Why does Rick Perry persist (details)?

I was just talking about this on Facebook. Some of my Christian friends are just as upset with this ridiculousness as I am, so I sincerely hope the ones who would take that seriously are a minority.

@augustlan It would be great if at the end, he played Rick Astley…....

This is very, very scary. Let us hope that he did not strike a chord.

Run.
Run faster.
Even faster!
NOW JUMP!
Look down.
There’s the shark.
Wave.

It looks like a last-ditch, desperate effort to win votes by playing on stereotypes and fears. I think there are a lot of people who do believe tactics of that sort. If it worked to get the so-called Christmas Tree Tax killed, maybe it will work for Perry too.

Although I did like the FB comment by a friend of @augustlan on her link to the ad, saying it’s ironic Rick Perry is wearing Heath Ledger’s jacket from Brokeback Mountain in that ad!

Perry is a wingnut dipshit with no hope at all of winning the Republican nomination anymore (no, I’m not joking. His ship has long since set sail). I don’t know what he was trying to pull with this video but I seriously doubt it is going to “strike a chord” with anyone but the battiest of the batty.

I personally know a lot of old-school Republicans and self-identified fiscal conservatives who associate with the Republican party. They are all fed up with the “oh noes teh gheys r distrying cristmis!11!1” social conservatism that has come to dominate the capital-R Republican narrative. They consider the economy to be the biggest issue right now (as most educated people should) and have a hard time grasping why their party keeps lending any validation at all to these assclowns like Perry.

@Fiddle_Playing_Creole_Bastard I agree, and it’s great to hear that.

I’m confused. What’s wrong with the point is he trying to make? His ad would strike a chord with many people I’ve met who totally agree with him. Now, me, I wouldn’t vote in any current Republican candidate, even if you paid me the world.

@DaphneT There’s no war on religion, and your religion shouldn’t matter in the first place.

Well, it will cement his appeal to his base; hardcore Christians who are Conservative enough that they would call Jesus a Socialist. Of course, he already knew he lost jsut about everyone else so it’s kind of a “Hail Mary”.

@DaphneT It’s not so much the point he was trying to make, but the way he was making it. He implied that the solution is for us to all be God-fearing Christians, and that this election is actually a Crusade (or Jihad) rather than merely a process to choose our next President.

@Blackberry Sadly all you say is true, yet seems completely irrelevant to those who are deeply devout. The deeply devout feel persecuted because they can’t have their religious expression during their religious holiday in their community. Yet there is that item in the Bill of Rights that says that they are entitled to practice their religion their way. And what to do when all the signs and symbols of their religious holiday have been co-opted for sales and revenues by the world of commerce? To me Perry’s message is insanely prejudicial, yet it could strike a chord with those who are feeling that their world is out of control. Then again, the deeply devout could be excessively offended by his phrasings I come from a large family, so we have a few in each political spectrum. You name the spectrum and I can probably identify some relative who lives in it. It’s a bit exhausting on any occasion.

@DaphneT I would like to say I understand what those persecuted christians go through, but it’s kind of difficult, seeing that they’re a majority and all. Unless of course you’re referring to the “systematic” destruction of business signs and greeters all over the country being forced into saying happy holidays, or the terrible atrocity of no longer placing nativity scenes on public property.

Reality hits you hard, man :(

@Blackberry yeah, sigh, :(

The truth is that NONE of the candidates want to run against Obama. They all know they will lose.
At this point, all they can do is get booed off the stage by some of the crazy shit they say. They are HOPING for it.
Like Newt suggesting John Bolton as Secretary of State.
Like Herman Cain saying 8 women are all lying about his advances, including one who has the RECORDS of a 13 year affair with him.
Like Michelle Bachman dialing up the crazy by talking about anti-cancer medicine making children go full retard, or the Arizona desert being full of headless bodies.
It’s like they are all trying to make Ron Paul look sane…

@ filmfann, that is so scary. I’m going to have nightmares tonight.

What records, @filmfann? I hadn’t heard that one.

Someone on facebook made the amusing comment that, in this video, Perry seems to be wearing the same coat Heath Ledger did in Brokeback Mountain.

@bkcunningham She had cell phone records showing 60 something phone calls, including one at 4:31am.

