Wailing and Gnashing of Teeth

Here's a smattering of quotes from two recent works, one a book by Patrice Higgonet (Professor of History at Harvard), Attendant Cruelties, putatively a history of the United States but in reality a raging polemic directed at the Bush Administration and the people who voted for it; the other, an essay by the Rt. Rev'd Sergio Carranza in Angelus, a publication for clergy in the Diocese of Los Angeles, entitled "The Soul of Anglicism:"

From Attendant Cruelties (from the review in the New York Sun):

Once Americans had put to death — and in the most ghastly way — tens of thousands of unarmed civilians in a country that was already on its knees [by dropping the atomic bomb on Japan], every other abuse becomes feasible as well: the massacres of civilians in Korea and Vietnam, Agent Orange, Guantanamo...

It was likewise from some deep instinct that George W. Bush seized on the idea of a ‘War on Terror' in order to realize his dream of a softly fascistic America...

We speak of the Jewish fundamentalism of Bibi Netanyahu, of the Muslim fundamentalism of Osama bin Laden, and of the Christian fundamentalism of George W. Bush...

From "The Soul of Anglicism" (h/t TitusOneNine):

In the battle to capture the soul of Anglicanism, the great loser -after the Anglican Communion itself--would seem to be the Archbishop of Canterbury, who in a desperate attempt to preserve the unity of the Communion has submitted to the machinations of an anachronistic evangelicalism which pretends to "complete" the English Reformation by imposing a monolithic uniformity on the manner in which we interpret Scripture and carry on the contextual ministry that our culture requires...

Once enthroned, Rowan Williams found himself caught in the web of a plot of international dimensions in which radical British evangelicals, ultraconservative American schismatics and an ambitious African Primate, with his band of assenting minions, had joined forces to capture the soul of Anglicanism, at the same time that they advanced their own particular agendas...

See the similarities? Two people of rank, position and, ostensibly, education yet so consumed with ideological rage they are blind to reason and proportion. Thus Monsieur le Professeur equates the detaining of Islamic thugs at Guantanomo Bay with the dropping of A-Bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki; His Grace the Bishop beholds the efforts of traditional Christians, despairing of their once-beloved Episcopal Church's apostasy and seeking some sort of alternative to it while remaining loyal to Anglicanism and detects a vast international conspiracy. Roll out the Reynold's wrap!

All in all, this is a good thing. The foaming-at-the-mouth lefties seem to realize the jig is up, the average Joe just isn't going to buy their lousy product. Frustrated and giving up any pretense to niceness, all they can do now is bellow and moan to their fellow travellers what a benighted lot the rest of us are and bewail what moronic (and racist/hateful/hegemonic/etc.) leaders we chose . These loud ones will attain their immediate goals: for those in the church, ECUSA; for those in politics, the Democratic Party. However, the more these angry frustrated souls scream and shriek and as the decibel level rises, the more clearly the truth of their agenda is revealed and the more the people will desert them. The church they've inherited is on its way to extinction and their political party . . . well, let's just see how it fares in 2008 with its platform of socialism, sedition and surrender. And if you think the words directed at Bush are vitriolic, just imagine what they'll be like if someone like Fred Thompson is elected president.