Categories Politics
Lusk speaking about "the danger of Christians claiming privilege within the state and the persecution of Christians which that led to...
If you have a political system which gives privilege to Christians then that system have to define what a Christian is"
A Christian who doesn't think the church should have a privileged voice in the public square? Isn't that like a turkey voting for Christmas? Listen to the new episode of our podcast #GunsandGod, with @HelenEPaynter & @matthew_feldman with guest Paul Lusk.https://t.co/O3t2C41gsM
— Centre for the Study of Bible & Violence (@CSBibleViolence) December 7, 2020
Paynter: "If Christians are pursuing political power, what ... they are essentially saying is that might makes right."
Lusk: 1/ "The basic problem w/a religious right is that it says that the state has been established by God to enforce law & all law has a religious basis."
Lusk: 2/ "And therefore whatever the state does must reflect a religious position. And therefore if there are diverse religious positions at work, then the inevitable result is that one will oppress the other."
Lusk: "To say we are post-Christian does not mean we are ex-Christian ... Although Christain belief is a small minority, certainly our culture, our values, our system- these are very much part of a Christian heritage and sensibility which is inherited."
Unfortunately, yes. The prominence of small business and petty bourgeois "entrepeneurs" in far right coalitions is not (merely) a question of number of participants. It is that "small business owner" operates as an aspirational image for others in the coalition who are not https://t.co/heVfjpAcCa
— Louis R\xf6mer (@lromeranth) January 10, 2021
In my last conversation with a Trump fan I know, what came across strongly was the petty bourgeois resentment and even hatred of the government employee, who is invariably portrayed as a leech who doesn't work for a living (though they do and have low salaries for their resumes.)
This dovetails with white supremacist urges. For petty bourgeois that want to trap people of color into low-paid service work, seeing Black and Latino people at government desk jobs makes them irate. Nothing will get them raving about "wasting" taxpayer money faster.
That's what a lot of Cletus safari pieces are missing that those of us who actually know Trump voters aren't: The anger that is stirred every time they see a Black firefighter or a Latino county clerk, that rage that these folks have secure middle class jobs on "their" dime.
When Trump talked about the "deep state" out to get him, that's the bone he was tickling. That, and anger at the D.C. high level bureaucrat class that is well-educated and stirs the constant jealousy over people that are more cosmopolitan and sophisticated.
2. This interview with @piersmorgan on @gmb tells you all you need to know. Watch him squirm. You can actually feel him wish the ground would open and swallow
Never had a reaction to any interview clip quite like this one. pic.twitter.com/IzukgLdxOK
— Piers Morgan (@piersmorgan) January 13, 2021
3. This beautifully sums up the creepiness of the guy and perhaps the lack of knowledge of any real human interaction in a social
Don\u2019t let Hancock have the vaccine pic.twitter.com/kuwUTcBa3p
— James Felton (@JimMFelton) December 2, 2020
4. Who sits down like
Why does Matt Hancock sit down like Woody in Toy Story when a human enters the room pic.twitter.com/uJOrAWJiTU
— Calgie (@christiancalgie) December 17, 2020
5. Yes it is a piss take by @russellhoward but just think, this was taken from a Hancock self promotion video. Comedy gold
When you're just trying to mind your own business at the bus stop... @MattHancock #GE2019 pic.twitter.com/RBNXXoOEvA
— Russell Howard (@russellhoward) November 26, 2019
Georgia is at the center of the effort, with Republicans discussing a sweep of new policies after Biden won the state -- and @GovKemp endorsing new photo ID requirements for absentee ballots. #gapol https://t.co/05FSLXlDy6
— Greg Bluestein (@bluestein) January 24, 2021
Republicans adding onerous laws just to make themselves feel better and disenfranchise voters by making it more difficult to vote is unacceptable. It’s also massively hypocritical. Just like we always hear in the #gunrights arguments. 2/ #gapol
Why should I as a law abiding citizen be burdened by adding unnecessary restrictions to a process that is my Constitutionally protected right? Especially when the data do not back up the need for any new laws. A fact to which our state election officials would attest. 3/ #gapol
#JimCrow Why anyone would choose to make it more difficult to vote is beyond me. I should point out that the current restrictive voting laws were put in place by the @GaRepublicans, including no excuse #absenteeballots. 4/
State election officials crowed about how 1.3 million Georgians who voted from home during the coronavirus pandemic, and they should. They did a fine job. But now, simply because the party took losses due to a lack of their voters turning out (their own fault) ... 5/ #gapol
Johnson staged a conspiracy Senate panel of covid vaccine skeptics, anti-maskers, and fake drug promoters just weeks ago. He is avidly pro-covid in addition to spreading Hunter Biden conspiracies and saying Biden stole the election with "voter
Every mainstream news outlet, not just @MeetThePress, books conspiracy theorists because they believe Republicans deserve a platform to spread their misinformation. This is not journalism and @chucktodd does not care one wink about it
Ron Johnson is also an outspoken climate denier. He has spoken about this 40,000 times because it helps him politically. He is a conspiracy theorist.
Yet @chucktodd invites him on MTP despite saying two years ago he wouldn't book climate
Ron Johnson lied about Hunter Biden having child pornography on his computer
Ron Johnson is a guest on Meet the Press on Sunday because @chucktodd does nothing to stop the spread of misinformation
Ron Johnson is on Fox News suggesting there's child pornography on the computer that purportedly belongs to Hunter Biden pic.twitter.com/rwvyL1UH4i
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 18, 2020
Fantastic analysis of today\u2019s \u2066@CDU\u2069 leadership election and Germany\u2019s September federal election by \u2066@JeremyCliffe\u2069. https://t.co/xOuB4FpTXu
— Stewart McDonald MP (@StewartMcDonald) January 16, 2021
First up is Armin Laschet, the continuity candidate. Key messages: US example of dangers of polarisation; CDU can't take "Merkel voters" for granted; change requires experience, trust and teamwork rather than just big ideas; namecheck for his more-popular running mate Jens Spahn.
Verdict: not a bad speech tbh, nicely organised around theme of trust and teamwork that marked his father's work as a miner; the warning about the dangers of polarisation captured Laschet's own strengths and the risk of electing Merz
Next up is Friedrich Merz, the right-wing veteran. Climate change, digitisation, ideas blah-blah [aka I'm not a blast from the past]; don't fear the future; "consensus and compromise" require more contest; CDU must return to the "real centre"; no left-wing majority in Germany.
Verdict: weak, weak, weak. No organising theme, no coherence, just buzzwords over substance. And coming from Merz, the (genuinely valid) case for more robust political debate in Germany just comes across as cynical and reactionary.
...Some of the Extremely Online Left in the US has deluded itself into thinking that the far right insurgency is a bluecollar movement (a bit like how both Blue Labour centrists and the Trot/Stalinist left in the UK persuaded itself Brexit is a working class victory)...
(of course, we know now the 6 January rioters were CEOs, lawyers, cops and whitecollar GOP activists https://t.co/vNW2JLzrye HT @FFRAFAction )