Washington We Have A Dixie Problem

Washington, we have a Dixie problem, again. Before I define it, we must recognize that it’s not limited to Dixie any longer. What is the Dixie problem? The same as it has always been, religion-based conservatism. Look there’s nothing wrong with the creeping conservatism of age. There’s nothing wrong with true fiscal conservatism. However, this is religious conservatism, that was born in Dixie and spread throughout the Mid-West. It has infected most of rural America.

Obviously, religion is not an infection. Religion was very important to Americans during Colonial Times. This continued through the first two hundred years. Even today, even as some lawmakers disagree with the practice, there are legislative sessions across this nation that open with a prayer. I was at a budget committee hearing that opened with a prayer and The Pledge to make sure God was invoked twice before the start of the hearing.

In 2021, the problem is with the importance conservatives are assigning to religion. It is that they are trying to put the Bible above the Constitution and wanting to use the First Amendment, of same to accomplish it. They believe if they have more votes in their small population state, my religious beliefs are irrelevant.

They believe for instance that abortion is wrong. Fine, don’t get one. But the Supreme Court says its your right as free American woman to get one. However, ever since Roe was decided, recognizing that right, states under the guise of “states rights” have been using religion to whittle away at that right.

Here’s why that is a problem for a democratic republic. The Constitution has certain checks and balances to keep everyone’s rights equal. However, in 2021 conservatives are using religion as a reason to support Trumpism. They use religion to justify parents and parochial school teachers, skipping Darwin. They use religion to teach students that the Earth is only 4,000 years old as opposed to its actual age of 4 billion years old.

It is because of these horrible education “standards” that they are creating poorly educated voters. They turnout voters that believe the African-American slaves that built the nation were happy laborers rather than the tortured chattel they actually were. Teachers in these districts are actually given curriculum and text books that teach a bleached white version of American history. They include the biblical version of the creation in their curriculum. They teach that it is just as theoretically possible as the big bang theory.

The problem with conservative religions is they don’t accept all the facts now known to man. Facts learned after Man wrote a series of essays that were eventually assembled and elevated to the “Word of God” as written down by Man. God is an issue of faith, but when you teach that, what you have faith in is fact, that is where America’s conflict arises.

Religious conservatives have a problem separating faith from fact. When they hammer it into their children’s heads that what they are taught at Bible school is fact and what is taught in school is theory, well you end up with voters who will believe an election was stolen from them. Why, because the people saying it wasn’t, aren’t like “us”; that don’t accept the risen Jesus Christ as fact. They don’t accept that God chose Donald Trump to be president, just like He told them to vote for him.

If that were true would not God have chosen someone more like his son Jesus. Someone who was smart, compassionate and poor, as opposed to a cruel, stupid, rich man.

Teachers teach, it is an act of faith to believe in Jesus. Whereas throughout the religious conservative community preachers teach the Holy Trinity is as factual as gravity. But more powerful than even gravity.

Politicians love to say there is more that we have in common than that which separates us. I have always thought that to be accurate. The problem is what separates us. How does a politician who, obeys his Sabbath over the weekend, come back to Washington to deal with other lawmakers that believe that God wants Trumps to still be president and they will do everything (and anything) to make that happen?

How do neighbors deal with each other in our metropolitan areas? I have a lot of liberal bumper stickers on my minivan. I have had people come up to me and say “I love your bumper stickers”. I have had people verbally assault me over them, defending The Donald like he was Geo. Washington incarnate. One neighbor flew the Stars & Bars off his back so not all his neighbors knew his politics. Then he got caught tearing my first Impeach Trump bumper sticker off. How does America get back to where we once were, if this is where we are now?

Once upon a time when my parents were young, they fought a World War. Some of them fought in Europe and others South Pacific. However, what was important about those forces is that some were Catholics, Protestants, Jews, and even 1940’s Evangelicals. However, they weren’t fighting for God, they were fighting for themselves, for the person next to him and in the fog of war that man’s religion didn’t mean a thing. They were fighting for the United States of America, not for their local parish or synagogue.

What’s most amazing is that these men and women who fought that awful war came home and decided they wanted to change their country to be freer and more like the Americans they fought alongside, Black, White, Protestant and Jew. More importantly they accomplished it.

Then their children “found Jesus” and their dreams were dashed on the altar of self-absorption. The “Give Peace a Chance” generation morphed into the “Me” generation. When the guilt of their selfishness caught up to them, they found a religious sect that allows them their selfishness because, they have already accepted Jesus.

I think they better hope that my faith that God is all forgiving is true. He gave us the intellect to create the United States of America. I don’t think he’s going to be happy if we use our free will to choose faith in Him over using our God given intellects to solve our mutual problems.