Important, from this piece on Democracy Now:

MICHELLE GOLDBERG: Well, one of the—I don’t know why this hasn’t gotten more attention. So when she was at Oral Roberts University, which is, you know, kind of a charismatic Pentecostal school in Oklahoma, she was a research assistant to a guy named John Eidsmoe, who she still cites as a major influence on her. John Eidsmoe is—often people on the Christian right are kind of called theocratic. But he is unquestionably a theocrat. He wrote a book that she worked on called Christianity and the Constitution, which argued that the United States was founded to be a Christian theocracy and that it should become one again. He, John Eidsmoe, is an interesting figure. He’s someone who has been asked not to speak at Tea Party—who has been—has had invitations to speak at Tea Party rallies rescinded because of his ties to white supremacist groups and history of advocating for Southern secession.

Tea Party drops speaker for alleged ties to white supremacists

Bachmann: “One of the professors who had a great influence on me.”

To repeat something: “Freedom” from the mouth of someone like Michelle Bachmann is code for “freedom to believe anything” and the freedom to impose that belief on other people. This belief is ordained by God, so really this should be no imposition at all. The “Constitution” and the Bible are inseparable – the fetishization of the Constitution is a way to talk about the Bible without mentioning it directly. She believes the constitution is a religious document, and so long as we’re not a Christian nation, we are being “unconstitutional.” So when she says, “I want judges who follow the constitution” she’s actually advocating theocracy. What’s crazy is that interpretation of Bachmann is not that crazy.

Anyone who wants to see Bachmann get the nomination because she’d be entertaining or easy to beat should really think again. Mainstreaming this kind of crazy is dangerous because people quickly build up a tolerance. See: the rise of Michelle Bachmann because she’s “smarter” than Sarah Palin. She’s not, she’s identical: and arguably worse because she’s better able to articulate her ideas, which people mistake for intelligence. Once Bachmann is accepted as a mainstream politician, it opens the door for a rabid theocrat in the future who maybe doesn’t make as many gaffes as Bachmann and who appeals to people across party lines. Imagine a candidate with the zealotry of Bachmann and the speech-making chops of Obama. Now think about making her brand of lunacy a normal part of mainstream politics.

We Need a Christian Dictator

(via Dangerous Minds)

Like Liberal Fascism, American Taliban is another entry in the tired genre of “my political opponents are monsters.” Indeed, Moulitsas begins the book with the Goldbergian declaration that “in their tactics and on the issues, our homegrown American Taliban are almost indistinguishable from the Afghan Taliban.” And he fills the remaining 200-plus pages with similar accusations. In the chapter on power, Moulitsas writes that “the American Taliban seek a tyranny of the believers in which the popular will, the laws of the land, and all of secular society are surrendered to their clerics and ideologues.” Which is, of course, why these American Taliban participate in the democratic system and hew to the outcomes of elections. Later in the chapter, Moulitsas argues that the right-wing hates democracy — they “openly dream of their own regressive brand of religious dictatorship” — loves war, fears sex, and openly despises women and gays. In the chapter on “war,” Moulitsas calls Rep. Michelle Bachmann of Minnesota a “high priestess of the American Taliban” — a veritable Mullah Omar, it seems! — and in the final chapter on “truth,” Moulitsas concludes by noting the foundational “kinship” between the two Talibans.

This is a fair point:

But, this gets to the huge, glaring problem with American Taliban; ultimately, any similarities are vastly outweighed by incredibly important distinctions and vast differences of degree. I’m no fan of the right wing, but the only possible way it can be “indistinguishable” from the Taliban is if conservatives are stoning women for adultery, stalking elementary schools to throw acid in girls’ faces, and generally enforcing fundamentalist religious law with torture and wanton violence. The chapter on women becomes a joke when you realize that Moulitsas can’t distinguish between the odiousness of right-wing sexism and the vicious amorality of permanently disfiguring “immodest” women. Likewise, there are magnitudes of difference between executing gays (the Taliban) and opposing a hate-crimes bill (Republicans).

