I think the takeaway is that we're supposed to return to the guilded age

[BayouBengal07]

The incessant invocation of religion at beckapallooza today convinced me that all the concern about debt and taxes is just a front for the lingering culture wars. But at the rally I found one tea partier who really believed it. He basically said that all tax is theft and that we need to dismantle the modern federal administrative/welfare state. He actually told me that we need to "return" to a system where local churches provide us with the services we need - instead of paying uncle sam our surplus income would go to the church which would then dole it out for the common good. So basically think 21st century Dickens - are there no poor houses? I asked him what would happen if a church decided to hoard the money; he said the free market would take care of it and we could simply choose another church. I wonder if he really thinks life was really better when we had to wait for the clergy and captains of industry to grace us with their charity. Scary stuff.

[phantom power]

1. These people are completely a-historical.

A two-bit demagogue like Beck can tell them anything, and they'll buy into it.

:shrug:

[BrklynLiberal]

3. The ignorant and the fearful are the prime targets of the evil and the greedy...

Beck and the Beckerheads..it is like a perfect storm.

[lunatica]

2. They're on the low side of the IQ curve

They look and act quite normal unless you go deeper than skin deep.

[Hello_Kitty]

4. They are convinced that 95% of tax revenues go directly to welfare recipients

Does the rocket surgeon you were talking to realize that churches aren't really going to be in a position to build roads and dams? And how does he propose to fund the Holy Wars against the Moozlin Terra?

[BayouBengal07]

6. There was room for other private actors

He said that we could rely on private companies to provide roads and other infrastructure. No word on how we're supposed to trust local governments to pick the best companies. Are we supposed to petition them ourselves?

[Ruby the Liberal]

5. I could buy that if the collective church was actually spending

money on charity as opposed to erecting larger and more ornate buildings for themselves and keeping their 'leadership' in Mercedes and private planes.

[bobbolink]

9. Really? You could buy that?

You really believe that churches could spend ALL their income building enough housing to accomodate all the people who are homeless?

You really believe the churches could feed all hungry people if they just spent all their money on that? And you really think that food would be quality, the kind of food that DUers are always touting as what we should all be eating, as opposed to heavy starches?

Do you really?

[Ruby the Liberal]

14. Not buy the "troothiness" of the argument,

buy someone's ability to believe it.

[bobbolink]

15. OK, I get that. We need to be doing a better job of educating people about the downside of

charity! Including the damned shelters!

[femrap]

7. I think we're already

at Gilded Part Deux.

[Phlem]

8. That is so F'ing true.

More true than you might know based on the current economic divide. I've always thought and it was just really weird (and cool) for someone to post that. I mostly love that people are making connections and exercising the grey matter. The opposite has gotten us where we are today. One very effective way (as we're seeing the dividends now) is dismantling the public education system. Did you know that more then 70% of home schooled children in the US are Evangelical Christians?

Yea you know, when Jesus walked with the dinosaurs, etc, etc...

Well guess what, they're growing up and voting!

Sends fucking shivers down my spine. :yoiks:

-p

PS.. check out Jesus Camp on dvd if you dare.

[rucky]

10. Ask him how he expects everybody to pay their fair share.

And what to do about the "freeriders."

That's always an interesting and bumpy road to go down.

[Warren Stupidity]

11. 'gilded' as in gold covered. The 'guilded age' might have been

around the 1200's or so in northern europe, particularly Germany.

[ocd liberal]

12. This is what Mormons do.

These are the folks who come knocking at your front door with pamphlets. Glenn Nazi Beck is no different from any other Amway selling Mormon I've ever met.

[pinboy3niner]

13. Google 'Domionism' or 'Christian Reconstructionism'

There are Fundy elements here that seriously want a Christian version of Sharia law in America.

ETA: I believe you mean 'gilded' age.

[KillCapitalism]

16. Farther back than the gilded age...

Try the antebellum south. If they had their way, minimum wage laws would be repealed & they'd expect Americans to work for the same wages as Cambodians, which is essentially slavery.