Politics and hypocrisy on the campaign trail

(CBS News) 

As the fireworks exploded over Myrtle Beach, South Carolina on Monday night, Fox News pundit Sean Hannity was trying to hear pollster Frank Luntz break down the GOP presidential debate that had just occurred. "It sounds like Fort Sumter out there," Luntz said.

Luntz's remark had more truth to it than he realized. Earlier in the evening, Texas governor Rick Perry said that the state of South Carolina was "at war against the federal government" over voter ID law and the free practice of religion. The South Carolina crowd loved it. When the camera panned to South Carolina governor Nikki Haley seated in the audience she was cheering. Perry's remark would have received the same level of applause if it had been uttered in 1861, the year that South Carolinians fired on Fort Sumter.

The bombing of Ft. Sumter began a Civil War in which hundreds of thousands of people were killed. It was a total war. Those who waged it showed very little regard for human life. Both the North and the South were to blame.

I would like to think that our commitment to the dignity of human life has deepened since the 1860s, but after watching Monday night's debate I am not so sure.

Nearly all the candidates on the stage in Myrtle Beach have claimed to be people of faith. Rick Perry is an evangelical Christian. Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich are Catholics. Mitt Romney is a Mormon. Ron Paul does not wear his faith on his sleeve, but he is a Baptist. All of these faith traditions believe that human beings are created in the image of God and thus have inherent dignity and worth.

During the debate, both Gingrich and Romney lauded their "pro-life" record. But anyone who listened carefully would have smelled hypocrisy.

When asked about whether he would have pursued and killed Osama Bin Laden, Ron Paul said that he would, but he did not see how this issue was relevant to the 2012 presidential election. Paul decried American war-mongering and said that if he were president he would do his best to keep the United States out of foreign wars. He then said that U.S. foreign policy should be based on the "golden rule"--do unto others as you would have them do unto you." He was booed for even making such a suggestion.

Sensing an opportunity, Newt Gingrich called Paul's remarks "utterly irrational." He then invoked former U.S. president Andrew Jackson, a South Carolina native: "Jackson had a pretty clear-cut idea about America's enemies: Kill them." The crowd went wild. As Fox News cameras flashed to the audience, television viewers could see South Carolina Republicans rise to their feet, fists-pumping, cheering on the Catholic presidential candidate with a supposedly impeccable "pro-life" record who just used the killing of another human being and a reference to one of the most ruthless military leaders in American history to score political points.

Not to be outdone by Gingrich's utter disrespect for human life, Mitt Romney, seeing the kind of support Gingrich's remark received from the bloodthirsty crowd, said, in regard to the Taliban and Al Queda, "these people declared war on us. They've killed Americans. We go anywhere they are, and we kill them." More applause: Kill 'em! Kill em!

I am not a pacifist. On rare occasions I believe war is appropriate in order to preserve peace and maintain justice. I believe that evil exists in the world and it must be confronted. I supported George W. Bush when he sent American troops to hunt down Osama. Yet the flippant way in which these GOP candidates disregarded human life on Monday night deeply disturbed me. I hope it might disturb any Christian. Life is sacred because it comes from God. These candidates should think twice before disrespecting God's highest form of creation in order to get applause lines and votes. Shame on them!

Bio: John Fea is the chair of the history department at Messiah College in Grantham, PA and the author of Was America Founded as a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction (Westminster/John Knox Press, 2011). The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.

[DanerMuhlig]

WHAT?? At a Thursday night Debate a man running for President of the USA was appalled and indignant because
he was questioned over his morals character? And then turned on the crowd, in essence saying,
"We have all made mistakes like I have." NO!! NO!! NO!! We have NOT all COMMITTED
ADULTERY ON OUT 1ST WIFE AND THEN DIVORCED THEM!! We have NOT all then married our
Mistress and COMMITTED ADULTERY ON OUR 2ND WIFE MISTRESS!! We have NOT all then DIVORCED
OUR 2nd wife and then married the MISTRESS as our 3rd wife!!!! NO!! We are NOT all dirty Cheaters!!
We are NOT all ************!! And we are NOT all running for the highest office in the land!!

[myth1958]

John Fea has caught a moment from the 2012 campaign in a bottle, and it is filled with illumination about the rancid ethics these GOP boys wear proudly on their sleeves. "I would like to think that our commitment to the dignity of human life has deepened since the 1860s, but after watching Monday night's debate I am not so sure." Yes, these posturing politicians would fight to save an unattached egg floating in some guy's sperm - claiming that life begins right there during ejaculation. But let that egg attach, grow into a baby and launch itself from the womb and they are all over it with clubs if it differs from their viewpoint. Fea correctly calls it hypocrisy when santimonius people shout "I'm holier than thou!", yet demonstrate the opposite. These are the kind of guys Jesus Himself might have wanted to throw out of the Temple - and gotten bashed over the head by their clubs of contempt for someone daring to call them out.

