Republican Christmas

Posted on December 19, 2010 in Class Compassion Scoundrels

As rain mists on the street outside my Southern California condo, I reflect on the blinders pulled over the eyes of the American people by the Republicans in Congress. While many blame Obama for the mess we are in legislatively, I put the burden on Harry Reid and the authors of the current filibuster rule in the Senate. If it had not been for this, we would have a Public Option, the Dream Act, and who knows what else? But Harry got cocky with his 60 senator majority, never remembering that while the Republicans can hold together a bloc, the Party of the Big Tent has many philosophical rifts. Too often we saw Democrats such as [[Max Baucus]], [[Ben Nelson]], [[Blanche Lincoln]], and [[Christopher Lieberman]] join the filibuster to defeat progress. If there had not been so much maneuvering, Congress might have pushed through middle class tax relief without giving in to the Republicans’ demand for millionaire welfare.

And can you believe it? In the last days of this Congress, the Republicans cried that they did not want to decide matters any further “out of respect for Christmas”. What kind of Christ is this? A Christ who won’t pay his taxes, who hates the poor, wants the rich to hold onto all their money, and holds aloft the spear of war. Fundamentalists have prepared this field for many years with their adroit cafeteria Christianity which finds every possible exemption — in their eyes — to living the life of Christ. Bah humbug if Christmas is about denying the unemployed benefits, increasing taxes on the poorest among us, and giving more to those who have no want except power and greed.

Respect for the vestiges of the Saturnalia in Christmas is what the Republicans are on about — the big stuffed turkeys and the cushy firesides inside glowing mansions. If Christ was born among us today and they got wind of it, they’d be at the manger to deny the validity of his birth certificate. What they most fear is a reversal of their legitimacy — they use Christ to make greed a sacrament. They can’t stand a world in which his actual words define what it means to be good.