Juan Cole: Rick Perry and the Hucksterism of the Rich

[pampango]

http://www.juancole.com/2011/08/rick-perry-and-the-hucksterism-of-the-rich.html

Rick Perry’s announcement of his presidential ambitions marks the the triumph of fantasy over reality in American politics. Among our more pressing problems are global climate change caused by human production of greenhouse gases; religious fanaticism and interference in governance; and the structural deficit faced by the US government. It used to be that political divisions were about the different methods proposed to deal with social problems by persons with different political philosophies. Nowadays, politics is about which fantasy-land the politicians and their admirers reside in.

Thus, Rick Perry not only denies global climate change but has sued to stop the Environmental Protection Agency from trying to curb emissions in Texas. Ironically, if anybody will suffer from global warming, it is Texans, and the warmer temperatures of recent years are hitting them especially hard. Perry’s response to Texas’s drought? To pray for rain. (If anything, the evidence from teams of scientists at MIT and elsewhere is that the pace of climate change has been underestimated by international bodies like the IPCC).

Perry has links to a theocratic evangelical movement that, like the Khomeinists in Iran, believes that religion should take control of the 7 power centers in society, including the arts, media, the family, and the government. He led a national day of Christian prayer to which he invited other governors, raising questions about his commitment to the separation of religion and state. The religion Perry promotes is not the social gospel of Jesus of Nazareth, but rather an absolute worship of property rights dressed up as spirituality. His religious commitments are to be imposed on the rest of us (as in Iran). Thus, he will work against women’s choice and against the rights of gay partners to be married, because of his own personal theology.

Perry is in the American tradition of the huckster and the booster, the snake oil salesman who promises you a cure for what ails you that turns out to be one part pretty words and another part dream castle. He is no Jack Kemp, who saw social problems and sought fixes for them in the private sector or in public-private partnerships. Perry sees no problems that can’t be fixed by slashing taxes further on our 400 billionaires and then holding prayer meetings for the unemployed. This blindness is not an accident. The Republican Supreme Court’s interference in election campaign reform has ensured that the super-wealthy in this country can get the best politicians money can buy into office.

[CanonRay]

1. Every time we have a Texas president

they start a war. It's what they're good at.