By Judith Gayle | Political Waves
“Teach only love, for that is what you are.”
—A Course In Miracles
So, a guy walks out on the President of the United States as he makes his yearly report on the condition of our struggling union. No, there’s no punch line, no rabbi, hooker or traveling salesman to lighten this up. Unlike Rep. Joe Wilson who yelled, “You lie!” during Obama’s healthcare speech, or Justice Sam Alito who repeatedly mouthed the words, “Not true!” at the 2010 State of the Union address, Rep. Steve Stockman just got up and left the hall. He defended this rudeness by saying he objected to Obama declaring that he would break Constitutional law by using his executive power [sic.]
Stockman, a Texas Bagger, also enthusiastically voted in this week’s Farm Bill to cut 8.7 billion dollars worth of food stamp assistance to 16 states, 15 of which skew decidedly blue. I suspect he’s proud of his actions, proving his disdain for all things Dem (and free-loading) while schooling his constituents in how to tell it like it is, or at least how it is in his particular — and particularly narrow — philosophy. Ayn Rand would be proud. The historical Jesus of Nazareth, less so.
The distinction appears to be lost on Stockman and his ilk, which invariably puzzles me. These people — the ones my son refers to as “thumpers” — talk a really good Jesus game, although they apparently didn’t read any of the rules on the inside cover of the box. And it isn’t that they miss the point of Christianity so completely that baffles me. Nothing about the ruthlessness of posturing politicians surprises me. It’s that their followers refuse to see them — or themselves — as others see them, even on the most glaringly mean-spirited of their days.