Between the end of World War II and the early 1980s, America was on its way to becoming closer to an egalitarian society than at any time in its history. All that ended with the election of B-movie actor Ronald Reagan in 1980. His election was the beginning of America’s march away from egalitarianism and on a path toward oligarchy. Thirty-three years after this “acting” president did his damage to this nation, the race toward an oligarch government is reaching fruition due to Republicans’ success at convincing the ignorant masses that giving up their possessions so that the rich “job creators” can have huge tax cuts. The poor masses have been told that this will start them on the path to prosperity.
Yeah, right. If you believe this Republican lie, then let me sell you a bridge.
Crucial to Reagan’s diabolical trickle down economic theory was the so-called “moral majority” Christian movement whose support continues to enable the Republican transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the richest Americans. It is doubtful that what Americans regard as Christians, either then or today, have any knowledge of Jesus Christ’s teachings regarding the rich having no chance of entering the kingdom of heaven, or that he instructed the rich to sell all their possessions and give the proceeds to the poor. If today’s so-called “followers of Christ” had paid attention in Sunday School or read a few verses in three of the Christian bible’s “Gospel Accounts,” so-called Christians would reject Republicans if for no other reason than their preferential treatment of the very people Christ said had about as much hope of getting into Heaven as a camel passing through the eye of the needle.
It is now standard conservative policy for Republicans to condemn Americans as greedy and envious for the mortal sin of expecting to keep what little they have, and over the past five years particularly expect Americans to worship and pay tribute to the rich by giving up basic necessities of life so that the rich may get another tax cut. Jesus never instructed his disciples, and there is nothing in the Gospels, reverence toward the rich or kissing the ground they walk on. Yet, Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association thinks that is what Jesus wanted and counsels Americans receiving government services to “kiss the ground beneath the feet of the one percent.”
Yes, he really did say that!
Fischer, as director of Issues Analysis for the extremist Christian American Family Association (AFA), said that people who use welfare and other government services needed to “kiss the ground beneath the richest 1 percent of Americans.” Fischer also said Americans who paid into Social Security retirement and Medicare throughout their working lives had no right to collect, or expect to collect, on their benefits when they retire. According to this so-called “follower of Christ,” Americans are laboring under a “myth” that they had a right to collect on their so-called “earned government benefits” which he calls “entitlements.” He says that your social security and Medicare are socialism even though you pay for it.
Fischer scolded the poor and middle class and explained that “rather than the poor, the low income, and the middle class being resentful of these rich people, they should be kissing the ground on which they walk! They ought to be given ticker-tape parades once a week in all of our major cities to thank them for funding welfare for everybody.” However, Fischer’s blasphemy against Jesus Christ’s teachings did not stop with demanding that the 99% fall down and prostate themselves before the rich. He also railed against the government and “the involuntary transfer of wealth through taxation” he asserted “makes us a socialist country. This is Marxism on display.” In 2012, another Christian extremist, mega-church preacher Rick Warren said via Twitter that “HALF of America pays NO taxes. Zero, so they’re happy for tax rates to be raised on the other half that DOES pay taxes.”
Jesus likely wept when he heard this.
According to Fischer who adheres to Republican conservatism as if it were a religion, President Obama is guilty of using the Internal Revenue service to “go after the 1 percent.” This is a claim Republicans believe, proven by their defending income inequality and protecting the rich from any tax reform. Fischer and Warren can bemoan and label taxation whatever their bastardized Christianity informs them, but Jesus commanded his followers to “render unto Caesar what is Caesars,” and their Christian bible says “Let every soul be subject to the governing authorities. Whoever resists the authority resists the ordinance of God, and those who resist will bring judgment on themselves. Render therefore to all their due: taxes to whom taxes are due, customs to whom customs, fear to whom fear, honor to whom honor.” Even a half-wit bible-thumper from the bible belt can comprehend those simple directions. They also understand that Jesus commanded the rich to sell all their possession and give to the poor; instructions that are contrary to current conservative Christian ideology that demands the rich be held up as idols.
The state of the “conservative” movement, and increasingly the Christian conservative movement, has become a religious testament to oligarchy – and to the philosophy that the masses exist to serve the rich. They expect the poor to give up what little they have so that the rich can have more. Republicans have become so blatantly pro-one-percent that despite their weeping and gnashing of teeth over “crushing deficits” for the past five years, they have the temerity to blatantly and without apology pass an unfunded $310 billion tax cut for the rich and corporations, increasing the deficit they claim is an affront to “our children and grandchildren’s economic future.”
Like the so-called Christian right, Republicans are not even hiding their idolatry of the rich and hatred of the poor and middle class. They claim the lower classes are greedy and envious for objecting to conservatives taking everything from them to further enrich the already wealthy.
Americans seem to be making oligarchy their new religion. One day refusing to kneel down and worship the rich will be a crime.
Edited from: Right Wing Christians Tell The Poor To Kiss
The Ground Beneath The Feet Of the 1%, by Rmuse; http://www.politicususa.com/2014/05/03/wing-christians-poor-kiss-ground-beneath-feet-1.html
