What Rick Perry's Hate mongering "Obama's War on Religion" Video Reminds me Of

I'm having dayshavoo to my days in the Christian Right. Rick Perry's "Obama's War on Religion" video took me back. When a political campaingn can't possibly sell their policies in the free marketplace of ideas, they resort to fear and emotion. In this case Rick Perry is dog whistling Obama is not really one of us.

Back during the 2004 Presidential Election, president Bush owed alot to the Christian Right in the voter turnout. During that battle, the Republican National Committee had sent mass mailings to residents of two states fear mongering that "liberals" (a dirty word to them) were seeking to ban the Bible.

The mailings had images of the Bible with "banned" super imposed on it and a gay couple with the label "allowed." A mailing to Arkansas residents warned: "This will be Arkansas if you don't vote." A similar mailing pamphlet was sent in West Virginia. Interfaith Alliance called the tactic "despicable"

I was just 12 years old during the election and this was literally what I thought my mother was fighting against when she was campaigning for President Bush. I didn't see it as a fight between two parties with different ideas. I saw it as a fight between good and evil. This came to the point where during that time I ended up writing a letter to my congressman as part of a government affairs assignment. What was the letter about? It was on the then and still non-existent threat to remove God from our lives. My mother suggested that as a subject to write about my concerns to my representative.

This (below) was not sent by a fringe group, but by the Republican National Committee. Obviously they were targeting low information and religious fundamentalist voters.