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Select quotes from progressive bloggers on Rick Warren, Obama's invocation choice
Kos:
Digby:
John Avarosis (Americablog):
Glen Greenwald:
Yeah. Where is David Duke's invitation? Or as Blue Texan notes, when do Phelps and Hagee get their invitations? Heck, throw up Tom Tancredo up there for good measure, so us Latinos can feel some of the hate!
Digby:
Obama is validating the views of the Christian Right and they may very well be moved enough by that to become Democrats. But it naturally follows that in order to keep their votes, the Democrats would have to honor their agenda and views --- the evangelicals are big voting bloc and if the Democrats become the social conservative party, they could count on their votes for sure. (If they don't make substantial moves toward social conservatism, this won't work, obviously.)Greg Sargent:
After all, the decision really gives Warren an extraordinary platform -- not to mention yet another data point supporting the bogus notion that the radical Warren is some kind of "moderate." If the first black president doesn't mind him giving the invocation at his historic inaugural, how bad and bigoted can he really be?Jane Hamsher (Firedoglake.com):
Rick Warren is a bloated, narcissistic egomaniac who got elevated in the last election because McCain and Obama shared the common goal of diminishing the importance of people like James Dobson. Warren is cut from the same mold, with just slightly less offensive packaging. He's a vicious homophobe who used the political power he gained from the Saddleback event to spread the lies that helped to pass Prop 8.
John Avarosis (Americablog):
It's odd, and therefore telling, that Obama considers all of us equals, yet he only seems to reach out to those who bash gays, and not those who bash blacks, or Jews, or people with disabilities, or any other member of America's civil rights community.
Glen Greenwald:
Of all the preachers Obama could have selected to elevate and validate (and, in every sense, it was Obama's choice), Warren is one of the most destructive -- not only having been one of the most vocal supporters for Proposition 8, but also using the most inflammatory rhetoric on gay issues generally, expressing anti-abortion views in the most fanatical terms possible, and even sitting with Sean Hannity recently and urging the murder of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.
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I do believe it is possible I have fallen down the rabbit hole. I always knew Obama was a "uniter" it just never occurred to me that it would be the progressives and the right wing zealots uniting to sabotage his presidency before it even starts...
What a crazy world we live in.
December 18, 2008 9:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Obama would like to sell himself as being open minded and forgiving. He says he wants to "bring everyone to the table" -- that there's room for everyone under his "big tent." But if you look at who he's inviting you quickly are forced to ask "Who benefits?"
David Duke is not there.
Lewis Farrakhan is not there praying either.
No, he's invited Rick Warren because he represents huge political capital to Obama.
Obama has already said he is not a man given to principles in the absolutist sense; rather, that he is a Pragmatist. This may explain superficially why he would ask this virulent homophobe to the inauguration and call it a gesture of inclusion. But Obama is not asking the pragmatic question "What works?" in terms of the American collective and its common good; he is asking "What works for Obama?" This is what differentiates a Pragmatist from someone employing the self-driven and narcissistic dynamics of Realpolitik.
Obama is pandering for self-benefit, no matter what shade of lipstick he paints on this pig. He's attempting to steal the Christianist right-wing of the conservative base and he can be just as successful at this as George W. Bush. Like Bush, he doesn't even have to deliver on his domestic policy promises; he only has to appeal to these "unwashed masses" through the machinations of Straussian "Neo-Conservatism" -- "the big lie." Oh yes, he can do this with the expertise of Karl Rove; but he can never call himself ethical. By calling himself a Pragmatist, he can pretend to set aside ethics for a more "esoteric imperative," as Leo Strauss might reason. But in the final wash, Obama is just another casualty who has thrown himself at the massive wheels of the Juggernaut of the Israel Lobby.
His is the Pragmatism of Strussianism. Henry Kissinger will recognize it as Realpolitik. This inauguration, with all of Obama's conservative and New Democrat friends at the table presents an omen of things to come. Call it "change" all you want but it still sticks a rude irony in your face: "meet the new boss, same as the old boss."
With all these lobbyists sitting fat and happy at the New Democrat table, all hope is lost for the Republic.
December 19, 2008 1:58 PM | Reply | Permalink
The same old tired criticisms from people who can't see the forest for the trees. I am fully behind their right to bitch, but I find it terribly self defeating.
I would think at least one of these "big thinkers" would have the savvy to see how Barack isn't co-opting the evangelicals in order to change his agenda to theirs. Nor is he bringing in smart Clinton folks to let them make the same mistakes they made before.
It is clear he expects to guide this motley crew away from the place they have been standing in for decades, blocking all of our progress. If all he did was play to the far left of the country and govern strictly for his base, then half the country would fight everything he wants to accomplish.
Rather than seeing his decisions as dooming the republic, I see it as the only way the republic can be saved. If he can't get these people to soften their hearts and their opposition and find their conscience, then we are more screwed than if he kept the democratic base happy at the expense of getting anything done.
That is what seems self-evident to me.
December 19, 2008 7:46 PM | Reply | Permalink