Mitt
Romney Ad: Obama Has Declared A War On Religion
The Huffington Post |
By Luke Johnson Posted: 08/09/2012
8:41 am Updated: 08/09/2012 10:23 am
“A new
Mitt Romney ad released Thursday accuses President Barack Obama of waging a
"war on religion." The ad, along with recent attacks on Obama's welfare
policy, signals a move away from attacking the president's handling
of the economy.
"President Obama used his
health care plan to declare war on religion, forcing religious institutions to
go against their faith," says a narrator in the ad. "Mitt Romney
believes that’s wrong."
“Romney is referring to an Obama
administration decision to mandate that religiously-affiliated employers -- but
not religious institutions themselves -- cover the cost of contraception in
their health care plans at no charge to the employee. The administration
tweaked the mandate to allow employers with moral or ethical objections to
request that the insurer cover the extra costs of the coverage.
“Romney's
invocation of a "war on religion" recalls an infamous Rick Perry ad that attacked Obama for the same, though on different
culture-war grounds.
“The latest ad then cuts to Romney
praising Pope John Paul II, who helped end officially atheist communism in
Poland.”[I]n 1979, a son of Poland, Pope John Paul II, spoke words that would
bring down an empire. 'Be not afraid,'" says Romney, speaking from a
recent trip to Poland.
“Drawing
a comparison between what it portrays as the repressive Polish communist regime
and a preventative health care mandate, the narrator says, "When religious
freedom is threatened, who do you want to stand with?"
Cassi
Creek: Once again, the Romney campaign
opts for lies, mis-information, and a direct return to those pre-enlightenment values that preceded the American and French
Revolutions. Those were thrilling days in the history of America, when women
had no vote and no value other than as breeding stock. Death during childbirth was common, public
health was unknown. Religious
affiliation carried from Europe was often the source of physical conflict
between Catholics and Protestants. Both
camps were willing to beat up any polygamous Mormons who happened along.
Romney’s campaign is dredging up the
fictitious “war on Christianity, taking great pains to link it to the “atheistic
communism.” He finds cause to praise
Poland as a beacon of religious freedom while entirely avoiding any mention of
Poland’s willing and eager participation in the murder of 6 million Jews in the
Polish death camps during the Holocaust.
Also overlooked, the membership of the current Pope in the Hitler Youth.
It appears that his staff has yet to
tell him that the “Solidarity” movement he praised is, in fact, a labor union
and that it follows the European labor-socialist traditions. Watch for guarded retractions.
Romney seems eager to join the
teavangelists in their willingness to push the nation back to the 1950s. Somehow, the teavangelists seem to believe
that mandatory recitation of a protestant prayer by all students will magically
end illiteracy, restore order to the schools, and eliminate all crime. If the current crop of fundamentalist
evangelical demagogues have their way, birth control will become history. Church attendance will become obligatory, and
the American Taliban will become local leaders.
This nation has allowed churches to dictate and exercise power for far
too long.
Romney’s political ad claiming that
Obama is waging a war on religion is patently false. However, it is time to draw the lines between
science and non-revisionist history and mythology. Like the old union song, “Which side are you
on?”
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