Tornado Alley (PROG)

[arizona1]

Please trust me - there is a must-read piece

at Alternet this morning. It is by Rachel Tabachnick, and is titled The DeVos Family: Meet the Super-Wealthy Right-Wingers Working With the Religious Right to Kill Public Education The piece is very timely, as Betsy DeVos is running a conference in DC on Monday which will feature the likes of the governors of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania and Michelle Rhee.

If you do not know, the DeVos family money comes largely from Amway. Erik Prince of Blackwater/Xe fame is connected - Betsy is his sister. And they are very much Christian Dominionists, wanting to destroy not only public education, but if given the chance religious freedom as well.

First, the general approach - beyond that of religion - can be seen in this paragraph:

The conservative policy institutes founded beginning in the 1970s get hundreds of millions of dollars from wealthy families and foundations to develop and promote free market fundamentalism. More specifically, their goals include privatizing social security, reducing government regulations, thwarting environmental policy, dismantling unions -- and eliminating public schools.

There is more - much more.

What should be of particular concern is the religious orientation, and their lack of respect for the will of voters if they cannot manipulate them.

Here's another paragraph to give a sense of the latter:

The DeVoses are top contributors to the Republican Party and have provided the funding for major Religious Right organizations. And they spent millions of their own fortune promoting the failed voucher initiative in Michigan in 2000, dramatically outspending their opposition. Sixty-eight percent of Michigan voters rejected the voucher scheme. Following this defeat, the DeVoses altered their strategy.

And on religion? Well, try this:

Many of the free-market think tanks are secular, but there is a trend toward merging free-market fundamentalism with right-wing religious ideology. The Acton Institute is described by religious historian Randall Balmer as an example of the merging of corporate interests with advocates of “dominion theology.” Dominionism is the belief that Christians must take control over societal and government institutions. The Acton Institute funds events featuring dominionist leaders including Gary North, who claims that the bible mandates free market capitalism or “Biblical Capitalism.”

Tabachnick reminds us that the Acton Institute, on whose board Betsy DeVos sits,

leads a group of Religious Right organizations called the Cornwall Alliance, which is currently marketing a DVD titled Resisting the Green Dragon. The pseudo-documentary describes global warming as a hoax and claims environmentalism is a cult attacking Christianity. Another shared goal of the free marketers and Christian dominionists is eradicating secular public education.

I wish I could take people through this piece in detail so you will full understand against what we are contending. Perhaps the next paragraph will put it into context:

Gary North explains why getting students out of public schools is key to the Christian dominionist camp. “So let us be blunt about it: we must use the doctrine of religious liberty to gain independence for Christian schools until we train up a generation of people who know that there is no religious neutrality, no neutral law, no neutral education, and no neutral civil government. Then they will get busy in constructing a Bible-based social, political, and religious order which finally denies the religious liberty of the enemies of God.”

Please, read Rachel's piece carefully.

Pass it on widely.

Understand what is happening. We have wealthy religious and political rightwingers who are intent on destroying democracy as we know it.

We must oppose them at every step.
Thanks for reading.
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/05/07/973917/-Please-trust-methere-is-a-must-read-piece