critique coming from the Left concerning Obama's cabinet appointments. This interview from today's Democracy Now is a good example of what I'm talking about. I'm happy to hear this. In my eyes, it lends credibility to the Progressive position; I feel more confident that their ideology is not just partisan rhetoric; I'm glad to see that Obama is being judged by the same criteria that was used to judge Bush.

Back in the early 2000s, when I was a staunch Republitarian, I quickly learned that Rightwing ideologues lacked this credibility that I'm attributing to the Progressives. For the AM talk-show hosts, who I listened to way too much, I noticed that different criteria was used to judge Bush and Clinton. When Bush would do similar things to what Clinton did, the Right spun the news so hard it made me dizzy. This lack of integrity (or awareness of their own biases) was one of the many factors that severed me from the Religious Right.

Something else that has impressed me with Progressives is their ability to recognize mixed qualities in Obama. It isn't either all-out-support or all-out-opposition. Instead, I've seen them recognize and acknowledge good things about Obama, yet maintain an uncompromising critique of his shortcomings.

P.S. Based upon Obama's appointments, I'm getting the sense that Obama is going to be more Moderate than he campaigned. I really didn't think he was going to be radically more liberal than he campaigned. We'll see, but it doesn't look like he is going to be anything like a Socialist. Too bad for us.
 11:29 PM   •  1 satisfied customer!  

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My Parade Got Urinated Upon

Since the election, I've been feeling good: I felt like America grew up a little bit. Most of us were able to see through the illusions of the fearmongers. That gave me hope.

But this little piece of news just tinckled all over me.

Before the election, I remember hearing about a spike in gun sales because people feared that if Obama won, he would make assault rifles illegal to sell again. But hearing it again, and from all those news sources, really woke me up to a disturbing fact: a lot of America grew up, but there is still a significant minority that have been twisted and blinded by fear.

Many of these people stocking up on assault rifles are also people who think Obama is an anti-American terrorist. My own mom thinks he wants to submit Americans to some form of servitude, (the spirit of Hayacks, "Road to Serfdom" trickles down into the minds of those who have no idea they are being indoctrinated.)

Why do they want these guns? What do average people do with assault rifles?

I bet many of these people stocking up on assault rifles love the 2nd amendment and all the Jefferson jazz, like, “the strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”

You know what Jefferson is saying, right? That when the government becomes tyrannical, it is our duty to pick up arms against it. Hence, the justification for the Revolutionary War: we had a moral obligation to throw off the tyrannical English government.

So: an anti-American, terrorist president who is all set to tyrannise America + neo-revolutionaries stocking up on assault rifles =

What does it equal?

fron the crowd: The plot of a Clancy-based action/adventure movie?

announcer: That is right!

I hope my imagination is running wild, because the equation suggests some disgusting possibilities. I want to hope that Americans won't use guns against other Americans in a nationaly organized front, but I know there is no promise that we will be free from internal strife.

Let's all pray to Jesus that the unhinged section of our society who are getting whipped up into a panic will not pervert itself with violence.
 10:13 PM   •  12 satisfied customers!!  

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Saint Revolutionary

Frank Schaeffer has a very interesting article about his dad, Francis Schaeffer.

In this article, Frank draws an interesting parallel between his father and the Republican party on the one hand, and on the other hand, Obama's former pastor Rev. Wright and Obama himself.

You're all familiar with Rev. Wright, I'm sure, and all the controversy he stirred up for Obama. Since Rev. Wright didn't think America was the most righteous nation on earth, Obama was labelled anti-American.

Frank Schaeffer points out an interesting double-standard. Back in the late 1970s/ early 1980s, Frank was helping his father, among others, to create the American Religious Right. One of the key issues Frank highlighted as a rallying point is the subject of abortion. It is fair to say that Frank had a good political head on his shoulders because no issue has become as foundational for the political power of the religious right as abortion. As many are aware, there are many God-fearing X-ians who vote one issue: abortion.

But then Frank had a falling out with the Religious Right. From his post-Religious Right perspective, he has been able to be honest about some of the stuff that was going on back when Francis Schaeffer was a theological big-wig.

So what does this have to do with Rev. Wright?

Well, back in the 1980s, Francis Schaeffer was sowing the seeds for armed rebellion against the USA. Frank quotes his father, who made such claims as when a nations turns its back on God's law, it forfeits its authority, and that in such circumstances, physical force is justifiable against that ungodly country. Links were made between America's abortion of infants and Hitler's mass murder of Jews, thus electrifying X-ians to stand their ground against America is if they were Germans resisting the Holocost. That is a powerful force to stir up among the trusting masses in the pews -- potentially a destructive force.

So what does Francis's anti-American rhetoric have to do with the Republican party?

Schaeffer explains, "We were rewarded for our "stand" by people such as Congressman Jack Kemp, the Fords, Reagan and the Bush family. The top Republican leadership depended on preachers and agitators like us to energize their rank and file. No one called us un-American."

Why is it OK for a white preacher to denounce American's sins and call for the violent overthrow of the government only to be rewarded with luncheons with Presidents, but for a black preacher to denounce America's sins without calling for any sort of armed resistance, he gets labeled anti-American and the candidate associated with him becomes suspect?


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