Wooly Mammon Did you happen to notice the picture in the papers the other day, the one taken of President Bush holding hands with the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia? It is quite possible that your mind went into automatic defense mode and blocked it out, which would be understandable. After all, Saudi Arabia is a source of an awful lot of terrorism. Saudis tend to take our cash from oil revenues and distribute it to people who want to kill us all, whether it is the government or wealthy citizens who are cutting the checks. You already know how many of the 9/11 hijackers came from Saudi Arabia. Yet they remain notably absent from our State Department's list of states that sponsor terror. Cuba, they say, poses a greater threat to us. Cuba. Why Iraq was invaded, then, instead of an island 90 miles away from the Florida Keys, remains one of those great unsolved mysteries of politics, and now so does the question of why Bush has to hold the Crown Prince's hand. It's not something ever before seen from a sitting president. Even huggable old Bill Clinton, weaned on the Beatles, wasn't a hand-holder. What gives? The answer is plain-spoken: Republicans. I normally eschew simplification in such serious matters, for it is seldom helpful. When one stubs one's toe on a chunk of gold, though, there is little need for meticulous panning in the stream of consciousness. It's quite obvious, even to the absent-minded: Over the past few years, the Republican Party has taken on the same odor and appearance of Statist Islam. Now, don't get insulted. I am not implicating any individual conservatives or Muslims. That wouldn't be fair, although conservatives could be held more accountable (based on their right to vote) than their Muslim brethren, who are by and larged oppressed by governments abroad. The similarities between Islamic regimes and the federal government of the United States are undeniable. How are they alike? Let's count the ways. First, understand that this is a to-scale comparison. Thanks to the Founding Fathers, Americans have always been shielded from the plight that afflicts so many theocracies in the world today. This is not to say that modern conservatism is equal to despotic tyrannies like Saudi Arabia, Libya, Syria, Iran or anyplace else. The conservative comparisons I'm about to make are just that; fledgling predilections, not tantamount behaviors. Both entities have the ability to tap deep reserves of oil-based cash. Middle Eastern governments pump it out of the ground. Republicans pump it out of lobbyists for the energy industry. There's nothing to argue about on that point. One somewhat harmless example is that both the GOP and Statist Islam seem to prefer nepotism and cronyism; this stems from the lack of a viable political opposition. In Statist Islam, it is overt - that's what monarchies do. In America, look no further than Tom DeLay, the embattled Republican House Majority Leader, who has feathered his own nest by paying his wife and daughter over half a million dollars to work on his campaigns since 2001. Lately, ruling conservatives list toward a Holy Book more than toward our Constitution, a document for which many citizens (better men and women than we may ever be) fought and died over the terms of 43 presidents. The Republicans want the Ten Commandments to be in our courthouses, and judges who will tolerate such. In Statist Islam, citizens are governed - to differing degrees of severity - by Sharia, Koranic law that makes many of their decisions for them. Many of Statist Islam's governing factions have little or no regard for civil rights. The Republican Party has been on the warpath against our civil rights, ironically enough as a response to an attack from radical Islamic terrorists. Statist Islam sees women as non-persons, things to be used for breeding purposes. In America, the Right Wing seeks more and more ways to regulate women's reproductive processes through law, making breeding mandatory in any way they can. Another common trait among these two groups is their propensity for official violence. Republicans staunchly favor execution of criminals. So does Statist Islam. It gets worse: Statist Islam uses torture as a means of achieving justice. Republicans use Statist Islam's bloodthirst for achieving justice, exporting "suspected terrorists" (who are seldom charged with violating the law) to places like Syria for the kind of interrogation that we just can't provide in America. The difference between them is the Republican cloak of hypocrisy. Statist Islam doesn't pretend to be fair and good. They openly pillage the wealth of their people, and publicly step on their necks, to say the least. They brandish religion as a sword, not some hidden dagger. In either case, I cannot accept that their actions or intentions are motivated by any God. Theirs is not spiritual behavior. Before his first election, George W. Bush was asked to name his favorite philosopher. Shrewd poll-reader that he is, he quickly tabbed Jesus Christ. Yet while Christ told us in God's voice to turn the other cheek, Bush chose the path of unprovoked war. Whereas Christ didn't have much use for the money-lenders, Bush has driven our nation into unmapped debt. The agenda is not religion; we're living an ideological nightmare. That's why the Republican Party of 2005 is closer to Statist Islam than anything else, and Statist Islam isn't doing the work of Allah, either. Like Bush and the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, they go hand in hand. It's all about the mammon, and it's all at the people's expense. Paul Heller 04/29/05 << back to the archives
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