THE WORST PERSON IN THE WORLD
(apologies to Keith Olbermann)
Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL)
In an interview today with David Brody of the Christian Broadcasting Network, Sen. Marco Rubio said that the Supreme Court’s rulings on marriage equality and abortion rights in the Obergefell and Roe decisions, respectively, are “not settled law.”…. The Republican presidential candidate said that states should “do everything possible within the constraints that its placed upon us” to curtail abortion rights, before insisting that government officials “ignore” Supreme Court rulings if they believe they conflict with “God’s rules.”…. “We are clearly called, in the Bible, to adhere to our civil authorities, but that conflicts with also a requirement to adhere to God’s rules,” he said. “When those two come in conflict, God’s rules always win. In essence, if we are ever ordered by a government authority to personally violate and sin, violate God’s law and sin, if we’re ordered to stop preaching the gospel, if we’re ordered to perform a same-sex marriage as someone presiding over it, we are called to ignore that. We cannot abide by that because government is compelling us to sin.”
Expressions of faith and piety have, for good or ill (mostly ill), long been de riguer for politicians- especially those on the Far Right- in this country. When you consider that (the Constitution be damned), it’s illegal in several states for an atheist to hold elected office AND that roughly 75% of Americans self-identify as Christian, appeals to the faithful are simply good marketing.
The real demagoguery comes in when candidates- usually (but not exclusively) Republican- decide to ignore the separation of Church and State because it’s inconvenient to their quest for power. Rubio, whose predilection for Taliban-like, “kill-‘em-and-grill-‘em” Christianity seems to grow as his Presidential prospects diminish, is a chameleon who will be every bit as pious and hyper-Christian as he needs to be in order to convince the Rabid Religious Right that he’s, if not one of them, then certainly sympathetic to their cause.
Rubio’s smart enough to understand that “adhering to God’s laws” is merely a dog whistle to those who believe that their God by rights should be everyone’s government. “Adhering to God’s laws” is code for theocrats who fear the “tyranny” they accuse President Obama of subjecting them to, but have no problem with forcibly creating a government that enforced the tyranny of their preference. To these folks- I call them the “American Taliban” for a reason- religious freedom isn’t about stopping persecution and protecting the right of all American to believe and worship as they see fit. It’s about being the ones with the power to deliver religious persecution.
Remember, if WE do it, it’s religious freedom. If YOU do it, it’s the worst form of anti-Christian religious persecution imaginable.
Rubio is truly representative of the American Taliban only insofar as he needs their votes in order to achieve his goal of sitting behind the big desk in the Oval Office. He particularly needs their support in order to survive the GOP primaries. While he’d lean on them in the general election, his priorities would default back to the oligarchs bankrolling his campaign.
Once again, it’s just another iteration of a Republican working hard to convince the American Sheeple to vote against their own interests. As Samuel Johnson once said, “Religion is the last refuge of a scoundrel,” which at the very least is an apt description of Rubio- a scoundrel using religion to buttress his lust for power.
When winning is all you care about…you’re probably talking about Marco Rubio.
