A Justified Scold
by digby
Sarah Posner throws me a little (justified) scold this morning in her piece about the Jim Wallis/Ayn Rand/Paul Ryan and the bible kerfuffles the last few days. I was taking some cheap shots at Ryan and enjoying it a great deal. I would like nothing more than to show him for the religious hypocrite he is and inflame his evangelical and Catholic followers, but the truth is that I was mostly doing it for my own pleasure. Because, like Posner, I know that this is also true:
When these "faith leaders" stand up against Republican corporatism, progressives love it. But while it might be satisfying to hear a counter-biblical argument to the gospel of the Koch Brothers, if you're judging policy based on scripture, it could well be argued that some of these "faith leaders" have got it completely wrong on other issues. And on those issues—particularly LGBT rights and access to abortion and family planning services—these same progressives cheering the Christian anti-Ryanism would be hard-pressed to cheer bringing the Bible into policy debates.
At the press conference on Friday, Butler focused on Ryan's affection for Ayn Rand, an atheist and anti-religionist, and the heroine of the hyper-individualistic, anti-government wing of the Tea Party movement. But Rand is not a hero to the religious right, if she is even on their radar screen. Indeed, for many on the religious right, support for Ryan's government-slashing budget is found . . . in their Bibles.
The anti-Ryan religious leaders seem to think that focusing on Ryan's affection for Rand will turn religious people against him. Perhaps his love of an evil atheist would be persuasive enough, although if you're not a fan of free-market worship, you weren't likely to be a fan of Ryan, Rand or no Rand. And if they think conservative Christians will be put off by Ryan's admiration for an atheist, well, evangelical Christians and secular libertarians have co-existed in the conservative movement for decades. The evangelicals tolerate it, because, minus the atheism, they buy it, too.
In fact, the poor beleaguered Ryan is probably getting sympathy from his social conservative base. Hypocrisy has never been something that worried them overmuch and they love the idea that they are a victimized minority group.
I do think it's worthwhile to rattle Ryan even if it has little effect on his political supporters. He has suffered very little political opposition in his career and his reputation in the Village is so outsized for his accomplishments that he'd assumed a sort of untouchable status. he's very thin-skinned and I think some ridicule is helpful in cases like those.
But Sarah's right, both about the innate hypocrisy of the religious right and the useful idiocy of the Religion Industrial Complex. Most importantly, I shouldn't have gotten so lost in my own gleeful snark that I failed to note that using the Bible as the basis of any political argument is antithetical to enlightened democracy. I hereby correct that mistake.
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