Conservatives Use Religion To Brainwash People

[infinitelord1]

I often wonder if conservatives use religion as a ploy to get people to vote for them. I guess in order to be morally correct you should stand for things like "pro-life" etc. But is it really necessary to mix religion and politics? It might be OK if the catholic church was able to influence politics in America, but we are putting our faith into these ultra-conservative protestants. These same people put a lot of their effort into business and wealth. It says in the bible that it is hard for a rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven as is a camel to pass through the eye of a needle (or something along those lines). So given this, and given that the vast majority of conservatives that are in control of this country are ultra-rich....why do you put your faith into their leadership? Do you really think they have your best interests in mind? Or possibly that they may have the best interests of the corporations in which they own in mind?

Barring a few moral mishaps that the democrats support like abortion (can anyone add more to this list cuz i cant off-hand) maybe democrats are the ideal people that we should vote for at this time in American history. Ideally, I have no problem with taking a huge portion of these republican's wallet and benefitting the american people. They have more than enough money anyways. And much like General Motor's and Ford Motor Company...the American people should have more control over Corporate America.

I dont know...maybe its just me...but its seems like whatever conservatives stand for only benefits themselves, and they bring in morallity as a way to gain followers. I wonder what it would be like if conservatives took no stance on morallity. I bet they would lose every election.

[goldenchild17]

I'm not in support of either republicans or democrats but I do believe religion needs to be a part of government, even the focus.

[S][N]

I agree. People keep voting for Republicans because they always spout this Pro-Life junk and have been for decades yet abortion is still here, and now that it's got a foothold it won't go. Right-wing christians are naive and stupid if they truly believe that voting in a Pro-Life candidate they'll get somewhere.

Two things you need to know about your system..funny enough something the world knows more about than the majority of yanks.

1: Pro-Life political plans will never come to fruitition(sp?). It's a political ploy to get power.
2: Those same "pro-lifers" have their hands stuck in some of the richest and most powerful companies, multi-nationals in the world.

If you honestly think these candidates give a rats about religious beliefs and good for man, your seriously kidding yourself. It's thanks to these Right-Wings that we have such a screwed up world, of course I'm not saying it'd be screwed up without them, but maybe less. Who knows.

[Starets]

If you have a dirty brain it NEEDS to be washed

[infinitelord1]

[quote name='Staretz' post='1407772' date='Oct 23 2007, 06:08 AM']If you have a dirty brain it NEEDS to be washed [/quote]


hmmm. this is interesting. Maybe I shouldnt have gone as far as using the word brainwashing in the title of this thread. I guess brainwashing can be good or bad. Generally when we think of brainwashing we associate it as a bad thing. Perhaps I should have used the word "manipulate" instead.

Edited October 23, 2007 by infinitelord1

[Starets]

Yes; I would agree with "manipulate". manipulation, or at least attempts to persuade, do tend to be religion-based among the american political Right. I don't agree with the usual connection of conservative=rich=uncaring. I think the american left can be just as manipulative but in other areas.

It might be useful to discuss the role in which religion is used to persuade voters by the Republicans.

[S][N]

"I guess brainwashing can be good or bad." - Errr wth? <.<

[dairygirl4u2c]

it's not unreasonable to think nothing will happen if you vote repub generally as per abortion. regan, the repub god, ws the biggest proabort presidentas far as justices go in terms of number appointed. and most other repub appointees just follow prior decisions. so, even if you got a repub over and over, nothing would change necessarily.

plus, a prolife person called me once. i expresed my desire to rid abortio from the country much like him and we were happily bashing prochioce. but, when i asked him who's suppose to be educating what the agenda was for the prolife camp, he didn't even know. the strategic legal agenda etc. if i could find this out i might change my position.

they're not likely to say health of the mother only means physical health, cause the case decided with Roe is that health includes anything.

i've heard they want to take bits and peiceds approach, but what does that include? just parentla consent and such? will they continue saying it's a state issue and ignoring the natioal prob?

seems like less and less of a substantial basis to base a vote on.

[hyperdulia again]

"Conservatives Use Religion To Brainwash People, my opinion"

They do. And...

[CatherineM]

I don't think it is brainwashing so much as sleight of hand. As long as they have got the whole country just looking at abortion or gay marriage (both of which I'm against, so don't go there), then we won't notice the really big challenging issues that are being hidden behind the curtain.

Now that's just for what my dad would have called "Goering" politicians, not the "Himmler" politicians. My dad divided politicians into two camps, the Goering ones who spouted philosophy they didn't really believe because they knew it would get them the power they were really interested in, and the Himmler ones that he called the true believers. The Himmler types are much more dangerous. When you get one of those in office who really believes that it is "God's Will" to do something like invade another country, then chaos often follows.

And no, I am not calling George Bush a Nazi. I'm just using two well know historical figures to show the differences in politicians. I could just as easily have used Lenin and Stalin or Hamilton and Burr. Some politicians start as Goering's, and then the power goes to their heads, and they become Himmler's. I believe that we should obviously rely on our faith and morals to make decisions, I'm just making the point that it is easy for us humans to turn the belief that we are doing God's Will into rationalizations to do all sorts of evil things. Remember that the Nazi's engraved "God is with us" on their belt buckles.

[Maggyie]

Ronald Reagan certainly was [b]not [/b]the most pro-abortion president in terms of number of judges appointed. He lifted Rehnquist (one of the original dissenters to [i]Roe v Wade[/i]) to the Chief Justice's seat, and appointed three new judges : O'Connor, Scalia, and Kennedy.

Scalia is a rock-ribbed pro-lifer. If you are at all familiar with the history of the Court you know that when Kennedy was appointed, EVERYONE believed he was pro-life and would overturn [i]Roe[/i]. In his early days on the court he certainly voted that way. But around the time of the famous [i]Casey [/i]decision he switched his vote to the pro-abortion side, although he is much more conservative on the issue than Ginsburg and Stevens etc.

Ronald Reagan is not my god but he was a lot better than the presidents we've had since

I would not call supporting the abortion license a "moral mishap," as it's more on the scale of genocide. Other moral problems the Democrats have include gay marriage, and in many states, euthanasia, and the refusal to accept conscience clauses, etc. Of course the Republican party has its own difficulties: torture, preemptive war, the death penalty, and so on. I have often theorized that no Republican president would want to overturn [i]Roe[/i], since afterward a huge voting bloc would be lost to the party. A calculating political mind would want to keep pro-lifers "on the plantation" for as long as possible.

I will not vote for a pro-abortion candidate, of any party, however. To me it would be like voting for a proponent of slavery.