If anything is clear from the recent CNN Republican debate, it's that the whole group of GOP candidates, apart from Mitt Romney, are idiots, Homophobes, and Islamophobes, who know nothing about the US Constitution, and who buy into the Christian Fundamentalist Dominionism mythology about America's founders wanting to make America Exclusively Christian.
Herman Cain, When asked about his comment that he would feel uncomfortable having a Muslim in his administration, snapped "I would not be comfortable because you have peaceful Muslims and then you have militant Muslims — those that are trying to kill us, and so when I said I wouldn't be comfortable, I was thinking about the ones who are trying to kill us." Of course, this doesn't take into account all the American-born Christians who have been trying to kill us, but I digress.
Cain also explained that he does not support Sharia law in American courts. "I believe in American laws in American courts, period." He, as well as several other candidates like Rick "I am not a homophobic bigot" Santorum and Tim "I'm not a homophobic bigot, either" Pawlenty, don't seem to realize that there is no Shariah Law practiced by any US Government angency. It's a completely made up fear, and the Republicans are treating it as though it's a legitimate threat.
Is Herman Cain for real? First of all, he's an African American Republican. That tells you what an idiot he is from the start, because he is willing to ignore over 75 years of overt racism on the part of the Republican party, such as the infamous "Southern Strategy", where the party deliberately created fear of black people in white southerners, to frighten them into thinking that the Democratic Party was out to take their rights away and give black people special priviledges. This overtly racist strategy is still used in much of the country, in spite of the GOP apologizing for it back in 2005.
Herman Cain previously mentioned that he would only allow Muslims to run for public office if they took a special oath, which he also said would not have to be given to Christian or Jewish candidates, because they can be trusted. This essentially amounts to a religious test for public office. Cain also just weeks ago was holding up his little copy of the US Constitution, proclaiming that every American needs to read it and know what's in it. Too bad he said that. Now we get to see what a true retard the guy is. Article 6, section 3, of the U.S. Constitution, specifically states that "no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States." Apparently, Caine hasn't finished reading up on his Constitution yet.
Mitt Romney was the only candidate who managed to say something intelligent about this issue. He said, in response to Cain, "We recognize that the people of all faiths are welcome in this country... Our nation was founded on a principle of religious tolerance. That's in fact why some of the early patriots came to this country and we treat people with respect regardless of their religious persuasion."
Tim Pawlenty, who runs on a platform of Homophobia and Islamophobia, erroneously commented "The protections between the separation of church and state were designed to protect people of faith from government, not government from people of faith." Well, he got it half right. The Constitution works BOTH WAYS. It protects individual religious freedoms from government intrusion, but it also prevents government from being controlled by a religious majority.
But Tim went on to reveal what a true ignoramus he is, by saying "This is a country that in our founding documents says we're a nation that's founded under God, and the privileges and blessings that we have are from our creator… The Founding Fathers understood that the blessings that we have as a nation come from our creator and we should stop and say thanks and express gratitude for that. I embrace that." Too bad it's utter nonsense. None of our founding documents, especially the United States Constitution, say that in any sense.
Right wing Christian Fundamentalists wish that "The Pledge Of Aligience" was more than just a stupid ritual that entered into America's culture as reaction to fears of Communism. They wish that "under God" was part of our founding documents, and keep asserting that the nation was founded on Biblical Principles. Nothing is further from the truth. The problem with this retarded theory of Christian Dominionism is that it has one thing standing in it's way -- inconvenient facts, such as the texts of our Nation's founding documents, and the quotes from our founding fathers themselves. They are so concerned with avoiding the pesky facts of US History and pushing their mythology, that they not only make up their own facts, but they even write books with bogus quotes from the founding fathers.
Here's a little test you can all perform. All you need is a text file of the United States Constitution. Search the text of the Constitution for the following words -- (1) God, (2) Jesus, (3) Christ, (4) Faith. You do not find God, Christ, Jesus, or Faith at all in the Constitution. One word you do find is "lord", but it is only in the context of a figure of speech "In the year of our Lord..." which was an official, British legal way of announcing the date. In no way does the single appearance of "Lord" in our constitution refer to how government is run. The single reference simply announces that a group of named people were present at the signing of the Constitution "in the Year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty seven". If our founding fathers were religious, and sought to create a particularly religious nation based on Christian principles, their most basic founding documents, The Declaration Of Independence, and The Constitution Of the United States Of America, which establishes how our nation is set up to run, is pretty empty of religious language. In fact, apart from the first Amendment, Article 6, section 3, is the only other place in the constitution where religion is even mentioned, and it's not very friendly to the idea of America being a nation of religious exclusivity.
You can even try this text search on the The Declaration Of Independence, too. Apart from "Endowed By Their Creator", there is no other religious language in the document. Why all the GOP candidates are spending so much energy pushing this ridiculous mythology about America, is because they really believe that their votes depend on the nation's Jesus-Freaks. They are willing to push marginal and bogus views, promote psuedohistory, and lie to get elected, because they really believe that they can't get elected without catering to Religious Nut-jobs. This strategy will fail as soon as one interviewer challenges their assertions on the subject. All it takes is one setup question, asking the candidates if they believe that the constitution promotes Christian Values, then after they give their positive answer, all the interviewer needs to do is hit them with inconvenient facts, like the text of the Constitution and actual quotes from it's writers. They will fall all over themselves trying to explain things.
