Wildmon is simply freaking!

Donald Wildmon, patriarch of the American "Family" Association, is really really upset that McCain/Palin are flailin' in the polls, you betcha, and he's sent out one of the AFA's typically histrionic "Action Alert" e-mails in the hopes of rallying the Hate+Fear Brigade to save America from the scary libruls.

After the usual whining, blaming the ascent of Obama to obviously slanted reportage from the "liberal media" — as if they were the ones responsible for Palin's inability to answer a direct question from a journalist with anything resembling a coherent sentence or displaying even passing knowledge of the topic at hand; as if they were the ones responsible for ramping up the hate rhetoric at recent McCain/Palin rallies, prompting those stalwart supporters of the far right to shout things like "Kill him [Obama, that is]!" within earshot of TV crews; as if they were the ones responsible for McCain's failing to articulate any kind of platform to support the idea that his administration would be anything more than a continuance of the neocon string of disasters that Bush is leaving behind — Wildmon goes into full-on "end of days" Armageddon mode.

If the liberals win the upcoming election, America as we have known it will no longer exist. This country that we love, founded on Judeo-Christian values, will cease to exist and will be replaced by a secular state hostile to Christianity. This “city set on a hill” which our forefathers founded, will go dark. The damage will be deep and long lasting. It cannot be turned around in the next election, or the one after that, or by any election in the future. The damage will be permanent. That is why it is so important for you to vote and to encourage friends and family to vote. This is one election where your vote really counts.

Slippery slope much, Don? Well, this is all grist for the mill, after all. Getting people worked up into a lather of fear is fundamentalism's stock in trade, and it's a rhetorical tactic understood by many an ideological zealot in the political realm since time immemorial. Such as...

Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

No, I'm not Godwinning by bringing up Goering's famous remarks about war. I'm merely pointing out that Wildmon's principle here is the same. "We're being attacked! [by evil secular libruls who want to take our Bibles away] Vote now, or we'll be exposed to danger!" An appeal to fear, with no basis in reality, in order to get his followers to vote his way.

So yes, everyone should vote, and do it early. Because what Wildmon means when he talks about the "Christianity" he says is threatened is his own, particular brand of homophobic, xenophobic, anti-science, anti-progress, anti-equality arch-fundamentalism. It doesn't even include liberal Christians, those millions of believers who don't think that "get the fags!" was part of Jesus's message. To Wildmon, those kinds of Christians doubtless hold pride of place on his "Not True Christians™" list.

So vote, all you secular liberals! And won't Wildmon be surprised when, in a liberal secular America, religious freedom is allowed to flourish? Sure, there will be some things you aren't allowed to do. Such as use the government to promote your beliefs over others, or to impose your beliefs as "alternative theories" in science classrooms. But prohibitions like that are all in keeping with supporting religious freedom. After all, if you make Christian prayer mandatory in public schools again, what does that mean for all those non-Christian students? The Jews, Hindus, Muslims, atheists, Wiccans and otherwise? (The typical AFA answer to that question, I suspect, would be "Screw 'em, they're going to hell anyway," which is not exactly productive. But dealing with fundie ideologues rarely is.)

Anyway, those are examples of conditions our Constitution already covers. That's another difference between secular liberals and fundie neocons. We respect the Constitution, while they only ever treat it like a list of technicalities to be gotten around.

America as Wildmon thinks he has known it — a thoroughly fascistic, totalitarian Christian theocracy — has never existed. And though the neocons have been doing all they can to bring it about over the last eight years, a vote for the sane ticket — the one Wildmon fears to the core of his pitiful, benighted little black heart — will ensure that America remains the country it was in truth founded to be.

So vote! After all, we all want to read the despair-laden blatherings that will issue from Wildmon's pen on November 5, after Obama has won, don't we?