Dowd Suffers From Theophobia

DeLay, Deny and Demagogue

By MAUREEN DOWD
Published: March 24, 2005
(Excerpt)

Oh my God, we really are in a theocracy.

Are the Republicans so obsessed with maintaining control over all branches of government, and are the Democrats so emasculated about not having any power, that they are willing to turn the nation into a wholly owned subsidiary of the church?

The more dogma-driven activists, self-perpetuating pols and ratings-crazed broadcast media prattle about "faith," the less we honor the credo that a person's relationship with God should remain a private matter.

As the Bush White House desperately maneuvers in Iraq to prevent the new government from being run according to the dictates of religious fundamentalists, it desperately maneuvers here to pander to religious fundamentalists who want to dictate how the government should be run.

Maybe President Bush should spend less time preaching about spreading democracy around the world and more time worrying about our deteriorating democracy.

Even some Republicans seemed appalled at this latest illustration of Nietzsche's observation that "morality is the best of all devices for leading mankind by the nose."

...The scene on Capitol Hill this past week has been almost as absurdly macabre as the movie "Weekend at Bernie's," with Tom DeLay and Bill Frist propping up between them this poor woman in a vegetative state to indulge their own political agendas. Mr. DeLay, the poster child for ethical abuse, wanted to show that he is still a favorite of conservatives. Dr. Frist thinks he can ace out Jeb Bush to be 44, even though he has become a laughingstock by trying to rediagnose Ms. Schiavo's condition by video....

Republicans easily abandon their cherished principles of individual privacy and states rights when their personal ambitions come into play. The first time they snatched a case out of a Florida state court to give to a federal court, it was Bush v. Gore. This time, it's Bush v. Constitution.

The president and his ideological partners don't believe in separation of powers. They just believe in their own power. First they tried to circumvent the Florida courts; now they're trying to pack the federal bench with conservatives and even blow up the filibuster rule. But they may yet learn a lesson on checks and balances, as the federal courts rebuffed them in the Schiavo case...

Mr. DeLay made his personal stake clear at a conference last Friday organized by the Family Research Council, a conservative Christian group. He said that God had brought Terri Schiavo's struggle to the forefront "to help elevate the visibility of what's going on in America." He defined that as "attacks against the conservative movement, against me and against many others."

So it's not about her crisis at all. It's about his crisis.
____________________________________
Once again, the cynical Dowd believes she is omniscient. She dares to charge that President Bush, Senator Frist, and Rep. DeLay are pandering because surely she knows what is in their hearts. The all-knowing Dowd can read their consciences.

Is it conceivable that they acted on deeply held beliefs about the right to life which Thomas Jefferson spoke of in the Declaration of Independence? Not in DowdWorld.

Is it possible that they believe Terri's case strikes at the core values of our society, thus giving it significance not only to the family members involved but to the American family? Not in DowdWorld.

Dowd can't fathom anyone in political office acting on fundamental beliefs in spite of what public opinion polls say. She is incapable of understanding such sincerity. DowdWorld is a morally bankrupt place where no one can be trusted.

To say America is a theocracy reveals that she doesn't know what a theocracy is.

Clearly, she is floundering spiritually and suffers from an acute case of THEOPHOBIA.

Poor thing.