La vie en prose

Maybe I’m late to the party criticizing this video, but my reaction to it upon first viewing has been so visceral that I had to share. This is why I will vote for Obama. Thank you for radicalizing me, Perry. Thank you for reminding me of the ignorance that threatens to seize this country where it really matters - in our hearts and minds, not our wallets.

There are so many, many, many things wrong with this video. I’ll just mention two:

Logical fallacy: “Being openly gay” is synonymous with “being openly religious.” By this logic, gay is a sort of religion, a code of ethics that guides decision-making. The gay religion has been granted rights that the Christian religion is being refused, even though “faith made America strong.” Therefore, Christians should be granted the same rights as gays. Okay then. By this logic, we should take away openly Christians’ right to marry each other and deny them entrance to the military until a couple of months ago. We should make them live in fear of being rejected from society for their openness, live in fear of being bullied and beaten to death; we should make Christians fear for their lives for what they believe in. Right?

Logical fallacy: “Faith made this country strong.” False. The freedom to practice whatever faith you wanted to practice without fear of persecution made this country strong. Persecuted minority sects of Christians who challenged the contemporary mainstream and were terrorized because of it made this country strong. They fled the status quo and founded this country. They fled the conservative norms and founded this country. These persecuted peoples rigorously and systematically separated their faith from their government to avoid any and all persecution or favoritism on the basis of religious belief. And yet, by suggesting that the status quo Christian America is somehow threatened by this minority alternative to religion, homosexuality, Perry harkens back to a pre-Colonial, pre-America time when small alternative communities were persecuted for their beliefs in Europe. In suggesting that “something is wrong with this country” when an alternative community is allowed to openly practice its belief system, Perry ironically sets up his would-be underdog, Christian America, as the oppressive Britain that our Founding Fathers fled.

Perry, you fail. You fail, you fail, you fail. Perry, you are what’s wrong with this country. Perry, I would personally storm the White House were you to be elected to speak for me or any of my friends or family. Perry, you’re a disgrace to America.