Reply #6: Phelps Serves As A Shining Example [View All]

[Vogon_Glory]

I am cynical enough to hope that Phelps and Co. create quite an impression in Blue State territory. Fred Phelps and his flock serve as a shining example of the sort of political thought so very closely associated with the Religious Right--self-righteousness, obsession with others' sexuality, bigotry--that at least some of his outrages will splatter on both Religious Right Republicans as well as other Republicans that coddle them.

During the Vietnam era, right-wingers were quick to draw lines connecting the New Left and left-liberals in the Democratic Party, using similarities of rhetoric, dress, and political positions. These days the ties between the likes of Fred Phelps and the Religious Right faction are stronger than the ties between left-wing Democrats and Marxist New Leftists ever were, and even more noticable to those without a Faux News filter or a Bush White House spin artiste frantically trying to run interference.

Outraged bystanders seeing Phelp's posters can't help but think of similarities between Phelps and religious evangelicals attempting to link the republic's problems to the public's failure to turn into docile, obedient sheeple.