[mswolfestock]

You so nailed it myth.

[krisinal]

Wherever radical, Islamic terrorism/fascism is, there is no freedom of religion.....no equal rights for women....no education for young girls....etc etc etc.

No tell me why we should not be killing these men?

[krisinal]

should read....Now tell me.

PS.... I would love to live the Golden Rule with the entire world. But unfortunately, from time to time, very evil men pop up and need to be defeated. As an example, who now would not have shot Hitler personally if they had the chance before 50 MILLION people died? Pol Pot? Stalin? etc etc

[bryblack13]

No GOP candidate can win without Ron Paul Supporters! PERIOD! Mitt said he would have 'Signed 2012 NDAA' as president. He just lost all Ron Paul Supporters. The second the GOP rejects Paul by not electing him as their nominee, the Libertarian Party will put in on the ballet in all 50 states. Dr. Paul doesn't even have to run as a 3rd party. He will be written in and we will vote Ron Paul! It's you choice GOP. Ron Paul or Obama!

[pjmauigirl]

Thank you for this article.

Ron Paul has a very moving statement of faith on his campaign website.

I have to admire a Christian that doesn't use his religion for political gain.

[pjmauigirl]

Thank you for this article.

Ron Paul has a very moving statement of faith on his campaign website.

I have to admire a Christian that doesn't use his religion for political gain.

[mollydtt]

I'm not surprised at all about the GOP'ers wanting to kill. Religion is responsible for most of the killing anyway.
I also blame our attention deficit population for wanting "thrill bytes" delivered by the media.
The "reality show" mentality of the GOP is aimed at voters that won't check facts or think too deeply about what they are hearing.

[chuck_e_g]

I guess you didn't read this guy's last two paragraphs, where he derails the article into a religous tirade.

[PhilipASC]

The problem is that they get away with it because the media loves the dynamics. Whatever happened to the vaunted fourth estate? In the past, reporters would reserve time for follow up questions to hold interviewees to task on what they say. Today, you can see that they are't even listening to the answer, so busy are they preening to the camera and warming up to deliver their next slick statement.

I blame the state of the Republican party 100% on the mass media. Yes, I know the internet and blogs and self-selected, biased sites don't help much, but the fact is that more people still watch network evening news shows and morning news shows, and read some form of local or regional nature than go online to narrow-casted websites. The media still matters...but it doesn't give a damn. (And, yes, I know: the question that also has to be asked is "Who owns the media?" The answer is also the explanation.)

[sailrick]

The most important issue humans have ever faced needs rational people to make decisions. None of these deniers are rational.
They are an anti science cult, who smugly spout off uninformed remarks on climate change, and openly display their willful ignorance.

You know the GOP has gone around the bend of extremism, when only candidates who don't believe in science are considered conservative enough to be President.

Every candidate, is a global warming denier. Nearly every GOP congressman is also in this non reality based camp.

Over 100 professional science organizations, of international and national standing, have issued statements as to the validity of AGW and that we must act immediately. This includes every national academy of science in the world. The U.S. National Academy of Science has issued four such statements.

The prestigious science journal, Nature, has openly criticized the GOP for it's anti science stance, especially on climate change.

Only two professional science organizations in the world deny the science of climate change. And these two are the only ones most Republican politicians agree with.

American Association of Petroleum Geologists

Canadian Associations of Petroleum Geologists

The GOP is bought and sold by the fossil fuel industry.

The only party in the world that rejects science of global warming.
The science free zone party.

Vote Out the deniers. We can't afford to waste time with these fools

[sailrick]

When religion gets in the way of common sense, it is a problem.

Rick Perry likens himself and other climate change deniers to Galileo.
Sorry Rick, but Galileo was correct and had the evidence.
You are wrong and have no evidence, while ignoring the mountain of evidence for AGW.
Perry and the rest are more like the religious authorities who persecued Galileo.


GOP Rep Fred Upton says there can be no global warming because God won't allow it to happen.

And this paragon of logic is one of the congressmen making all the noise in congress over the FAKE scandal of solar company Solyndra.

Religous fundamentalism plays a part for some climate change skeptics.
In the words of Edward Blick, Professor Emeritus of the Mewbourne School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, Universtity of Oklahoma, who is on both Inhofe's list and the list of evolution deniers from the Discovery Institute.

"The predecessors of today's unbelievers replaced the Holy Bible's book of Genesis with Darwin's Origin of the Species. Now with the help of Al Gore and the United Nations they are trying to replace the Holy Bible's book of Revelation with the U.N.'s report Anthropogenic Global Warming."



Of course he is also a Petroleum geologist. What a surprise.