GOP Nominee

[Fisherking]

Time for an update: New Yorker has a long long long profile of Michelle Bachmann (with an emphasis on the writers and thinkers who have shaped her worldview), and Salon has an amusing hit piece on Rick Perry.

Rick Perry may be a neo-Confederate sympathizer with a recurring tendency to bring up secession, but he doesn't look as weird in a photograph as Bachmann does, I guess.

Perry's flirtations with neo-Confederate organizations and symbols -- ably documented by Justin Elliott -- are so extraordinarily reprehensible that it should immediately and permanently disqualify him from being taken seriously for national office. The Confederacy was not a bunch of generally well-meaning dudes who went a little too far, it was a gang of racist traitors who launched a bloody war to defend a monstrously unjust institution. Having neo-Confederate sympathies in America should be equivalent to supporting the reconstituted Fascist party in Italy, or worse. It should not be considered something that 50 percent of the nation should be willing to look past, or even embrace.

I have been in Germany for quite a while now and thankfully don’t need to fallow the daily political happenings of the US.

I don’t know this guy from Adam. If there really is something such as a neo-Confederate then it is a bunch of idiots who deserve to be ignored but why do I jump to the conclusion that he must have been part of a Civil War reenactment group...

Just more political hogwash!

No wonder we always end up having to vote for who we think is least BAD.

[Lemur]

If there really is something such as a neo-Confederate then it is a bunch of idiots who deserve to be ignored but why do I jump to the conclusion that he must have been part of a Civil War reenactment group...

Not accurate, sadly. Nobody in their right mind gets worked up about Civil War reenactors.

Perry accepted the endorsement of the "League of the South," who describe their mission just so: "The League of the South is a Southern Nationalist organization whose ultimate goal is a free and independent Southern republic." Its core beliefs include the abolition of the income tax and central banking, a Southern republic that "revives the use of State Militias in place of maintaining large, standing armies," and a society that "perpetuates the chivalric ideal of manhood." The group rejects "the American Empire that now occupies the South." (Original text here.) Worth noting, though, that the League of the South does not claim him as their own.

Perry also declared that the secession of Texas was a real possibility.

Do I think Perry is serious about any of this? Nope. Do I think he's pandering to the reactionary, secessionist Dixie voter? Yep.

-edit-

On the bright side, polling suggests that a Perry run will effectively close the door on snowbilly grifter queen Sarah Palin. Which is a good thing. Then again, as Governor Haley Barbour recently put it, "she could raise enough money to burn a wet mule." So ... maybe not.

[Fisherking]

In that case I find it hard to believe that he could get elected Dog Catcher...

Rather more like another Duke candidacy.

[PanzerJaeger]

I'm not so much worried about Perry's endorsement from the League of the South, but then again I have my own neo-fascist/nationalist/confederate/evil traitor sympathies. (That Salon writer is quite the rhetorician!)

What does bother me, though, is his deep connection to Seven Mountains Dominionism.

On this day, the Lord’s messengers arrived in the form of two Texas pastors, Tom Schlueter of Arlington and Bob Long of San Marcos, who called on Perry in the governor’s office inside the state Capitol. Schlueter and Long both oversee small congregations, but they are more than just pastors. They consider themselves modern-day apostles and prophets, blessed with the same gifts as Old Testament prophets or New Testament apostles.

The pastors told Perry of God’s grand plan for Texas. A chain of powerful prophecies had proclaimed that Texas was “The Prophet State,” anointed by God to lead the United States into revival and Godly government. And the governor would have a special role.

The day before the meeting, Schlueter had received a prophetic message from Chuck Pierce, an influential prophet from Denton, Texas. God had apparently commanded Schlueter—through Pierce—to “pray by lifting the hand of the one I show you that is in the place of civil rule.”

Gov. Perry, it seemed.

Schlueter had prayed before his congregation: “Lord Jesus I bring to you today Gov. Perry. ... I am just bringing you his hand and I pray Lord that he will grasp ahold of it. For if he does you will use him mightily.”

