“I think Tea Party Republicans are playing a big game with little people. I hope God forgives them for that, but I hope voters won’t.”
— Gov. Deval Patrick
Are you there God? It’s me, Michael.
I just want to know if there’s any way you can forgive me for ... not supporting Obamacare.
I know I’m not perfect, and normally I’m quick to admit my sins (even though I swear that one website with the livestock was a total accident).
But I didn’t know until I heard from Rever- ... er, make that Governor Deval Patrick that I was putting my immortal soul at risk by opposing President Obama’s health care policy. That’s strange, too, because I spent four years at Oral Roberts University, and I never heard “Tea Party” or “government shutdown” mentioned once.
“The people who have engineered this are the small number of Tea Party hard-right Republicans in the House caucus,” Patrick said Wednesday. “They want the government to be shut down. They don’t, in many respects, fundamentally believe in the role of government.”
Wow. So if I want to strip special perks for members of Congress and their staff out of Obamacare, I don’t “believe in the role of government”? If I think it’s wrong to let big businesses have a one-year delay on the Obamacare mandate, but not give individual employees the same extension, I’m committing a mortal sin?
I thought it was just a policy disagreement.
And if Republicans are sinning against God, why is it being reported that some of Patrick’s fellow Democrats support making a deal with the Beelzebub wing of the GOP to get rid of the medical device tax? How can that be? Do they have special dispensation from the pope? Do they get to eat meat on Fridays, too?
Perhaps if I spent more time genuflecting — or as Obama calls it, “bending over backwards to work with Republicans” — I would understand these complex theological issues. I’m still trying to figure out what Obama means when talks about his super-human efforts at working with the GOP.
The stimulus? Not so much. Obamacare? No GOP votes. The sequester? Nope.
Perhaps he meant he was working with Republicans spiritually, while in the real world he was sending out attack tweets like the one yesterday calling them “extremists” and blaming the #BoehnerShutdown for “Lady Liberty...CLOSED!”
The bipartisan spirit is willing, but the “stick it to the GOP” flesh is weak.
So too with Patrick, normally a pillar of the virtues of forgiveness. Why, there’s hardly anyone he won’t forgive: Illegal immigrants, EBT defrauders, etc.
Why, Patrick even found it in his heart to call the 9/11 attacks “a failure of human understanding,” but he says conservative Republicans should be damned by the voters for the sin of defying Obama?
Like I said, Lord, the theology is beyond me. I liked the good old days when Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill could shut down the government literally a dozen times, sometimes over contentious issues like abortion, and nobody was accused of committing an offense in the sight of the Lord.
It was just politics then, God. But now, disagreeing with liberals about health care policy or tax rates is a moral failing. Dissent means you must be cast out of political discourse, like Lucifer himself.
Just between you and me, Lord, I think it’s pretty awful. Sometimes I wish you’d just smite their ...
Sorry, God. I’ll try to do better. In fact, I’m feeling a revival coming in 2014.
Listen to Michael Graham from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on bostonheraldradio.com.
— Gov. Deval Patrick
Are you there God? It’s me, Michael.
I just want to know if there’s any way you can forgive me for ... not supporting Obamacare.
I know I’m not perfect, and normally I’m quick to admit my sins (even though I swear that one website with the livestock was a total accident).
But I didn’t know until I heard from Rever- ... er, make that Governor Deval Patrick that I was putting my immortal soul at risk by opposing President Obama’s health care policy. That’s strange, too, because I spent four years at Oral Roberts University, and I never heard “Tea Party” or “government shutdown” mentioned once.
“The people who have engineered this are the small number of Tea Party hard-right Republicans in the House caucus,” Patrick said Wednesday. “They want the government to be shut down. They don’t, in many respects, fundamentally believe in the role of government.”
Wow. So if I want to strip special perks for members of Congress and their staff out of Obamacare, I don’t “believe in the role of government”? If I think it’s wrong to let big businesses have a one-year delay on the Obamacare mandate, but not give individual employees the same extension, I’m committing a mortal sin?
I thought it was just a policy disagreement.
And if Republicans are sinning against God, why is it being reported that some of Patrick’s fellow Democrats support making a deal with the Beelzebub wing of the GOP to get rid of the medical device tax? How can that be? Do they have special dispensation from the pope? Do they get to eat meat on Fridays, too?
Perhaps if I spent more time genuflecting — or as Obama calls it, “bending over backwards to work with Republicans” — I would understand these complex theological issues. I’m still trying to figure out what Obama means when talks about his super-human efforts at working with the GOP.
The stimulus? Not so much. Obamacare? No GOP votes. The sequester? Nope.
Perhaps he meant he was working with Republicans spiritually, while in the real world he was sending out attack tweets like the one yesterday calling them “extremists” and blaming the #BoehnerShutdown for “Lady Liberty...CLOSED!”
The bipartisan spirit is willing, but the “stick it to the GOP” flesh is weak.
So too with Patrick, normally a pillar of the virtues of forgiveness. Why, there’s hardly anyone he won’t forgive: Illegal immigrants, EBT defrauders, etc.
Why, Patrick even found it in his heart to call the 9/11 attacks “a failure of human understanding,” but he says conservative Republicans should be damned by the voters for the sin of defying Obama?
Like I said, Lord, the theology is beyond me. I liked the good old days when Democratic House Speaker Tip O’Neill could shut down the government literally a dozen times, sometimes over contentious issues like abortion, and nobody was accused of committing an offense in the sight of the Lord.
It was just politics then, God. But now, disagreeing with liberals about health care policy or tax rates is a moral failing. Dissent means you must be cast out of political discourse, like Lucifer himself.
Just between you and me, Lord, I think it’s pretty awful. Sometimes I wish you’d just smite their ...
Sorry, God. I’ll try to do better. In fact, I’m feeling a revival coming in 2014.
Listen to Michael Graham from noon to 3 p.m. weekdays on bostonheraldradio.com.