Listening to the strange rantings of the radical right, one would almost get the impression that Barack Obama hadn’t already been president for four years. This time it’s evangelical leader Franklin Graham, son of Billy Graham, predicting that Obama’s victory will put the U.S. on the “path of destruction” and that it will take a “complete economic collapse” before the country can be corrected.
Graham made his controversial statements in an interview with Newsmax.com. Curiously, Graham said his father Billy “likes the president personally,” but the problem is that “the radical left” has “taken over the White House.”
“In the last four years, we have begun to turn our backs on God,” he said. “We have taken God out of our education system. We have taken him out of government. You have lawyers that sue you every time you mention the name of Jesus Christ in any kind of a public forum.”
On top of conservatives saying that Obama won because of voting fraud, or because he pulled more turnout in “urban areas,” according to vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan, or because he gave “gifts” to blacks, Latinos and the young, according to Romney, it appears that no one on the right has come to terms yet with the idea that Obama whupped Romney’s behind because he was a better candidate with a better message.
The outrage and shock on the right this time strangely seems much more severe than in 2008—perhaps because Obama’s second win has forced them to confront the possibility that white people no longer have a big enough share of the population to win an election by themselves. Never again can a person be elected without getting the approval of people of color because they need a sizable portion of the black, Latino and Asian vote. While Obama got well 90 percent of the black vote, he also got more than 70 percent of the Latino and the Asian vote.
What is oddest about Graham’s analysis is that the Christian right has been screaming about the rejection of God for many years—long before anyone had ever heard of Barack Obama.
When he was asked how the nation brings God back into government, Graham said, “Maybe God will have to bring our nation down to our knees—to where you just have a complete economic collapse. And maybe at that point, maybe people will again begin to call upon the name of almighty God.”
Earlier this year Graham had to apologize after questioning Obama’s faith, saying on MSNBC that the president “seems more concerned about [Muslims] than the Christians that are being murdered in the Muslim countries.”
Because God commands him and other Christians to “pray for those in authority,” Graham said, “I would encourage everyone to pray for the president…We need to bathe him in prayer.”
Pray for him—but hope for total economic collapse to get rid of him? Which is it?
