Marco Rubi-uh-Ohhh
I’m pretty sure a lot of you have seen Marco memes floating around after his GQ magazine interview last month. That would be the one where he professed a “young earth” belief. Now, you can watch him flip flop during his interview with Mike Allen from Politico. Marco says,
There is no scientific debate on the age of the earth. I mean, it’s established pretty definitively, it’s at least 4.5 billion years old. … I believe that in the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. And I think that scientific advances have given us insight into when he did it and how he did it, but I still believe God did it.
Marco goes on to say how science and religion have a sort of NOMA thing going on. Yeah, he actually said “there is no conflict” between science and the bible. I think there might be something a lot bigger starting to happen here.
This fairly right leaning politician and his flip flop makes me think of the old, stuck in cement at 89 degrees to the right, Pat Robertson from 700 Club fame. Pat made a not dissimilar comment a few days ago about the age of the earth when explaining the earth is far older than Bishop [James] Ussher had figured.
Hell, even the asshat of the digital airwaves – Bill O’Reilly – said, “it is a *fact* that Christianity is not a religion – it’s a philosophy”. (Go to the 1:35 mark on the video)
Please understand that my mind is always leaping from subject to subject and people don’t always follow my conversations if they are not paying attention. Now, I ask you for a bit of leeway during my speculation and mental diarrhea here… For the rest of this post, you could use religious and republican interchangeably.
Some are saying the Republican Party is tanking in the eyes of many. It’s said they are out of touch, out of date, and it’s costing the group. I will give a bit of history from my perspective, some of their problems, then talk a bit about what I think is happening now.
During the 1960s, the splintered religious factions (Catholic, Baptist, and the rest) joined under the banner of “Christian” when fighting abortion. Later, they started to really see how much power they could wield since about the time Ronald Reagan was president. For the last 3 decades, the Republicans have been joined at the hip to (usually) Evangelical Christians. Until recently, it’s been quite successful.
Their fear of women, LGBT, and a fair sprinkling of racism has been deeply rooted in their belief of their religion. I don’t even need to say what many right leaning people think about science in general once I say the word “Creationism”. As for their love of taxing the middle and lower class, I can’t find any good reason why they are big on taxing only those who are not rich. I really only find Mark 12:17. I can only assume they just “don’t wanna pay taxes”.
In a bid to show they are not completely out of touch, I’m thinking the religious / Republican dam is beginning to have a few leaks spring forth. These leaks are mostly on the science front to give, I feel, some more “reasonable” soundbites for the masses. I do not think this is a planned effort by the GOP, but I do think some of the Republicans see some writing on the wall. I doubt highly that Marco believes the science, but he sees where his bread is buttered.
Obama got reelected – it wasn’t a fluke the first time. People are getting angry with their representatives. Americans are learning that the president can’t accomplish much when Republicans are holding his plans in check. I’m not saying Obama is prefect or magical, but he’s a damn sight better than Romney would have been, in my opinion.
To summarize my rant, I think this is the start of the religious / republican damage control. Will it help? I don’t really think so. People can usually tell when they are being lied to – if they pay attention. And, I think people are starting to wake up. Finally.
~Wesley