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Preaching to the Choir Part 3:The Right's Jeremiah

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This is the kind of willful, insistent angry ignorance that filled the halls of a church that claimed to proclaim love and joy of our great and varied country, yet told a woman who dared admit she was a democrat that she needed to leave, she wasn't welcome to see her own congressman because she was a commie, etc. This is a true story of someone else whose willful public humiliation didn't quite make it into the news. And, like me, she made a point of recording it for the good people of MohaveCounty to share.

BullheadCity blogger Kim Lawrence recounted her catalyzing experience in her brand new blog, "Activist in Training "I wasn't afraid...yet. My friend and I sat down and I was immediately called out for being a Democrat. I was called evil, a socialist and a communist, then asked to leave. All this coming from a well dressed older gentleman who looked like he could have been very nice. I stayed my ground, stating I am an American citizen and had a right to be there.

"It was a frightening ordeal and not necessarily from the standpoint of being a liberal in a hall of extreme right wingers, but more from the standpoint of an American seeing such outright hatred. I understand anger. Many are angry at rising costs, that their man didn't win the Presidency, and many don't agree with liberal politics, but the blind, raw hate that has come to surface and enticed by so called leaders like Franks is the most disturbing thing I think I've come across.

This was the kind of crowd who scared also a man in attendance because as the event proceeded he became physically afraid he'd be called out as a non-believer and the crowd would turn against him and the guy was once a wrestling coach. This is the kind of crowd that wants a man like Trent Franks to tell them they are the good guys even as they do things their bibles tell them are bad: acting in hate, supporting unjust wars, ignoring the needs of the sick and the poor.

And Trent Franks is the right Jeremiah to preach that such acts are righteousness and it's the wicked in the society that are to be condemned for its sufferings: the immigrants, the foreigners, the poor. Trent Franks is as anti- an anti- liberal as could be concocted in a Heritage Foundation think tank if they had a genetic lab. For just one example, he is so determinedly against legislation aimed to improve women's equality that he's figured out a way to vote against bills to help women end wage discrimination five different times, under five different names. That's dedicated.

So after his momentary flinch, that brief shining instant of his tape loop reloading, Franks made the right move to cast me, the designated non-believer, to the flaming pit while the multitude cheered and then continued to entertain "birther questions long after even the converted had lost patience with it. Why?

In this, Franks was little different from Tempe's Steve Anderson, the stridently Right AZ minister who now has twice called for the president's death from the pulpit. If that's not the equivalent of "Goddamn America, then I'm unsure what qualifies.

But, here's the thing that the righteous of Kingman missed.

After the crowds had left and the autograph lines formed. Yep, I got Trent Franks' autograph, even a couple of photographs of us mugging for the camera. I've got this one photograph showing us smiling as he told me how much alike we were and how much we probably agree on.

For Franks the scene was little more than stagecraft meant to sway the masses. He had played me like a ricochet and won the moment. But if Jeremiah Wright had been wrong for using the church to condemn our country's leaders, then Trent Franks is the Right's Jeremiah.

And if Trent Franks is what passes for what is right these days, I am proud so many call me wrong.

--mikel weisser writes from the left coast of Arizona

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Recently a Democratic candidate for Arizona's new Congressional District 4, Mikel Weisser has been challenging the right and raising a ruckus since the 1980s. Born the son of a nightclub singer, Mikel Weisser watched anti-war hippies getting beaten (more...)
 
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