And grasp ahold the governor did. At the end of their meeting, Perry asked the two pastors to pray over him. As the pastors would later recount, the Lord spoke prophetically as Schlueter laid his hands on Perry, their heads bowed before a painting of the Battle of the Alamo. Schlueter “declared over [Perry] that there was a leadership role beyond Texas and that Texas had a role beyond what people understand,” Long later told his congregation.

So you have to wonder: Is Rick Perry God’s man for president?

Schlueter, Long and other prayer warriors in a little-known but increasingly influential movement at the periphery of American Christianity seem to think so. The movement is called the New Apostolic Reformation. Believers fashion themselves modern-day prophets and apostles. They have taken Pentecostalism, with its emphasis on ecstatic worship and the supernatural, and given it an adrenaline shot.

The movement’s top prophets and apostles believe they have a direct line to God. Through them, they say, He communicates specific instructions and warnings. When mankind fails to heed the prophecies, the results can be catastrophic: earthquakes in Japan, terrorist attacks in New York, and economic collapse. On the other hand, they believe their God-given decrees have ended mad cow disease in Germany and produced rain in drought-stricken Texas.

Their beliefs can tend toward the bizarre. Some consider Freemasonry a “demonic stronghold” tantamount to witchcraft. The Democratic Party, one prominent member believes, is controlled by Jezebel and three lesser demons. Some prophets even claim to have seen demons at public meetings. They’ve taken biblical literalism to an extreme. In Texas, they engage in elaborate ceremonies involving branding irons, plumb lines and stakes inscribed with biblical passages driven into the earth of every Texas county.

If they simply professed unusual beliefs, movement leaders wouldn’t be remarkable. But what makes the New Apostolic Reformation movement so potent is its growing fascination with infiltrating politics and government. The new prophets and apostles believe Christians—certain Christians—are destined to not just take “dominion” over government, but stealthily climb to the commanding heights of what they term the “Seven Mountains” of society, including the media and the arts and entertainment world. They believe they’re intended to lord over it all. As a first step, they’re leading an “army of God” to commandeer civilian government.

In Rick Perry, they may have found their vessel. And the interest appears to be mutual.

Oh, and he was Al Gore's chair in Texas.

Unless Pawlenty can pull out a big win in Iowa this weekend, I'm increasingly resigned to the fact that I'll be supporting Romney. I'm warming to the idea. He reminds me of an old school Northeastern business Republican, back before Goldwater and then Reagan transformed the party, which is kind of cool in a throwback sense - a modern Calvin Coolidge.

I really don't know what's wrong with Pawlenty. He's fairly socially conservative, very fiscally conservative, and has focused his message on entitlement reform - seems like a great fit to me. Sure he's 'boring' I guess, but what's wrong with boring and competent? It beats... well... this is about the GOP, not the current administration. Huntsman would have been a good choice too, but he was DOA. Who would have thought a Republican governor from Utah would be too moderate for the party?

[Lemur]

I'm increasingly resigned to the fact that I'll be supporting Romney. I'm warming to the idea. He reminds me of an old school Northeastern business Republican, back before Goldwater and then Reagan transformed the party, which is kind of cool in a throwback sense - a modern Calvin Coolidge.

I think Romney is the pick of the current litter. He's a terrible politician, but I think he'd be a lot like Bush 41; bad on the stump, loved by few, but reasonable and responsible.

[Centurion1]

I think Romney is the pick of the current litter. He's a terrible politician, but I think he'd be a lot like Bush 41; bad on the stump, loved by few, but reasonable and responsible.

Debatable it takes more than money for a republican to win somewhere like Massachusetts.

[Lemur]

GOP candidate debate tonight, I think it's on Fox News, so those of you who still get broadcast TV can watch it. I guess I'll check out the highlights on YouTube or something like that. Dammit, Netflix, why won't you stream current politics?

[Banquo's Ghost]

Oh, and he was Al Gore's chair in Texas.

That's the part that astonishes me. I know a chap's politics can evolve over time, but from Al Gore to God's Chosen Executioner? And he is taken seriously?