fraggle
Super Moderator
Posts: 6000
Registered: 07-00 |
Phobus said:
I've seen this plastered all over the internet and villified... but I kind of don't quite see the problem myself? I must be interpreting it some other way to everybody else.
Your profile page says that you're (like me) in the UK, so if you don't know about the subtleties of American politics then I'm not surprised that you don't understand the objections. Key things to know are:
- About a year ago, the US ended a law called Dont Ask-Don't Tell, that banned gays from serving openly in the military. Polling suggests that even most Republicans supported this, so it's only the most extreme conservatives that wanted to keep this law.
- The US constitution bans the US government from endorsing a religion. Unlike in the UK where religious worship is mandated in schools, in the US, any form of religious instruction is actually banned. This isn't to say that prayer is banned outright - students can still form prayer groups, for example. It just means that the school itself can't do anything seen as officially endorsing a religion. This rule has only been properly enforced in the past few decades, and a lot of conservatives are upset about "prayer being taken out of schools" etc. Hence Perry's comments.
As I see it, he's saying people should be left to their own thing (shagging other men or worshipping the sky in the expectency that it'll make you a better person) on an equal footing.
In light of what I explain above, hopefully the objections people have will make more sense. He isn't advocating tolerance for homosexuals: he's in favour of a (now repealed) law that actively discriminated against them. Similarly, in religious terms, he isn't advocating that people should be left alone to "do their own thing" - he's advocating that schools (and the government by implication) should be actively promoting Christian religious beliefs - something that goes against the US constitution.
The worst part though is that it's a ridiculous, sensationalist advert. He talks about "Obama's war on religion" as though there's an active campaign of persecution against Christians underway by the Obama administration, which is nonsense - remember that Obama himself is a Christian as well. He's misrepresenting his opponent to prey on the fears of religious voters, inventing an attack on their beliefs to scare them into supporting him.
Admitadly the video does come across quite pro-religion, and his own self-approval is a very odd addition :\
Self-approval is a normal thing in American political adverts, so that the viewers know that the advert is made by the person that it appears to be supporting. Here's a similar advert from the Obama campaign for example.
|
12-08-11 21:50 
