Democrats Platform Planetary Protection, Not Patriarchal Sexist Religion

I am a Democrat for many reasons, not the least of which is the Democratic party promotes environmental protection and environmental justice on its platform. You know what isn’t on the Democratic platform? Promoting a patriarchal god. And for good reason.

The Founding Fathers included separation of church and state as part of the First Amendment in the Bill of Rights accompanying our Constitution—despite perpetuating their sexist patriarchy by not extending those rights toward women (here’s looking at you, John Adams)—and the present-day patriarchy known as the GOP actively persecutes women as it blatantly seeks to eviscerate women’s rights pursuant to a declared biblical edict.

A rampantly religious patriarchy is, in fact, promoted by Republicans, who also aim to shamelessly eradicate environmental protections, paying homage instead to corporate and individual greed. Money is actually their true religion, and enough is never enough for Republicans—and the similarly patriarchal, pedophile-promoting Catholic Church or, for that matter, the multitude of megachurches spewing their sordid versions of Christianity.

Some might attempt to argue that this categorization only represents the MAGA arm of the GOP, but that reasoning is faulty for myriad reasons. Not the least of which is the party, for anyone paying attention and not in hapless hypocritical denial, has been taken over by billionaires using Christian Nationalism to do their misogynist, racist dirty work.

Landmark environmental legislation, including the National Environmental Policy Act, the Clean Air Act, and the Clean Water Act (though Nixon attempted to veto the latter), was accomplished despite a Republican administration in power in the early 1970s, but it’s only gone downhill from there for the grand old, so-called god-fearing, GOP.

So much so that in my first year as an attorney in 1992, while practicing environmental law for the General Counsel of the Secretary of the Navy, obstacles included an admiral commenting how he looked forward to when a Republican was president again so the Navy would no longer have to comply with environmental laws. Presumably he wasn’t happy when President Clinton signed an Executive Order on Environmental Justice, but by then I was dealing with a Marine Corps general who was similarly disgruntled by environmental laws protecting natural and cultural resources on “his” base. This general also did not approve of me practicing law for the Department of the Navy instead of devoting myself fulltime to the role of Marine wife.

And then there was the Marine colonel who, as a devout Christian, sought to impose his religious edict at meetings by showing outrage when a female colleague used what he considered to be a swear word during a meeting. The woman—who surprisingly wasn’t me—was quite perplexed at this excessive reaction to her saying “damn,” inquiring, “What? Did I say ‘fuck’?”

Did I laugh out loud? You damn well bet I did.

Back in the day, I recall wanting to ask the Christianity-pushing G.W. Bush aka Shrub administration, if you believe your god created Earth, why are you doing your damndest to destroy it? Unfortunately, I didn’t need to ask the elder G. H. W. Bush administration if the GOP also hated women’s rights in addition to environmental laws once they installed blatant misogynist sexual harasser (and Catholicism promoting) Clarence Thomas on SCOTUS—after shamelessly scorning his credible female accuser, Anita Hill.

In 2019, the first Tyrannical Toddler administration did in fact gut the Clean Water Act with the help of that self-anointed “godly” majority of SCOTUS, replacing it with corrupt-corporation, self-serving bullshit in the name of not a deity, but unmitigated greed. This putrid excuse for a president also put an anti-environmentalist in charge of the Environmental Protection Agency.

Now, in round two, we have Christian Nationalists heading the Department of Justice and other positions for this abhorrent Republican cabinet who use their patriarchal god as a shield or an excuse for environmental desecration that endangers all humans on the planet, among many other atrocities.

Which is all the more reason I remain devastated by a particularly jarring experience last weekend upon attending a “meet and greet” potluck held by my local Otero County Democratic Party. This New Mexico county—unfortunately in part due to an Air Force base in Alamogordo— is a red enclave in an otherwise highly diverse and blue state, which is all the more reason Democrats should not be acting like Republicans.

And yet, at this Democratic Party meeting, we were first subjected to a blatantly patriarchal Christian prayer, repeatedly invoking the “heavenly father” and “Jesus,” to say “grace” before we could eat the food we brought to share. We Democrats were directed to bow our heads as this prayer rambled on and on and on, neither succinct, non-denominational, nor brief in its exhaustive praise of a Christian—and only a Christian—god. Where is a moment of freaking silence when you need one?

Irrespective of the ignored reality that this is considered unconstitutional—SCOTUS having addressed the issue long before six justices began promoting fanatical fascism—it’s also inappropriate and downright insulting to anyone present who is neither Christian nor religious.

Plus, this was only the tip of the iceberg of this blatant patriarchal deity-pandering at a political party event. And, sadly, it was the second time I’d been subjected to Christian prayer and dogma at an Otero County Democratic Party gathering, the first time being a fundraiser for labor that I actually paid for in September.

This time I’d only brought deviled eggs (no pun intended), but I also expected the meeting to address issues and concerns of the Democratic Party platform, or at the very least local democratic activities. Instead, I attended to what amounted to a flipping church function on an otherwise lovely Saturday afternoon. Last I heard, going to church and engaging in prayer was a personal choice, and political functions—at least Democratic ones—aren’t supposed to be about gods or organized religions that definitely are not democratic in any way.

To be fair, there were members who tried to address issues including environmental justice, but they were either warned about limiting the time in which they spoke—or completely cut off. This while two women promoting their actual church functions—by advising us how to participate in our community by being better Christians— were allowed to blather on just as excessively and inappropriately as the woman who gave the long-winded and exclusionary prayer.

Then there was the man designated to introduce the Alamogordo mayoral candidate who made a point out of identifying himself as a “pastor,” such that he gushed about how he liked that the candidate was a “God-fearing” woman.  As if that were a valid qualification for a public official elected to office by the people. As if fearing a god were a relevant qualification for a Democrat. Amazingly, this Democratic candidate, a woman of color, was actually elected mayor of Alamogordo on Tuesday, which is the good news, as she does appear to understand that she will represent municipal constituents who might not be members of her Christian faith.

The bad news is tone-deaf and seemingly tyrannical Democrats are running the Otero County Democratic Party by blatantly disrespecting and discriminating against those who are not Christian or religious in promoting their faith-based patriarchal dogma. This instead of backing Democratic Party platform issues, including environmental justice, at public meetings that are supposed to be secular and not sexist—as opposed to pushing the worshipping of a male deity.

Seriously, with Democrats like this, who needs those hypocritical misogynist Republicans to destroy our natural environment while they relegate women to second-class citizens by claiming their bible directs females to be subservient to men and we’re all supposed to pray to—and fear—their god?

And why is it always Christians who feel astonishingly entitled to push their prayers and patriarchy on the rest of us?