Editor’s note: This commentary is by Bob Stannard, a former lobbyist, who is still an author and musician. This piece first appeared in the Bennington Banner.
“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts.”
– Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan
[H]ave you ever heard of Jody Hice? If not, in all likelihood you will be hearing more from this man then you had hoped.
Jody Hice is a Southern Baptist reverend, a syndicated radio show host, a political activist and most recently the Republican nominee for Georgia’s 10th Congressional District in the upcoming elections.
He first gained notoriety when he joined a group of pastors to protest the IRS attempt to tax churches whose pastors offered political issues from their respective pulpits versus sticking to religious themes. To drive his message home, Mr. Hice endorsed John McCain for president during his Sunday sermon.
You may recall that it was Mr. Hice who was behind the effort to display the 10 Commandments in a county courthouse. This stunt landed him as a guest on a local AM radio show. His not altogether factual, but certainly inflammatory, words led him to his own radio show that at one time was picked up by 400 radio stations.
He appears to be another one of these people who purports to be a man of God yet is, in fact, a man of politics. According to The Citizen newspaper, in 2011 speaking before the local Tea Party group, he declared that Islam is not a religion and thus does not deserve the same First Amendment protection that he enjoys. Islam is, indeed, a religion. The radical Islamists may not be folks that we all care much for, but it’s hard to deny that they are not at least as religious as Mr. Hice.
According to information from Wikipedia, which as we know is subject to interpretation, he has compared homosexuality to alcoholism; he’s a big fan of guns and from what I can determine opposes a woman’s right to regulate her own body.
On Aug. 26 Andrew Kaczynski reported the following:
“Hice represents an anti-gay viewpoint based on pseudo-science and seriously outdated myths about gay Americans. He also really loves freedom. He calls himself a ‘constitutional conservative’ and LOVES the Founding Fathers.
“‘I have one plan: the Constitution. If we were following this document we wouldn’t have the problems that we’re facing today,’ Hice has said.
“Hice also loves to naturally share Founding Fathers quotes. Unfortunately, many of them are fake.”
In recent days apparently Jody Hice has posted numerous quotes that he attributes to our Founding Fathers, quotes that he, of course, supports but unfortunately are not true. His inaccurate quotes are too numerous to mention but you can find them if you click here.
The good pastor from Georgia has an agenda and much like other radicals, will say or do whatever it takes to achieve it.
Why does this matter? Who cares if Georgia sends a radical conservative, religious Tea Party wacko to Congress to join along with the current group of crazies running the place? Well, maybe you should, because we are at the point in time where lying, distorting facts, misusing information (of which there is more available now than in any time in history) has become the norm.
We have traded our respected news sources from which Americans used to get true, factual news in exchange for news entertainment. The worst of this new shift in American news is obviously Fox News. In its latest example of serving more as an arm of the Republican Party versus a news organization they trotted out various guests to blame the recent beheading of two American journalists on President Obama’s foreign policies.
One of the guests to appear on Fox News was former Vice President Dick Cheney. He was interviewed by Sean Hannity who did exactly what was expected of him — toss softballs at Mr. Cheney and allow him, Cheney, to criticize a sitting president saying that the president is viewed as weak and ineffective.
A true reporter, someone like the late Tim Russert, would have nailed Cheney by asking if the same was true when two American citizens, Nick Berg and Paul Johnson, were beheaded by Islamic terrorists under the Bush administration. However, we’re talking Fox News and this so-called news agency (it’s not; it’s an entertainment organization with the sole function of promoting a right-wing, conservative agenda) would never bring Dick Cheney on the air and ask him to explain the difference. They wouldn’t because it would not fit their agenda.
The good pastor from Georgia has an agenda and much like other radicals, will say or do whatever it takes to achieve it. Lying and misrepresentation has become the new paradigm in America today. We scream in protest when we hear Vladimir Putin say that he is not backing the rebels in Ukraine. We know he’s lying. Hell, he knows he’s lying, but so what? All he has to do is to point to the lying pastor who is about to be one of our nation’s leaders.
Herein lies the problem. As long as we, as a nation, are willing to accept and reward those who will offer patently false information, on either side of any aisle, then we can’t expect to hold others to higher standards.