Faith and Freedom Coalition: Is Obama Greater Threat than Nazis?
OK, time for a survey. First question: How much danger do you think liberty is in right now as a result of President Obama’s policies, actions and agenda for America’s future?
- More serious that the threats we faced in World War II from Nazi Germany and the Japanese because the attack on liberty is from our own government.
- More serious than the threat we faced from the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
- More serious than the Civil War.
- All of the above.
- Serious, but not as serious as the threats to liberty listed above.
- President Obama is not an enemy of liberty.
- Undecided.
If you picked A, B, C or, especially, D, go to the head of the class. You’re a prime candidate for the Faith and Freedom Coalition’s “Battle Plan to ‘Save Freedom’ in 2012.” If you chose F, not so much.
Because, according to the Coalition, Obama wants a society where “bureaucrats micromanage every aspect of your life,” the “IRS seizes most of what you earn,” and health care rationing boards decide “ultimately whether you live or die.
The question above is part of a “survey” contained in a Faith and Freedom Coalition fund-raising letter that arrived this week. What any of it has to do with faith is a mystery. But it sure resembles the same type of absurd attacks we’ve seen from far-right extremists – attacks that bear no resemblance whatsoever to any actual policies pushed by the administration.
It’s no surprise. The letter comes from the Faith and Freedom Coalition, an outfit founded and run by Ralph Reed, the longtime conservative activist and former head of the Christian Coalition. In 2004, amid the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal, it came to light that Reed’s public relations and lobbying companies took $4.2 million from Abramoff, who later spent four years in federal prison, to mobilize Christians to fight Indian casinos. It was all a big subterfuge. The beneficiaries were other gambling interests Abramoff represented, who simply were trying to quash the competition by ginning up outrage among anti-gambling Christians.
So let's see what other questions the survey asks.
One is, "Do you think Hugo Chavez and Fidel Castro see President Obama as an ally of theirs? Or do you think Chavez was just joking about President Obama's Communist beliefs?"
Oh, my. That might be bad. Is it true? A quick check reveals that in 2009, Chavez joked that when GM filed for bankruptcy and gave the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the company that he and Castro were going to end up to the right of Obama. Operative word: joked. In December, 2011, Chavez referred to Obama as a "clown" and an "embarrassment" after Obama criticized Venezuela's links to Iran and Cuba. So, we choose answer B: "I think Hugo Chavez was just joking."
In a follow-up question, the Coalition asks: “When Fidel Castro hailed the passage of ObamaCare as a ‘miracle’ do you think this is because he is honestly concerned with the well-being of Americans? Or is it more likely that Castro sees ObamaCare as the fastest, surest way to bring Socialism (or worse) to America?”
Let's check. According to the March 25, 2010, Havana Journal, Castro did praise the American health care act, stating that it was remarkable that the most powerful country on Earth took more than 200 years to pass something as basic as health benefits for all its citizens, something Cuba did 50 years ago. Castro then used the opportunity to criticize Obama for a variety of other things, including the environment and the war in Afghanistan. Looks like Castro seeing "ObamaCare" as the fastest way to bring Socialism to America is the wrong answer there.
Yet another question asks us to identify Obama's true political ideology. Our choices: Mostly Conservative, Moderate, Mostly Liberal, Far-Left, Socialist, Communist, Fascist, Not Sure, and Other.
We're guessing that answering "Moderate" or "Mostly Conservative" disqualifies you from helping to “Save Freedom.” Answering "Socialist," "Communist" or "Fascist" will probably keep you on the mailing list, however, and subject to yet more surveys. So we’ll say Moderate.
