From VFR, January 2005: “A new religion is born”

When we consider the adrenalized super-democratism and super-Americanism of Marco Rubio, and the fact that he seems to be virtually the most popular figure in the Republican party and everyone’s choice to be vice president and then president (all on the basis of his having been a U.S. senator for a year and three months), we realize once again to our horror that the Bush ideology, notwithstanding the catastrophes to which it has repeatedly led, is not discredited in the minds of Republicans and mainstream conservatives, but is as powerful as ever. Therefore this entry, posted three days after Bush’s 2005 lunatic inaugural address, is more relevant than ever:

A new religion is born

In the January Commentary David Gelernter announced that Americanism is a religion—and not just a civic religion or a political religion (which are familiar concepts in American political science), but a real religion, a “Judeo-Christian” religion, meaning that Americanism is the equivalent of Catholicism and Protestantism and Judaism.

In his January 20th inaugural address, President George W. Bush announced, in a more arrogant, unmodulated, and hectoring tone than ever before, that freedom—a word he repeated 35 times in the 17 minute speech, along with 15 repetitions of “liberty”—is a gift to every human being from God; that this freedom, which Bush did not define or give any content to, is the highest and most supreme of all values in the universe, so that the freedom virtually replaces the God who is giving it; and, finally, that it’s America’s duty and mission to spread this freedom to every nation and every human being on earth.

Putting together’s Gelernter’s announcement of a new religion called Americanism, which makes the attainment and realization of freedom its highest object, with Bush’s divinely appointed role as its agent, the essential shape of this new religion has now come into view. Its credo is published here for the first time. From this moment forth, every person on earth must swear to this truth, or be seen as an enemy of freedom:

THERE IS NO GOD BUT FREEDOM, AND BUSH IS ITS PROPHET.

Also, the world is henceforth divided into the Realm of Freedom, consisting of the lands that have submitted themselves to Americanism, and the Realm of War, consisting of those lands that reject it. Americanists are commanded to keep spreading the faith, by peaceful means if possible, by forceful means if necessary, until the whole of humanity has been converted to Americanism and brought into the Realm of Freedom.

- end of initial entry -

May 4

Daniel F. writes:

I haven’t made a detailed study of poll results, but I have an intuition that the noise Republican politicians continue to make about spreading “democracy” and “freedom” to alien and godforsaken corners of the globe are, for the most part, a ploy to raise funds from the neocons on Wall Street. These guys are few in number, but they do have a lot of dough to hand out. I think most rank and file Republicans and conservatives have long since given up on this stuff. Last time I checked, even the guys at Powerline have finally come out for getting out of Afghanistan.

So, when I hear Romney recite boilerplate about finishing the job in Afghanistan, I don’t take it seriously - he’s just trying to keep the campaign contributions rolling in from a few hundred lawyers, bankers and hedge fund managers here in New York. Rubio, however, may really believe this stuff, which is scary. He strikes me as a guy whose true calling is to be a local TV news anchor.

JC from Houston writes:

Pat Buchanan had a good column on Rubio’s Brookings institution speech. Looks like he’s bought the Bush-Neocon religion whole

Rubio is also supposedly preparing his own version of the DREAM Act Amnesty for illegal aliens. So he’s a devoted acolyte of the invade the world-invite the world philosophy. I for one just cannot figure out why Republicans go all ga-ga over this guy.

LA replies:

Why is it hard to understand? The Republicans believe in democratizing/Americanizing the world. To them, that is patriotism and conservatism. However, I don’t think “invade the world” is the correct description. The U.S. has invaded two countries in the last 11 years, both for particular reasons that have not been replicated. It’s time for Steve Sailer’s slogan to be retired.

May 9

LA corrects himself:

My gosh, I forgot Libya. So that’s three countries we’ve invaded and overturned their government in the last 11 years. And before that there was the air war against Serbia over Kosovo, resulting in the creation of a new Muslim state in Europe. So that’s four invasions or air wars by the U.S. in the last 13 years. And many neocons want us to invade Syria. Hmm, I take back what I said about Sailer’s slogan not being accurate.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at May 03, 2012 09:22 PM | Send