But it’s called American Taliban – as in the American version of the Taliban. That’s it’s not as egregiously awful as the literal Taliban diminishes the awfulness of the American far right. Just because something’s “not as bad as” doesn’t make it excusable, or even less problematic. There’s a good argument that America is the major player on the world stage, so what happens in our country has much larger implications worldwide – in a sense amping up the effects of the American Taliban’s rhetoric.  Words are dangerous – not as literally as stoning someone to death, but still far-reaching.  If you look at the Islamic center debate, this has reverberations worldwide – which have yet to be fully assessed.

It has to also be mentioned that IF the far-far right got into power (i.e. Michelle Bachmann became president) who knows what sort of society we’d be living in. So while the Taliban actually has power to enact arcane laws, the American uber-right does not have that position yet – but you can bet they desire to enact draconian legislation taken from their corrupt view of the Bible.  These people desire the Rapture, which has the potential to be a hell of a lot more dangerous than what is done by Muslim fanatics.  That this hasn’t happened yet isn’t reason to not call them out on what they’re capable.  Better now than after the fact.

“‘We are determined to live free or not at all. And we are resolved that posterity shall never reproach us with having brought slaves into the world,’” Bachmann read from founding father John Jay , ending her reading with the statement, “We will talk a little bit about what has transpired in the last 18 months and would we count what has transpired into turning our country into a nation of slaves.”

She reiterated her concern more forcefully toward the end of the program.

“I think this describes so well where we are right now,” Bachmann said before reading an excerpt from C.S. Lewis: “‘Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of it victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under a robber baron than under omnipotent moral busybodies… .’”

Wait, what?  Moral busybodies?  The woman who said we will be cursed by God if we don’t support Israel or that gay marriage is a plague (etc. etc.)?

Meanwhile, one of the “professors” at Glenn Beck’s new college supports slavery:

God’s laws concerning slavery provided parameters for treatment of slaves, which were for the benefit of all involved. God desires all men and nations to be liberated. This begins internally and will be manifested externally to the extent internal change occurs. The Biblical slave laws reflect God’s redemptive desire, for men and nations….

“Since unbelievers are by nature slaves, they could be held as life-long slaves” 1 without piercing the ear to indicate their voluntary servitude (Lev. 25:44-46). This passage in Leviticus says that pagans could be permanent slaves and could be bequeathed to the children of the Hebrews.”

So to recap – Obama is turning us into a nation of slaves (through a normal rate of taxation).  But this is happening because we’re all Christian non-believers.  So slavery is good because it gives people the ability to repent and become Christians.

Therefore: taxes are Christian.  Which is true, but not the reason that Christianists might think. Romans13:1-7:

Pay your taxes, too, for these same reasons. For government workers need to be paid so they can keep on doing the work God intended them to do. Give to everyone what you owe them: Pay your taxes and import duties, and give respect and honor to all to whom it is due.

That Jesus was a liberal is an old story.

Do Beck and his radical like-minded followers want to fundamentally transform America into a Christian theocracy? Does the “American Revival” tour have as its core purposes the weakening or elimination of the separation of church and state and the indoctrination of Americans, including school children, with Beck’s fascist religious views? Beck decries the so-called revolutionary radicals in the Obama administration – yet it appears he may be the one who wants to radically alter the Constitution. The irony of complaining about oppressive, big-government-loving progressives while touting a plan to re-write history and reform America as a religious state like Iran or Saudi Arabia is apparently lost on him. It also tends to undercut his argument that it’s the progressives who want to replace God and tell people how to live. While the change in focus to a more overtly religious message may have helped Beck hit the sweet spot for his audience, it does appear to be taking him somewhat off track dogmatically. Glenn Beck definitely wants you to know he is more patriotic than thou. He appears to be unclear, however, on whether he is a scholarly political pundit or a divinely-inspired televangelist.

It’s called Revival for a reason.  Fortunately, his ratings are going down, not up.