Conversations with God vs. Divine Right

Michelle Bachmann freely admits that she has conversations with God.  God tells her things.  Rick Perry seems to allude to the same thing.  George W. Bush also said he would speak to God and get messages in return.  Now, I do understand the desire for many people to hold a personal belief in something intangible.  Provided that their faith makes them better people (and that seems to be the case for the silent majority of the faithful) I have no issues with that.* 
However, I do draw the line at candidates professing this level of devotion.  This is mainly because history has shown us so many times how devotion to something that can’t be proven, can be used to manipulate people into perpetrating evil.  But in the case of presidential candidates there is a much more fundamental reason for my outrage.  And that goes back to a doctrine that was in place in Europe during the colonization of America- the doctrine of Divine Right. 
For those that didn’t pay attention in high school, Divine Right is the notion that monarchs of countries were chosen by God, by sheer nature of their birth, to rule.  They were told from a young age that they and they alone could talk directly to God since they were chosen by Him and therefore, the messages they would receive were divine.  They had the same authority over life and death as God. 
Most of the people who fled to the colonies did so to escape religious persecution.  And the antithesis of this idea truly is the foundation of the Constitution.
When people like Michelle Bachmann or Rick Perry tout their “conversations” with God, they are employing a manipulative marketing technique to get people to vote for them.  They’re not saying, “I talk to God the same way you do.”  They’re saying, “I talk to God and He responds back to me.”  In other words, God had chosen him/her to be His messenger and spokesperson. 
That’s fine if they are a minister or a reverend.  But as a political leader, it’s setting the stage for the next step of “you voted for me because God told you to, which means that God must have sent me. Therefore, I’m not stepping down just because I was voted out or my term is up.”  Or worse, “God gave me the authority to execute anyone who disagrees with me.” 
Now I’m not saying that Bachmann or Perry would take it this far, but if we as a people vote for them, then the marketing technique they are employing will have proven to work.  The next thing we know, everyone will start using it.  Sooner or later a despotic type of person will be able to fool the public with his/her religious rhetoric and get elected.  That’s what we need to be on guard for, and as the old adage says, an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.  Personally, I like democracy and don't want to have to cure what we would have instead. Vote responsibly.

*When it comes to “conversations” with God, I am assuming that the person doing the “hearing” is actually feeling or thinking things and not really hearing a voice from outside their body. I think it's safe to say that anyone hearing voices is most likely mentally ill and probably wouldn't make the best presidential candidate. 

How Rick Perry is making a mockery of Pro-lifers

I truly believe that the vast majority of people who claim to be pro-life have a genuine respect for the sanctity of life.  I do believe that the average Joe, on the streets and in churches praying for an end to abortions are sincere about their desire to protect human life.  I also believe that no other group is more misinformed and short sighted about this issue.  No other group is completely close minded to the actual facts about abortion and the real solutions. 
So here are the only facts I need to point out about this issue for the purpose of this blog.  First, abortions were illegal and women still got them.  So outlawing them won’t stop women from getting them if they feel they need them.  Second, there are programs out there which have proven to prevent women from getting abortions but nearly every Republican legislator out there opposes funding them (programs like education, birth control and healthcare).  Lastly, Rick Perry has been adamant about the abortion issue being a 10^th Amendment issue (the 10^th Amendment limits the rights of the Federal Government to those specifically outlined in the Constitution and is very rarely used in Supreme Court decisions because it is rather redundant).

It is this last issue I would like to emphasize.  Mainly because the 10th Amendment, when it has been asserted by states in court cases, traditionally has been used to protest federal regulations of labor and/or environmental controls.  For those of us who have been paying attention, Republicans like Congressman Darrel Issa (R-CA 49) have been waging an all out war on the regulatory commissions like the EPA and the FDA.  It appears to be their goal to eradicate these commissions completely given the pro-corporation bent of these legislators.  And Since corporations don’t get poisoned or cancer, the need for these governing bodies would appear to be completely unnecessary to them. 

So back to Mr. Perry and his “pro-life” stance (which I think should be better called a pro-corporate life stance).   Perry told ABC News,

“You either have to believe in the 10th Amendment or you don’t,” Perry told reporters after a bill signing in Houston.  “You can’t believe in the 10th Amendment for a few issues and then [for] something that doesn’t suit you say, 'We’d rather not have states decide that.'”

I think that statement shows the nature of Perry’s true intent.  He’s garnering support from the anti-abortion crowd by using the emotionally charged issue of abortion and the archaic notion that if we outlaw it, we’ll save the lives of the unborn.  But as I pointed out above, that solution has already been proven to fail.  Yet why would a fiscal conservative want to spend so much money enacting and enforcing a law that wouldn’t do anything to save lives?  Why would the 10^th Amendment be so important to him? 

Because the corporate interests that fund him want those regulatory bodies to go away.  Banning abortion under the 10^th Amendment sets a precedent that corporations can then use to begin challenging labor laws, environmental laws, tariff laws, etc.  It would give carte blanche to the business world to exploit resources and people for their own financial gains.  As much as I believe in the sincerity of the average person on this issue, I truly believe in Rick Perry’s insincerity on it. 

Rick Perry is usurping the genuine desire the average person has for a better world and manipulating it so that those who already do live in a better world keep fewer and fewer people from enjoying it.  He is for protecting the life of the unborn, but when that unborn child does get born he opposes nearly all social funding for it and when that fetus grows up and commits a crime, he will allow it to be executed swiftly.  I’m still waiting to see Perry show respect for the sanctity of human life.  I do not know of one policy he has enacted that truly supports this intent. 

George Carlin used say “Republicans want live babies to be born to grow up to be dead soldiers.”  Rick Perry, it would seem, wants live babies to grow up just to be dead.