Sunday, December 21, 2008

Rick Warren is Irrelevant

There has been much uproar in the progressive blogsphere and with progressives in general about Rick Warren being asked to speak in a prominent slot by Obama.

Sure, I am disappointed that progressives are basically nonexistent under any administration. We either get center-right or extreme-right, with nothing outside of that range. Of course, if I am forced to pick, I'll pick center-right over extreme-right any day of the week and twice on Sunday. But I'd rather have a true progressive option.

As far as Rick Warren, I really don't give a shit. It is purely symbolic, which is another way of saying it is totally irrelevant. He'll stand up and say a stupid religious speech, the sort of thing I ignore no matter what the political persuasion of the religious person.
He is not being appointed to Obama's cabinet. Obama can throw all of the right-wing symbolic gestures he wants, so long as the actual people appointed to the levers of power are not right-wing assholes. Something like this is just irrelevant and a waste of time to even talk about.

Republicans understand this well. They know how to stage PR moves far better than Democrats do. More importantly, they know how to ruthlessly exploit power, putting actual right-wing operatives in place at the levers of power, so all the window dressing is irrelevant. That's what I'm concerned with. I hope Obama proves to be as ruthless. Time will tell.

3 comments:

Larry Hamelin said...

So if Obama had picked Fred Phelps or Pat Robertson to give the invocation, that would have been just as meaningless, eh?

DBB said...

Yes, it would have been. Symbolic gestures like that mean jack-shit. Sort of like someone who, when asking for a raise at work instead gets a new title for the same pay. You can call me whatever you want. All that matters to me is, what is in my paycheck (and benefits package) each week.

If, on the other hand, he appointed Pat Robertson to be on the Supreme Court, or gave him "faith-based" charity money, that is something else entirely.

Power matters. Giving a speech really doesn't. Could you even name who gave the similar speech for previous inaugurations? I sure couldn't. Not for a single one of them.

Heem's World said...

best post ive seen about this... my fellow liberals need to stop crying about little things like this... who cares about Rick Warren... move on...

the irony is that we preach tolerance, yet cant accept folks who have different ideas than ours