Why would someone with skeletons, not only in a closet, but sitting on the floor outside a closet door and hanging form a trapeze in the front yard, run for political office? Just doesn’t make sense to me.

OMG! I had not seen that commercial. I actually defend Perry sometimes. I think he has a good sense of humor and every so often seems to sow some logical thinking, even though for the most part I don’t agree with many of his positions on issues.

Here is what I am curious about, is this commercial just for the bible belt, and if it weren’t for the internet or media picking it up and blasting it to us, would other regions of the country never know? Or, is he paying it everywhere unaware how ridiculous that is to so amny people, including Christians. I ask because where I live politicians still talk about Christian values and Chrisianity in their ads and it just blows my mind. So, to answer the last part of your question I woud say there are still a sizeable amount of Christians in the country this appeals too in the Republican party. I once read 50% of Republicans are evangelical, not sure how accurate that is. Of course not all evangelicals would be ok with this ad either, but probably many would. I’m going to guess the ad appeals to 15% of the country; just a guess. But, the main idea for him is the primaries right now, he is only really talking to Republicans.

My favorite part is the number of likes, as compared to the number of dislikes. That type of Internet Justice pretty much makes up for the crap in the video for me, especially since Perry’s never gonna actually win.

No matter who ends up getting the big p, it looks like another crappy four years…. Maybe we should hit the restart button.

This comment on his youtube user page made me lol hard:

DoubleOhQuang

DoubleOhQuang (2 minutes ago)

So, the economy is in shambles, people are jobless, and our armed forces are dying abroad for nothing, and you pick religion as your primary issue? What the FUCK? It’s one thing to be conservative or liberal, it’s a whole ‘nother thing to be an illogical, illiterate, fear mongering, stone-age obssessed retard. Which, if you haven’t picked up by now, is what you are. HOW THE HELL DID THE AIR FORCE EVER ALLOW YOU NEAR THEIR MULTIMILLION DOLLAR EQUIPMENT? I’m voting for Ron Paul, because everyone else in the GOP, including you, is an uneducated illogical ass.

Source

I think there is a logical, not batshit answer having to do with campaign finance. I believe the debt loads on their campaigns are eased a bit if they actively campaign until January, and the only people who might contribute at this point are those who do feel in tune with his religious views. It might just be a cynical fund raising tactic.

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought Which would make sense, except that since it seems he’ll get more hate for this than money, wouldn’t it have made more sense for him to say that stuff more quietly, dog-whistle style, to the people with the money? Not that I’m saying I definitely think Perry and his strategy team are too smart to have made that blunder…

^You suspect he lost any votes he might have gotten otherwise?

@Imadethisupwithnoforethought It’s more like I think there’s a possibility that the media spotlight on him will go from “goofy, crazy guy who says shit” to “hater”, and make investors go “yeah, this dude’s not gonna be The One, so why am I putting my money on him when I could be putting it on other people/things?”

What exactly is “Obama’s war on religion”? This guy is unhinged but really what else is new, it seems everyone vying for the republican nomination is unhinged. I’ll tell you what, if I was conservative I would be absolutely furious wondering if this is really the best the party has to offer.

@SuperMouse Buddy Roemer is in the race too. Not much money or coverage, but the former governor of Louisiana is far saner than anybody the Republicans have goren behind in years.

I watched the video again. I found it interesting that he says you don’t have to go to church every Sunday, so he is appealing to non-church goers amd church goers.

@SuperMouse A good portion of the Christian right thinks liberals and yankees in general have a war on religion. People around me talk about how so much has changed since more people started moving to the area, I am outside of Memphis, and they mean northerners. No more Christmas in school or prayer is exactly what they talk about. It scares the shit out of them. Even corporal punishment being eliminated in Memphis schools ties into the conversation. Obama, just represents that mind set at this time since he is President. After all, Obama is Muslim, included atheists in his innaugural speech, didn’t mention God in one of his Thanksgivings addresses, allowed gay people in our military, socialist. Isn’t it obvious he is a pinko commy, Christian hating, gay lover, secularize America man?

Good parody of the Rick Perry spot…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbrI3F7p6-o&feature=share

It looks like Perry is performing his own coup de grâce. Rick is a good speaker but a lousy debater, and he knows it (if you’ve ever watched him). I don’t think the faith card will save him though.

