Up Is Down, Backwards Is Forwards

The condensed version of this post is:

Aaaaaaaaarrrrrrrrggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhh!

Read on for the non-condensed version:

Welcome to the world of Iowa Rep. Steve King. It is a pretty crazy place. It is a world that goes beyond the craziness of labeling Barack Obama as a socialist. In King’s world a Barack Obama victory would lead to a totalitarian dictatorship. I thought we already have that now with George W. Bush.

Here are some selected Kingisms:

“When you take a lurch to the left you end up in a totalitarian dictatorship. There is no freedom to the left. It’s always to our side of the aisle.”

“Obama is ACORN… When I see Obama, I see ACORN branded on his forehead.”

"Environmental extremists want all things off the table that have anything to do with drilling and putting up wind machines. Geo-thermal is out, too, because it requires a drill rig and apparatus. The extremists are against using what the Creator placed there for us to use."

“Obama will only appoint judicial activists. We need a Supreme Court that will uphold what the majority of Americans believe in and the intentions of the Constitution."

"We put a lot of energy and resources into our children to raise them in the American way and in our Christian faith and teach them values based on these. Obama's upbringing involves his father returning to his first wife after Barrack's birth and becoming a polygamist. His step-father was also a polygamist. He eventually wound up living with his grandparents in Hawaii who were strong leftists. He also writes about his fondness for his Uncle Frank who is a Marxist intellectual. His mother went to The Little Red Church on the Hill in Seattle, a self-proclaimed atheist church where it was said, 'They raise red-diaper babies,' babies that were raised to be left wing hard core atheists."

"Obama was not raised with an intentional attitude toward Americanism. Does he have an understanding of American patriotism, respect for our nation and what it's been through, our culture or the Christian religion upon which our nation was founded? The way to look at the reasons Obama doesn't place his hand over his heart when the National Anthem is playing, or wear an American flag pin is primarily because he is not wilful or spiteful, but because it just doesn't occur to him because it's not the way he's been raised. American patriotism is not imprinted on his mind or in his heart, because he wasn't raised as an American. Is this the kind of foundation you want for your next president? The president of the strongest country in the free world. We need to elect a president that is going to protect us under our Bill of Rights."

“People out there have jobs, they’re working, the economy’s flowing.”

There is more. Things like calling Joe McCarthy “a great American hero.” But one must stop somewhere.

Barack Obama will become the first dictator of the United States.

From Dictator:

In modern usage, the term "dictator" is generally used to describe a leader who holds and/or abuses an extraordinary amount of personal power, especially the power to make laws without effective restraint by a legislative assembly. Dictatorships are often characterized by some of the following traits: suspension of elections and of civil liberties; proclamation of a state of emergency; rule by decree; repression of political opponents without abiding by rule of law procedures; these include single-party state, and cult of personality.

Does that describe Barack Obama to you? Or does it sound more like George W. Bush?

Again from Dictator:

A wide variety of leaders coming to power in a number of different kinds of regimes, such as military juntas, single-party states and civilian governments under personal rule, have been described as dictators.

According to Rep. King, if Obama is elected, there will need to be some updating done over at Wikipedia, and all of our dictionaries might as well be thrown away.

“There is no freedom to the left.” How does King define freedom? How does King define left? Have we not lost a significant number of our freedoms in the last eight years under the extreme right-wing policies of George W. Bush?

Does King think we should go back to the days of slavery? Does he see brands on the foreheads of any other African-Americans? Have they been burnt into their flesh?

How many “environmental extremists” don’t want wind power or geo-thermal? One? Five? Fifty? It is not just “extremists” that believe in conservation. Also, some Americans do not believe in a creator. And some Americans believe in a different creator than the one King believes in. Some Americans believe in the separation of church and state. King gives us a good reason for why they believe this.

Activist judges? Excuse me, what could be more activist than the Supreme Court deciding, against the will of the people, who the president will be? The “intentions of the Constitution” have been run through the shredder so many times by the Bush administration that I have lost count. And King is worried about Obama?

“Left wing hard core atheists” vote. Guess who most of them will be voting for? America is not a Christian nation. Jews vote. Agnostics vote. Muslims vote. Hindus vote. Buddhists vote. Shintoists vote. Guess who most of them will be voting for? Rep. King, you should get your head out of the sand and take a look around at some of your fellow Americans. They are just as much American as you are, whether you like it or not.

“The Little Red Church on the Hill” is just a nickname. As far as I can tell “The Little Red Church on the Hill in Seattle” is officially called the East Shore Unitarian Church. Oh those crazy Unitarians, they accept everyone. Even atheists. It kind of reminds me of some country somewhere that does the same thing. It sure would sound different if King had said that Obama’s mother went to the East Shore Unitarian Church, wouldn’t it? By the way, my mother goes to a Catholic Church every Sunday. I was raised to be a good little Catholic. What does that say about my mother? What does that say about me?

Whom does one worship at “a self-proclaimed atheist church”? Praise be to ye that does not exist?

I don’t put my hand over my heart for anything. I don’t recite the Pledge of Allegiance. I don’t sing patriotic songs. I don’t wear flag pins. I have voted in every presidential election since I was old enough to do so. Guess who I will be voting for?

None of my grandparents were “raised as an American.” They came here from another country and became United States citizens. What’s wrong with that? Does King even pay attention to the inanities that come out of his mouth?

“We need to elect a president that is going to protect us under our Bill of Rights." What we really need is to elect a president that is going to protect the Bill of Rights. (By golly, they actually take an oath about this.) What we really need is to elect a president that is going to protect us from radical Republicans like George W. Bush… and Steve King.

“People out there have jobs, they’re working, the economy’s flowing.” Has King been holed up in Cheney’s bunker for the last year? Like I said before, Rep. King, get your head out of the sand and take a look around. It’s kinda scary out there. Not in a black man, Muslim, terrorist, socialist kind of way. It’s more like a collapse of our entire economy kind of way. What did eight years of George W. Bush do for us? Perhaps it is time for a change.

America is supposed to be the land of the free. Freedom means that one can choose to be a Non-Christian, leftist, socialist in the United States, if one wants to be. It is what our country is all about. Why is Steven King against this?

My main sources for the King quotes are here and here and here.