A very good point was made in an article at Crooks and Liars.com that was referencing the progressive attitude regarding the Texas textbook controversy. I am pasting it below…

“Still, in all the reports I’ve seen about this, there’s a certain derision from the left that sends danger signals off in me. Laugh at the Texas School Board at your own peril. They have just succeeded in approving a statewide curriculum indoctrinating students, educating them on a single point of view, and threatening our national curriculum in far too many ways. To shrug them off or paint them as buffoons misses their larger, and largely successful, plan.

From The Nation:

So progressives could be forgiven for branding the right as stupid and crazy. But they would also be wrong. For if this is madness, there is great method in it. It is well organized and well funded. It has proven effective in mobilizing support, creating “controversy” where little exists and disrupting and disorienting whatever national conversation there is. If it is stupid, then what does it say about us, since time and again it manages to outmaneuver the left?

It’s really time to, in their words, “take back our country.”

It is ALL relevant, but I have highlighted the portions that are particularly poignant! Not only is this spot on regarding cautioning a cavalier attitude toward the impending success of the Texas Board of Education in their quest to re-write American history for our children, it is also precisely the same caution that needs to be used regarding Christian Dominionists. Not the least of which is Sarah Palin.

I know I have shared in the past that I am routinely met with dismissal about the dangers of Palin & Co., and most ardently by people who count themselves as “in the know”. That, in and of itself, is exactly what contributes to making her/them even more dangerous. The sillier she acts, the more we roll our eyes and declare her unworthy of our time. This makes her a perfect distraction and keeps our eyes off the ball.

And now enter Rand Paul…it is no accident that his name is “Rand”. As in Ayn Rand. Randers are all for one and one for one. He has not only proposed outrageous positions on reversing discrimination…but a recension of the American Disabilities Act. It is important to understand that this is not an isolated wingnut spewing insanity. It is a thread of ideology shared by these extremists. They just don’t let it out of the room so blatantly as Rand did after his election win in Kentucky. As Palin recently said in her efforts to rally a defense for the poor victimized Paul…

PoliticusUSA.com

by Jason Easley

[...]Sarah Palin was on Fox News Sunday today and when asked about Rand Paul’s comments on the Civil Rights Act, she blamed the media, specifically Rachel Maddow. Palin said, “Being able to engage in a discussion with a TV character media a media personality who perhaps had an agenda in answering the question and interpreting his answer as she did.”After touting Paul’s clarification of his civil rights position, Palin then blamed MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow, “I think there is certainly a double standard here. When Rand Paul had anticipated that he’d be able to engage in a discussion, he being a Libertarian leaning constitutional conservative, being able to engage in a discussion with a TV character media a media personality who perhaps had an agenda in answering the question and interpreting his answer as she did.”

She then claimed that Maddow was prejudiced even before the interview, “So you know one thing that we can learn in this lesson that I have learned and Rand Paul is learning now is don’t assume that you can engage in a hypothetical discussion about constitutional impacts with a reporter or a media personality who has an agenda, who may be prejudice before they even get into the interview in regards to what your answer may be, and then the opportunity that they seize to get ya. You know they’re looking for that gotcha moment, and that’s what it evidently appears to be what they did with Rand Paul.”[...]

It’s always someone else’ fault and they are the proverbial victims. Take the time to read Jason’s entire article…they do great work at this site regarding Palin.

One of the areas of blatant discrimination harbored by these extremists was also revealed as Paul espoused about reversing the American Disabilities Act. And that was drawn out of him by tricky “gotcha” journalism tactics by an evil “prejudice” Liberal like Rachel Maddow. Here is a snippet from a letter we received at MRFF (Military Religious Freedom Foundation) this past week that gives you a chilling sense of how entrenched these biases truly are. And remember, this was in a room full of Christian Dominionist enlisted chitting the chat…

“[...] I deeply regret my own cowardice in staying silent in Wood auditorium. I did speak up in my smaller seminar class, but it was like talking to a bunch of brick walls. Their prejudice goes beyond religion. Obviously there is the blatant homophobia, but I was also stunned into silence today when my classmate revealed that he would not “tolerate” someone with a handicap. He was serious.”

I don’t know about you, but that sends chills reverberating down my spine. There is absolutely zero sympathy for any one who is not like them. You cannot have any “defect” as perceived by them, including your type of Christianity. They are getting bolder and bolder – fueled by intolerant dogma and this is a new low. This isn’t “gotcha” media tactics…they are proud of their intolerance and piety and it is truly more of a struggle for them to hold back.

So, getting back to the original point and title of this post…as fringe as these people are; as archaic as their “roll-back” our democracy push is; as unbelievable as their theocratic mandates are; and as low-information and unintelligible as their spokespeople are…dismiss at our own peril is a mild warning! They trounce us on fundraising, member participation and turn out. All they have to do is pass the collection plate on Sundays once, twice or ten times and voila! They are funded to out-perform us in so many venues it is alarming.

It bears repeating that we cannot – nor do we want to – compete with their lunacy and intolerance, but we must begin to make our own presence known. It is challenging because we aren’t as “newsworthy” as a bunch of bigots holding up misspelled signs and shouting inflammatory rhetoric straight out of the delusional paranoia wing of your local asylum. And yes, I am including Palin’s lies to the NRA crowd in Charlotte, North Carolina when she fueled their fears that Obama has an unspoken secret anti-gun agenda, saying “don’t doubt for a minute that if they thought they could get away with it, they would ban guns and ban ammunition and gut the 2nd Amendment”.

They simply make things up! There is zero honesty, integrity and the ends justify the means. And…it is working for them. Fear, paranoia and lies are the power that generate their funding and increasing numbers. As the above excerpt from The Nation states, it is time for US to “take our country BACK!”