So the Religious Right Is Destroying the GOP...

Wow. Just wow. Ex-Christian-fundamentalist (or "Christianist") Frank Schaeffer explained so well last weekend on D.L. Hughley where we're at.



Now let me do my best to follow up.

As we saw last week when President Obama reversed the Bush Era restrictions on stem cell research, the religious right has yelled and screamed itself into a corner. While America hasn't fully recovered yet from "the culture wars", we as a society are quickly moving in that direction. We Americans are more willing to accept science, not reject it. We're becoming more accepting of LGBT people, not less. We're becoming more willing to let women make their own health care decisions, not less. Yet somehow, the Republican Party seems stuck in this early 1980s "Moral Majority" mentality. Why?

Basically, they've become captive to their drones. They promised the religious right that abortion would be recriminalized, queer people would be thrown in jail, and everyone (not arrested for being "degenerate heathens") would magically accept Jesus as their true lord and savior. And now, the religious right wants those promises fulfilled. And as much as their President Dumbya Bush tried, it wasn't enough.

However, there's a problem now. The radical right ideology has failed. Republicans are out of power. And as I mentioned earlier, Americans are getting increasingly sick and tired of the same old "everything will magically get better if we just bash teh gayz & crush teh abortionists & kill off teh feminazis!" song and dance routine.

The Republican Party is defeated. The religious right is irrelevant. So really, why are we still afraid of them?

Why is DOMA still preventing LGBT couples from accessing any basic rights and benefits on the federal level? Why are LGBT solidiers still being expelled from the military under DADT? Why is there still debate over letting women make their own health decisions? And why haven't we already guaranteed women the same equal rights we give to men? Here's a news flash: The culture wars are ending, and we are winning.

So as Congress soon considers legislation to end legalized discrimination, expand women's rights, and overall extend the promise of civil rights for more people, our Democratic leaders need to stop being afraid and start doing the right thing. Same goes for President Obama as he may soon be faced with a decision to actively support these bills. Let the religious right destroy the GOP. They're a shrinking minority. We somehow managed to win the last two elections for them. And as long as they keep their promises to us, we can do the same for them again in 2010 and 2012.