Stabler writes about the Great Contrarian's style of evangelizing for America's very own Party of God.
There are obviously better camouflaged inconsistencies than our boy's little dust up with the man upstairs. Sure, he makes endless desultory appearances and "debates;" to let us know that popular thinking on justice was not all it could have been 2000 years ago and that Noah's Ark was almost certainly a myth. This doesn't, however, feel like penance from a guy who has aided and abetted Theocracy in the U.S. in every way within his power in the last ten years.
Yes, some of this was just stupidity. Hitchens will often tell you that he has no interest in what an effective opponent has to say, or he has at least said so in the case of Al Gore and Alex Cockburn (the nuttiest morsels in the right wing fruit cake he seems to have endless time for); no such selective listening was used in the writing of Kevin Phillips's excellent "American Theocracy." The book pretty much nailed what led to Bush's born-again White House, puts it in historical context and rightfully predicted the disaster that was already starting to occur when it came out.
As for Hitchens on these matters, well, the unavoidable term is indeed stupid. Just as he promised to laugh in our faces if we brought up the Military Industrial Complex, Hitchens got very specific telling his readers that not only was the Bush White House intellectually formidable, there was no reason to worry about them where religion was concerned. He found that they really didn't go to church that much, from his experience. Hitchens even channeled literary icon Alfred E. Newman when it came to the appointment of Bible thumping John Ashcroft: "Well, every President is allowed one bad appointment." (What, me Worry?)
This all came crashing down when it came to light that the third most powerful person in the Department of Justice was born again bumpkin Monica Goodling, who had to cut a deal by testifying (in very limited terms) about the political AND religious basis She was using to hire and fire people, an obvious illegality. Bush's main man Gozales eventually had to go, but not before had served his Born Again President well.
Hitchens has never said a word about any of this. the Evangelical influence in Bush's White House received a whopping pass from The Media. Hitchens followed the crowd on Terry Shivo as well. It was the one time Hitchens criticized the White House; but also the the one time the Bible thumpers clearly overreached, Bush's attempt to intervene was unpopular with a public still giving Bush every benefit of the doubt after 9-11. But it only strengthened Bush's popularity with the flock; and it is quite possible this is all the man cared about anyway.
So while Hitchens is very occasionally rude to one of their icons when they die or have been disgraced, he leaves the live and thriving targets alone. The Republican Party is now, more than ever, a prop for the kingmakers and power brokers of the religious right, people quite blunt in there advocacy for Christianity as the State Religion of North America.
As you listen to Hitchens blather on about the story of Isaac and Abraham, it should not be forgotten that this is the Party Hitchens worked in an only slightly shifty way to empower.
“The enemies of intolerance cannot be tolerant." • "If it is an offense to justice to hold people who may have been victims of mistaken identity or of vendettas by other factions, then it is also an offense to justice to release psychopathic killers who believe that they have divine permission to throw acid in the faces of girls who want to attend school." • "Don't be such a lesbian!
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