By OcJim
After falling from grace for his insidious connection to the Jack Abramoff scandal in 2005, Ralph Reed is back in full force. Not convicted but being disgraced as part of the Evangelical circuit, Ralph Reed is again running “Jesus” scams for politicians, this while a reformed Abramoff is out of prison and offering good advice to would-be political malefactors.
Since the early 1980s, a troika of grifters distinguished themselves as scoundrels who effectively polluted politics. They included Ralph Reed, Jack Abramoff and Grover Norquist. Ralph Reed is said to be the most odious – and the most effectual. According to Jack Abramoff in a 2002 email to his convicted co-conspirator, Mike Scanlon, Reed is a “bad version” of them (more corrupt than they are), but quite helpful in delivering the religious right-wing to George W. Bush in the 2000 and 2004 elections.
Who is Ralph Reed and why should we care? We should care because his efforts make a difference in our lives regarding those elected to high political positions, making our laws and ruling our lives. Religious fundamentalists like him are part of the relentless, even ruthless, effort to bring out conservative, evangelical voters, suppress progressive voting by making such voting more difficult and by souring voters who don’t seem to realize what is at stake in elections. The emotion of religion draws voters to the polls, while a Congress with a 9% approval rating summarily keeps other voters away.
A robotic, even moribund, Romney doesn’t inspire, but a fundamentalist electorate is spurred to vote for him by the religious right agenda of anti-abortion, anti-birth-control, anti-gay issues, the evils of secularism, the fight against Obama’s so-called “socialism,” the $125 million campaign against “Obamacare” – all are unifying issues for the religious right.
The progressives on the other side of polarization have no effective cry to invigorate the voter. In fact, Republican leaders in Congress are betting that blocking any legislative progress will not hurt Republicans, perhaps even turn away progressive voters.
What does this mean? It means that Democrats and Obama may be in trouble for the next election.
Just last June, Reed out-hustled Democrats in Wisconsin, helping Governor Scott Walker to beat recall efforts by marshalling some 600,000 conservative, evangelical voters to the polls. Earlier this year, Right Wing Watch reported that “GOP Presidentials Line Up to Kiss Ralph Reed’s … Ring.”
Reed, who is youthful looking at 51, marshaled his “Faith and Freedom Coalition” voter-turnout machine, his efforts gathering Romney, Santorum, Gingrich, Ron Paul, and Rick Perry together before the South Carolina debate. “We are here today because we say unapologetically and unequivocally that there cannot be true freedom without faith in almighty God,” announced Reed, who is seemingly resurrected from his Abramoff-era disgrace.
Though the Constitution says there shall be no religious test to hold office, Republican presidential candidates must seek those who exploit religion like fundamentalists Bryan Fischer and Ralph Reed. Reed claims that he is going to register 2 million new voters and compile a database of 27 million voters who will be contacted over and over up through election day.
His goal, a Romney presidency, would overall make a mockery of the Christian principles Reed espouses by venerating the rich and attacking the vulnerable and the poor.
Romney has made clear he would kill Medicare, “Obamacare,” and Medicaid. He would privatize social security, raise taxes on the middle class, lower taxes even more for the rich, assure more lagging income levels for the non-rich, and appoint more conservative Supreme Court justices.
Are you scared enough yet to vote, and vote in favor of your own interests?
People like Ralph Reed are betting that you aren’t, as evidenced by Reed’s success in defending Scott Walker, the champion of plutocrats, in Wisconsin.
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Right-wing evangelizers, Ralph Reed and Fischer on Youtube:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/03/ralph-reed-christians-need-beg-forgiveness_n_1738745.html – Reed Appeal.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tm2EEvxVmho&feature=player_embedded – Fischer: Tax you if you don’t go to church.
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