THE GOLDEN RULE AS PRACTICED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

THE GOLDEN RULE AS PRACTICED IN SOUTH CAROLINA

"So in everything, do to others what you would have them do to you, this sums up the Law and the Prophets". Matthew 7:12 (NIV)

South Carolina is deep in the Bible Belt, but one would not know it according to the response Congressman Ron Paul got when he invoked the Golden Rule during the Fox News-sponsored GOP debate on Monday. Paul responded to a foreign policy question, I recall it was on Iran, by invoking the Bible's golden rule. As we all know it states that we should treat others as we would ourselves like to be treated. That response got the crowd up on their feet in unprecedented anger and disagreement as they booed Paul vociferously for what the press and the other candidates saw as a vote-nullifying faux pas. But aside from the rude (non golden rule) behavior to a candidate who found it difficult to even complete his statement, the response reveals a great deal about the Republicans in South Carolina. One concludes that a significant group in the audience believes that we, as the world super power, are justified in punishing and attacking others wherever and however we please. Forget treating them like we would like to be treated...that suggests some kind of equality as members of the same species with similar human qualities. Perhaps the long insidious history of slavery in SC has seeped into the genetic pool in that state, making it difficult for many to raise themselves up from concepts which supports making one human group overlords over another.

Knowing something of that area, I suspect, those who booed probably profess to be life-long Christians, read the bible and religiously attend Bible class every Sunday, and bow their heads in prayer self-righteously at holy services. Then happily go out and load the bombs into B52s or man the Reaper drone controls, to drop ordinance on groups of innocent brown-skinned families as they sleep, or target and incinerate some "rag heads" working in their barren fields, and afterward these sorts may feel just fine and "christian-like" without a sense of remorse. But if some survivors of these attacks turn around, and following the writings of the very same prophets, "take an eye for an eye", then they are classed as "terrorists" and can be shot on sight, tortured, or stuffed away in a dank cell-hole to which the key is tossed away. Manifestly , these self-identified Christians in South Carolina, are unaware or unfazed by the illogic , inconsistency and repulsiveness, not to say unchristian behavior, of foreign policies they so avidly support.

One has to give Dr. Ron Paul credit. He remained unfazed, and continued courageously, and patiently on message. He was determined to indicate to the yahoos in the audience what the vast majority of the world population actually thinks about us and our willingness to bomb and kill, sometimes indiscriminately. Not the other members on the stage. They were much too much real politicians all, to even hint at the truth. They preferred to pander to the audience. One gets the sense that Gingrich, Romney, Santorum and Perry would find some way to agree with the principles expressed by Hitler's Brown Shirts if that would garner them a few more votes. Not so Dr. Paul, his message stays the same to whom he speaks and wherever he appears.

On Tuesday, appearing in Spartanburg, S.C., Ron Paul attempted to respond to his Monday-night intemperate audience. Answering a question about the US threat to impose an oil embargo on Iran, Ron said: “This is why I bring up the 'the golden rule', if we don’t want people to ban oil imports to our country, why should we do that to another country,” said Paul, adding “I don’t know why that is such a negative term for people to boo at that. ”

Being honest hurt Paul in South Carolina, where his brand of informed, consistent, and constitutional conservatism is not as popular as elsewhere. South Carolina is a poor state where there are many military bases, far too few good schools, and concentrations of former military families (with understandable biases and preformed ideas) who have chosen that state to retire in. But Paul 's message rings clear in other more progressive places in the nation. It's refreshing to know that even a libertarian conservative like Congressman Ron Paul can see the error of our foolish ways overseas. More power to you Congressman. Keep up the good fight. This nation needs to continue to hear your message throughout the coming campaign. Perhaps it will even help to put some timber up the back of Democrats in high office.

Get the picture?