someone HAS to ask Bush whether he believes

[ithacan]

in the separation of church and state.

You know that the Repugs will be pushing issues of gay marriage, etc. as wedge issues.

The Dems need to aggressively wedge back.

In this case, the GOP is controlled by the right wing "christian" fundies. But lots of republicans are very much unaware of that fact, and very much against the crazy fundy agenda.

By pushing this issue, it becomes a wedge.

Bush cannot answer "yes" because of the tremendous power of the fundies in the GOP.

And when he hedges his answers, the Dems need to pounce, hammering home on this issue. Not as being against religion of course, but being against theocracy, which is exactly what the GOP is pushing for.

(for details on the GOP see http://www.theocracywatch.org/)


President Bush, do you believe in the separation of church and state?

[Killarney]

1. He won't answer directly

I don't think he'd even get the question since he always approves questions first.

Even if someone got through... he'd deflect like he always does.
:(

[soleft]

2. I want to know if he believes in the Rapture

And exactly what he thinks has to happen to bring it about.

[ithacan]

6. yes, the rapture would be an EXCELLENT question

for the fundies, it goes without saying that "true christians" believe in this.

But for everyone else, it is like something out of a bad science fiction film that would I think seriously erode credibility and push more secularly-oriented republicans to really have doubts about Bush.

[Guaranteed]

3. You're absolutely right.

This is a GREAT issue for us. I know a lot of Republicans that are also atheists...I mean big time, radical, angry atheists.

Split em up!

[PurityOfEssence]

4. Do you feel that Christians are inherently more moral than non-believers?"

I'd like to hear him answer that one.

[DinahMoeHum]

5. Methinks * is the Antichrist.

n/t

:evilgrin:

[ithacan]

7. don't laugh...

[ithacan]

8. 666

a satanic kick

[adriennel]

9. I'd like to ask

if he goes to church every Sunday.

[GiovanniC]

10. Is It Just Me...?

I remember when Christians WANTED separation of church and state. It made them uneasy to mix the government and their choice of whom and whether to worship. It was none of the government's business; thus, stay out of it.

I also remember when Republicans weren't so keen on the idea of the government being able to tap their phones without a warrant, or to get a list of all the books they've ever checked out of the library. That was none of the government's business, and they wanted them to keep out of it.

I know Republicans who owned enough guns and ammunition to start a small war, saying that they wanted their guns in case some day the government started rounding people up, secretly locking people away in prisons never to be heard from again. They wanted their guns in case the government ever became dangerously corrupt -- they wanted to be able to protect themselves. The government HAS become dangerously corrupt, but these gun-toting Republicans don't see any problem with it.

The world is upside down.

[ithacan]

11. the fundies used to be very apolitical

until the 1970s-80s especially. There's a great history of this on the Theocracy Watch website:

http://www.theocracywatch.org/taking_over.htm

Taking Over the Republican Party

1964 was the year Barry Goldwater lost his bid for President on the Republican ticket. Thirty years later Goldwater said:

"Our problem is with ... the religious extremists ... who want to destroy everybody who doesn't agree with them. I see them as betrayers of the fundamental principles of conservatism. A lot of so-called conservatives today don't know what the word means."

What happened between 1964 and 1994?

We're going to begin with a group of strategists who worked on Goldwater's campaign. They were worried that the base of the Republican Party was too narrow, so they set out to expand it. They called themselves the New Right. Goldwater was not part of the New Right.

One member of the New Right, Republican Strategist Paul Weyrich, founded the Heritage Foundation in 1973 -- a think tank to promote the ideas of the New Right. In 1979 Weyrich coined the term "Moral Majority" in order to politicize members of fundamentalist, Pentecostal and charismatic churches - a constituency that had been basically apolitical.

<snip>

1980 -- A Watershed Year

Paul Weyrich, speaking in Dallas in 1980, captured the spirit of this new movement. He said,

"We are talking about Christianizing America. We are talking about simply spreading the gospel in a political context."

Jerry Falwell was invited to lead the Moral Majority. Falwell's motto was: "get them saved, get them Baptized, and get them registered."

Thousands of fundamentalist preachers participated in political training seminars that year, and by June, more than two million voters had been registered Republican. Their goal was to register 5 million by November. In the 1980 elections, the newly politicized Religious Right succeeded in unseating five of the most liberal Democrat incumbents in the U.S. Senate, and, according to political analysts, provided the margin that helped Ronald Reagan defeat Jimmy Carter. The year 1980 was the year that a sleeping giant was awaken, and the political landscape of the United States was dramatically altered.
<much more>

(on edit added more info)