October 23, 2013
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The culture of fundamentalist Christianity has had profound impacts on the Republican party in the past few decades, moving Republicans to the right on various issues and forcing Republicans to prioritize gay-bashing and attacks on reproductive rights. The shutdown, however, ended up demonstrating something even more sinister. Republicans are no longer just cribbing their political ideology from fundamentalist Christianity. Increasingly, conservative politicians are abandoning the basic task of representing the interests of their voters and instead are exploiting their voters in the same way televangelists and other fundamentalist charlatans exploit the true believers that come to them looking for spiritual salvation.
Ted Cruz is the most prominent example, at least in the past month. After the shutdown debacle, it became clear that Cruz has no interest in using his position as a Texas senator to work on behalf of the voters who got him there. Instead, his M.O. is pure sleazy televangelist: Lots of public grandstanding to convince his marks, previously known as constituents, that he’s on their side, for the sole purpose of shaking them down for money and support without offering anything in return.
The Houston Chronicle lamented ever endorsing Cruz, comparing him unfavorably to his predecessor Kay Baily Hutchinson. Hutchinson actually bothered to represent her voters, putting a priority on the state’s economic development. Cruz is as different from Hutchinson as a miracle-promising conman taking old ladies for their Social Security checks is from the local minister who actually bothers to do the unglamorous work of holding hands, wiping tears and performing weddings and funerals for parishioners. Being an actual working politician is boring. Cruz is a new breed of conservative politician who is forsaking even the semblance of governance for mugging for the camera and then cashing some more checks.
That Cruz resembles a faith healer selling lies to gullible people more than a politician working to represent the interests of his voters shouldn’t be too surprising. His family is wrapped up with some of the worst of the worst when it comes to sleazy preachers seeking to exploit vulnerable people. Cruz’s father is a member of Purifying Fire Ministries, founded by Suzanne Hinn, the wife of one of the nation’s most despicable fundamentalist conmen, Benny Hinn. Hinn is a minister only in the loosest sense of the word: He goes about the world conducting fake faith-healing “miracles” that make him a lot of money, but he doesn’t actually provide any services real people need. It’s all just magic tricks to con the rubes out of their hard-earned money.
Of course, Cruz is far from the only politician who apparently models his career off fraudulent fundamentalist preachers who love self-aggrandizing drama but don’t care too much about, well, caring for their people. The all-flash-no-substance model is beginning to take over the Republican party. While Sarah Palin may be wedged by party leaders out of having any position of power anymore, her run as a celebrity-politician signaled a new era of leaders who are far more interested in grandstanding dramatics than they could ever be in doing the hard work of governing. It’s not just that Palin is a camera hog who has tried repeatedly to even get into the reality show business. She notoriously quit her actual job as governor to focus full time on her “job” of being a rabble rouser.
Michele Bachmann loves praising Jesus in front of the camera, but ended up deciding not to run for re-election when the spotlight was put on her campaign’s possible corruption. Rand Paul paints himself as a filibustering hero taking on worldwide evil, but the reality is that his crusades are all dramatics without much substance. Republicans love to accuse Obama of being an empty suit, but the Republican bench is where you have to go to see politicians living the life of arena-packing fundamentalist charlatans, who talk a big game but aren’t interested in delivering real services to their followers. The entire House of Republicans is quickly becoming notorious for being a bunch of do-nothings who love preening for the cameras but can’t be bothered to govern.
Source: Alternet