We’re “yankees” up here in CT. My husband and I were talking about this today and neither one of us can think of a single way in which the celebration of Christmas (or any other traditionally Christian) holiday has changed since we were kids. My kids do plenty of Christmas-related things at school. They aren’t based on religion, but they certainly aren’t banned from celebrating Christmas. In fact, they always have a big project to share their family’s holiday traditions.

I’m pretty sure 99.9999999% of the war on religion, war on Christmas, war on old white guys, whatever, is only being waged in the media and in the minds of those people who believe everything they see on certain wing-nut “news” programs.

@MissAusten Supposedly the kids down here in some public school in Memphis no longer can have a Christmas party. That is what one women told me about her granddaughters school, that her grandchild can’t have any fun. My reply was, “why can’t she have fun? They can still have a party?”

I too remember Christmas stuff in my school, I grew up in NY and MD. I barely remember exactly what though. I need to ask Auggie what she remembers. Maybe it was just holiday stuff? Maybe it was up to the teacher in their own classroom? Not sure.

The absense of prayer is a real thing for some of these schools. We never had prayer in any of my schools in the northeast, but they did have it here in the south, so to them it has been taken away.

A girlfriend of mine in FL even remembers it,prayer in school, and funny enough I was talking to her about the pledge and she says her sons school doesn’t do it, I don’t believe her. She has that in her mind though. I even looked it up while on the phone and it indeed says it is required to do the pledge where she lives. i asked her to ask her son, but she never did. I think that is a case like what you describe, a lot of people think the pledge has been taken out of schools, but most schools still do it. That is the media and the right wing promoting a falsehood to get people worked up. Or, that results in people getting worked up, maybe they don’t intentionally, the believe what they say, but they never bother to research facts.

@JLeslie Yeah, I’ve also heard that schools can’t host events that involve prayer, like Boy Scout meetings (I guess the mention God in their motto or something), but my kids have most of their Boy Scout meetings at the local schools. And, a local church that has a Christian Dance Academy puts on an extremely religious ballet every year…at the public high school. I mean, there’s a projector displaying Bible verses over the stage as the ballet progresses.

I think some individuals take the separation of church and state too far by insisting there be no kind of prayer or religious reference on “state” properties, when I always understood it to be that public schools can’t direct or lead prayers or otherwise dictate what religious activities students do/are involved in.

I worked at a daycare center that had a “no holiday” policy, but that was for two reasons. One, we had a huge variety of cultures represented. At any given time, a large percentage of the children at the center would not be celebrating Christian holidays at home. Instead, we invited parents to visit at any time to read, sing, or tell stories about their culture or family traditions (whether it involved a holiday or not). We did have books in the classrooms about all kinds of holidays. Also, the “no holiday” rule was to keep teachers from giving the kids cookie-cutter type art projects. The policy was for art to focus on the process, not the product.

My kids have holiday parties at school for nearly every big holiday. It involves secular aspects, like for Christmas they might decorate gingerbread men or on Thanksgiving they have cupcakes that look like turkeys at make books about what they’re thankful for. They dye eggs at school for Easter, stuff like that. They have plenty of fun, they just don’t talk about God.

I don’t get why people would want the public schools to be talking to their kids about Christianity anyway. Don’t they realize that the Catholic parents and the Episcopalian parents would have a different opinion than the Pentecostal parents or the Mormon parents? Can you just imagine the headaches the principals and teachers would have to deal with when all the parents start calling to argue theology?!

I remeber that New England had no problem allowing “Christian” things such as Christmas or Boy Scout meetings; they compensated by allowing anyone else to have their own thing if they so desired. It wasn’t that they were promoting Christianity, but rather, Christians were usually the only ones pushing for a spot on the schedule.

BTW, for those of you who loved the Pick Perry commercial, have a look at this

And also in today’s new: Yes, Rick Perry is now A Hater. And yes, I do think Rick Perry would totally be hatin’ on Nathan Fillion, Ianto Jones, Arrested Development, Joss Whedon, and Harry Potter.

@MissAusten Ok wait. The ballet is a Christian academy just using school property for the show, theor auditorium I would guess. It isn’t during school hours right?

