Should Americans fear candidate Bachmann?

Photo credit: Rolling Stone Magazine

Yes, Americans should be afraid…very afraid…if Michele Bachmann is elected President of the United States.


With multiple foreign engagements (that we know of), increasing unemployment rates, seniors having to choose between medication and eating, and, let’s not forget, the DEBT, Americans can not afford the gamble that any Bachmann ticket presents.


Now, I told myself I wasn’t going to get personal…but I am.


And this time it’s very personal to me. 


Despite my locale in the middle of the Pacific, as an American, and as someone with close ties to soldiers serving overseas, Bachmann has the ability to impact not only my life, but the lives of people I love. 


I’m like that “mama bear” we so often heard about in a recent election - I fight to protect my cubs.


In this case, floundering and unsure of our footing, Americans are all like eager young cubs who have ventured into a snake pit and need some rescuing. Quick.


Bachmann, like a snake in the grass, has slithered her way to the front door of our presidential house and, underneath that shiny veneer, has plenty of venom to inject into our society. There’s much to be said about Bachmann, but for now, let’s stick with the low-hanging fruit.


Say it isn’t so
I know, we all thought Sarah Palin was a trip when she said she could “see Russia” from her house. Little did we know that it could get much worse…even with more “well-schooled” candidates.


Like Bachmann, a Minnesota native, who forgot this little factoid of her life earlier this weekend in Iowa, declaring to the audience,


“Everything I needed to know in life I learned in Iowa” and “As one Iowian to another…”


Okay, I gotta say it. Really, Iowa?
This candidate gets me - on all kinds of levels.


First. And, I hope to most, the obvious credibility problem.
How does Bachmann get off calling herself an “Iowian” when she attended Anoka High School and Winona University, spending much of her time in Minnesota? 


Not to mention her long-time residence since her 1986 graduation from Oral Roberts University in Oklahoma; which lost its accreditation for a few years before finally morphing into Regent University in Virginia. Regent, established in 1986, lacked ABA accreditation until 1996, all the while continuing to churn out legal scholars who would later practice in Virginia and, apparently, Minnesota. 

Photo: www.enchantedlearning.com

In all my visits to Minnesota I have found the people who live there to be thoughtful and proud of their communities. How do Minnesotans feel today after they got shafted by their hometown hero?


And why two different versions of her “submissive” story - what’s there to hide in how the Bachmann’s “operate” their marriage? 


Inquiring minds want to know (and share).


These misstatements appear so flagrant that I can only refer to a potential psychological rationale as to why she might have misspoke on these instances. Since any such condition would be beyond the scope of my own practice, perhaps her husband, who earned an internet PhD in psychology, can enlighten her/Americans as to the reasons. 


Second. Bachmann’s very close ties to the tea party.
Isn’t Bachmann the same woman who helped form the tea party?  And didn’t the tea party pressure President Obama into tendering a copy of his birth certificate to prove that he was born in Hawaii?

I agree with Bachmann that it is important to protect our country from all enemies, those foreign and domestic.  Times are unsure and American’s future steps require caution and mediation as we try to navigate an increasingly hostile world. A world that will become a very changed America once the troops all start coming home - for good. That’s another story.

Perhaps it’s time we Americans (including all Iowians and Minnesotans) inspected an original copy of Bachmann’s birth certificate to be sure that she isn’t in fact a secret agent for Cuba or Iran. Anything’s possible.

Photo: media.zenfs.com

Third. Bachmann’s photo complaints.  
This one Bachmann will need to get over, pronto. Like many I know, there are pictures of me floating around that I never hope to see published on the cover of a magazine. But if I did, I wouldn’t complain about how bad I look - I’d just hope I wasn’t peeing behind a car as a teenager. Or worse.


Ask any public figure and they will tell you that the media is not there to be your best friend, they are in a business to make money. Besides, how do we know that wasn’t her best picture. Just saying.


Fourth. Bachmann’s staunch anti-diversity position.
Bachmann defends the definition of marriage as “one between a man and a woman”, relying on her religious instruction for guidance.


This untenable position leaves little room for all Americans to pursue the same constitutionally protected rights that Bachmann has sworn (many times) to uphold. Furthermore, this position narrows the playing field of life to a proscribed set of rules that may or may not be interpreted accurately, or even have relevance in the lives of all Americans.


Bachmann also sends a message to those within the gay and lesbian community that they are unwelcome to participate in one of the most sacred (and private) aspects of American life. With so much fervor to have the government get out of the business of business, isn’t it time that government get out of the bedrooms of consenting adults?

Photo: freestockphotos.com

Bachmann’s religious position exposes what is either hypocrisy or ignorance of one of her own guiding source documents. 


The Bible. 


This subject, while beyond my own pay grade, is one in which I was exposed to during weekly classes, between coloring and cookies. 


In addition to churning out a few psalms, I can even belt out the Doxology in English and Hawaiian.


So I take issue with someone who identifies themselves as religiously oriented and yet is not completely familiar with the words of the organization’s founder and spiritual CEO, Jesus Christ. Nowhere in the Bible version that I have (circa 1930, gifted from my grandma, may she rest with her Lord in peace) does Jesus state that  love is confined to a man and a woman. 


In Matthew 19:1-12, Jesus describes marriage, divorce and “eunuchs”. Jesus suggests that there “are some eunuchs, which were so born from their mother’s womb”. While interpretive, Matthew’s contributions to the text suggests that Jesus may have been describing a group of people who are now referred to as the gay and lesbian community. 


Bachmann’s failure to appreciate the breadth of this interpretation also suggests an equally limited understanding of the expansive nature of Jesus’ love for mankind. It also underscores what could be Bachmann’s inability to fully love and appreciate diversity in all forms. 

Elections are months away with much ground to cover before now and the time voters hit the voting booths. Let’s hope Americans tend to their political gardens and watch out for the snakes.