Brand New Bag of Jesus

Anyone watching Sarah Palin wrinkle her nose with delight as she busted O’Bama’s balls in her convention speech had to realize that she was enjoying her work and felt chosen to do it... not just by the GOP but by the Supreme Being Himself.

With her feet planted firmly on a bible, she stood her ground like a messenger who has inherited the GOP’s mission from God, and gave her constituents just what they desperately needed: A brand-new bag of Jesus, an opiate for the red-state masses to help them forget that their party and its elected representatives led us into a needless war, ruined our economy, and denigrated our constitution.

Inhaling the euphoria, Republicans are now absolved of responsibility. Washed clean of Guilt. Re-baptized in the fire of moral superiority. And entitled to keep doing whatever God tells them to do with our lives, our children’s lives and our futures.

Yes. Entitled.

All progressive voters have wondered why the working poor so often support right-wing agendas that work against their best interests, ever widening the gap between the poor, middle and wealthy classes. Why are the issues of abortion and gun control and same-sex marriage so sexy that the working poor will take the Neo-Con side against them, ignoring tax cuts for the rich while bankruptcy laws are weakened, minimum wages are undermined and unemployment soars?

Entitlement.

The working poor may not have a family tree linking them to the Rockefellers, as the Bush family does, and they may not live on the Right side of the tracks where all the good schools are located, and they may not have the education and social credentials of the tax-advantaged rich, but there is one sense of entitlement they still can enjoy: Being Right, with God on their side.

Never mind that, according to the very bible which the GOP has commandeered as its soapbox, Jesus was a kick-ass radical who disrupted business in the financial district. Never mind that the bible says rich men have the same odds of entering heaven as a camel has of passing through a needle’s eye. The fat cats have opiated the working poor with the illusion that God would rather give tax cuts to oil billionaires than reproductive choices to women.

I have no quarrel with Christians or with women who choose motherhood over abortion. Even Sarah Palin’s child, whose choice in the matter of keeping her baby probably was the only one her family would permit her to make, still had… a choice. That’s the point.

I do, however, resent the one toke over the line euphoria of the non-issue, non-substance, non-change Republican popularity surge. I know it’s hard to find your shoes and car keys, pilgrims, but FOCUS. We have an economy to rebuild… a constitution to repair… Cities to revitalize… Alternate energy sources to invent…Workable health care to wrest from the hands of the pharmaceutical and insurance lobbies. That’s a lot of work to do if you’re stoned on the promises of a party whose idea of change is a reactionary politician who has already tried to ban books from a local library, and who would deny an abortion to a 14-year-old rape or incest victim. Sarah Palin has taken and would take these positions again… not just against her own children, but against OURS.

Instead of watching the party lights from afar, and worrying that the GOP’s brand new bag of Jesus will sweep enough votes through the needle’s eye to crash the gates of heaven, let’s sober up and concentrate on returning power to the people.

Don’t bogart that power joint, my Republican friends… pass it over to us.