And, I actually prefer no holiday, but people can talk about their own traditions for all schools. If a school is 95% Christians it still sucks, really sucks for the 20 children, maybe only 1 or 2 in each class to be the one kid not celebrating that holiday. Although, I will say Christmas is everywhere, cartoons, decorations around town, the mall, so as a kid school is just another place, but I see no reason to have to have it in that place.

I agree with you about not understanding why a religious person would want any sort of prayer led by faculty. To empower teachers to feel free to talk about religion with children (not including comparative religion which I am completely fine with those courses at the high school level). Like you said the Catholic has different teachings and a different bible than the Methodists, etc. Every Catholic friend of mine does not want prayer in school, most Evangelicals I know do. But, I think that is because the Evangelicals tend to live in smaller communities that have huge majorities of Evangelicals, and they are not as in touch with the idea of what it is like to have a more diverse population, or to even not hold a strong majority in a community or school. I was on a Q where this came up, I’ll try to find it.

I asked Auggie and she remembers decorations in elementary, but not high school, I think she is right. I don’t specifically remember decorations in High school now that I think abou tit. We are in our early 40’s.

There’s a Christian Dance Academy which is part of a church. They use (rent, maybe?) the high school auditorium to perform the ballet a few times one weekend every year in December. I took my daughter to see it this year because one of her friends was in the play. There were Gideons in the school lobby handing out the New Testament. This was not during school hours.

During the play we sat next to another friend of my daughter (these are 12 year old girls). She had a New Testament and said, “That guy handed this to me. I didn’t want to be rude, so I took it. But I’m Jewish and now I don’t know what to do with it.” lol

Anyway, I’m sure there are people who would be upset about a public school allowing a religious group to use/rent their space, but it wasn’t promoted or sponsored by the school itself.

When I was in early grade school (I think 1st to 3rd grade), we had Religious Education once a week during school hours. We’d talk to the Baptist church next door for what was basically a Sunday school type of lesson. I don’t remember much about it except the singing and the pretend trip to Jerusalem we took (I was mad that the figs we got to eat turned out to be Fig Newtons). I also remember feeling sorry for the few kids each year that got left behind in the classroom because their parents didn’t give them permission. It must have felt pretty awkward.

I think by the time kids reach middle school, they aren’t doing much in the way of decorating or celebrating for holidays. That sort of thing seems to end with grade school, just like recess. My daughter is always a bit jealous of her little brothers when they talk about school parties or bring home treats. I don’t think there’s a reason for it, other than the academic side of school is more serious and students are expected to be old enough to not let holiday excitement infringe on the school day.

@MissAusten I see no conflict of church and state if the program or performance is after school hours, and just being used a space, and not condoned or promoted by the school. The school can be used as a community building, it might be the best structure with the best facilities, especially in a small town. I have no problem with religious class off school property as long as it is not a requirement for students. In Utah this is very common, the students go to religious class adjacent to school property, it isn’t required, but it can count for credit, counting for credit is a grey area, but I am still ok with it.

All that is much different than prayer in school, or Christian stuff all over the walls.

In this question it asks what type of building people do their voting in, many of us vote in churches, and we saw no problem with that either, which also could be seen as a church and state conflict, but most of us agreed the church for that moment in time is just a building, amd a convenience for the local population.

I think point is that most of us wouldn’t see that as a conflict, but some would. Maybe the atheists in this question.

It seems that there is a persistent 25% of the American public that will follow people like Perry or Bush, or Palin. That 25% thought Bush did a good job, insist that the the U.S. is a Christian nation, would never vote for a woman, black person, or non-christian. The best we can do is encourage the rational 75% of the electorate to vote.

@Ron_C I’m curious where you get your 25% statistic from? Only because I have been trying to figure out what the stat really is also. I figure it is more like 15%-20% trying to extrapolate numbers from how many registered Republicans there are and assuming 50% of the party is Evangelical. But, I don’t even know how accurate my numbers are.

@JLeslie “I’m curious where you get your 25% statistic from?” Mostly from looking at poll results. For instance 20–25% of those surveyed think George Bush was a great president. There is consitant 20–25% that comes in for the most conservative issues. They support the current congress (25% of Conservatives), they want to abolish Social Security, get rid of the Post office, think Obama wasn’t born in the U.S., and think he’s a Muslim.

Just look at the conservative end of virtually any poll and you will find that 20–25%.