The resemblance is uncanny…

WARNING: DON’T READ THIS EXCERPT FROM A NEWT GINGRICH CAMPAIGN MEMO WHILE EATING. IT IS DISGUSTING.

Why a government shutdown is great for us and bad for the GOP.

There is a meme out there in the radical Republican Party about Shariah (Islamic law based on the Qur’an and other works) being imposed here in the United States. It has so much acceptance that a supposed 2012 Republican Presidential candidate, Newt Gingrich, could call for a Federal law banning it, at the Value Voters summit in Washington and get a standing ovation. To say that this kind of crazy gets right up my nose is an understatement on the level of saying the razing of Carthage was a minor property dispute.

It is hard to know where to start in on the stupid on this issue, but let’s begin on a point near and dear to my heart, the Constitution. The First Amendment makes it clear when it says:

Congress shall make no law respecting the establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof.

That means all religions, not just one. There is also the Article VI, Clause 2, the Supremacy Clause which makes the Constitution, Federal Laws and Treaties the supreme law of the land. No other law can supersede these laws, whether they be religious laws or State laws.

This whole “their going to try to impose Shariah!!” hysteria is just that, fear mongering to whip up the base of the increasingly insane Republican Party. What is particularly galling about all of this is the level of unselfconscious hypocrisy that goes along with these fears of religious law being established in the United States.

We live in the wealthiest most privileged nation on the planet. One would think that out of our abundance a spirit of generosity would erupt and roll like a ever flowing stream. On the contrary, if these polls have any validity it appears we have become a country of fearful, shriveled, stingy, mean people.

Tuesday, September 14th, 2010. Boehner comes to Bush Tax Cut compromise, Gingrich done got crazier, and a record Saudi arms deal.

The media’s legitimization of fringe lunatic Terry Jones last week, the man with a history of actions only people sympathetic to the Westboro Baptist Church would support, had one effect that Democrats can be thankful for: it pushed aside talk of an “enthusiasm gap” between the Republican base and the Democratic base, which many think will produce big wins for the GOP in November. At least, that’s the conventional wisdom or meme the media is promoting.

Times columnist Tom Friedman watched the movie Invictus and writes that he wishes Iraq’s leaders would emulate Nelson Mandela’s “we have to surprise them,” by displaying religious/ethnic tolerance and magnanimous statesmanship in Iraq, because, I guess, Suck. On. This diplomacy is, uh, not helpful.

Fox News finally made it official. They are part and parcel of the Republican Party. They are now the largest donors to the Republican Governors Association, having given them $1 million dollars. They also employ three out of the top four Republicans in the Iowa Caucus Poll for GOP presidential candidates.

The hysteria surrounding the “Ground Zero Mosque” that really cannot be seen from Ground Zero has nothing to do with some impending Islamic fundamentalist quest to impose Sharia Law in America. It has everything to do with a toxic patriotism fueled by evangelical political activism in this country.