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Ryan Rips Obama's "Judeo-Christian Values"

by John M. Curtis
(310) 204-8700

Speaking to evangelicals in Castle Rock, Co., 42-year-old Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) ripped President Barack Obama for putting the country on a “dangerous path” sacrificing “Judeo-Christian, Western Civilization values.” Ryan’s incendiary remarks mirror a campaign poised to go down to defeat Nov. 6 but also gives voters a true picture of why the Romney campaign failed. Speaking to evangelical leader Ralph Reed’s “Faith and Freedom Coalition,” Ryan preached to the ever-shrinking choir of right wing extremists no longer a decisive factor in today’s election. National trends show less religiosity in mainstream American voters. Ryan, whose attacks on Social Security and Medicare dug the Romney campaign into a deep hole, was at it again with another cheap shot against the president. Romney’s VP pick insists Obama’s attack on Judeo-Christian values will make a “big difference” in swing states.

Ryan checks the same polls and everyone else showing that Obama has surged in battleground states, leaving Romney’s path to victory next to impossible. Romney campaign officials insist that all reputable polling organizations and models have a left-wing bias now that Obama’s up in the polls. When Mitt peaked in the polls shortly after the first presidential debate Oct. 3, Ryan thought the polls were fine. If people “are worried . . . whether or not we’re going to go down the path the president has put us on” it will help his campaign’s chances. Ryan’s right wing zealotry alienated middle-of-the-road independent voters, especially aging Baby Boomers concerned about tampering with the nation’s popular entitlement programs. When Ryan talks of going down the “wrong path,” he’s talking about the government providing health and welfare benefits to citizens currently without them.

Even the conservative insurance lobby raised concerns about a Romney presidency last week, fearing that the lucrative elements of Obamacare would be wiped out. “It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us such a great an exceptional nation in the first place,” said Ryan, filling the airwaves with non-sequiturs. Every Western civilization country already has government-funded health care for its citizens. Only the United States lags behind other Western countries providing the last remaining entitlement. Referring to Obama’s attack on “Judeo-Christian values,” Ryan makes the same plea to White voters that the president is really just another garden variety socialist, corrupting the U.S. capitalist system, despite already funding health care for the elderly and disabled.

When Ryan talks of growing government, he’s talking about the Tea Party claptrap involving shrinking the size of the federal establishment. Like other Tea Party types, Ryan believes “Judeo-Christian values” are somehow tied to shrinking the federal establishment. Romney alluded several times during the debates to the states taking the financial responsibility for health care, education and other entitlements. In case Romney and Ryan haven’t checked, many states run massive deficits and are so stretched financially they face bankruptcy. Tea Party folks wish to return to some colonial fantasy before the federal government. If Tea Party types like Ryan got their way they’d dissolve the federal government, even if it meant losing Ryan’s job. Ryan talks about his Catholic faith on the stump, as if mainstream voters are interested. Joining Reed’s Christian evangelicals make strange bedfellows.

Saying that his Catholic faith “sustains us on a daily basis,” Ryan went over the top crossing the line between Church and State. What Ryan thinks win Romney votes actually does the opposite. Wearing his religion on his sleeve is no way to scour for undecided independent votes before a close election. Romney’s inability to contain Ryan shows that Mitt got more than he bargained for when he picked Paul for his VP Aug. 12. “And that’s how the Lord sustains me,” said Ryan, referring to his Janesville parish that told him “to have no fear.” Ryan talked openly about the Serenity Prayer. “First prayer I say every morning is the serenity prayer,” admitted Ryan, in one of the most naïve, self-serving appeals for evangelical votes. Ryan’s bible rhetoric turns off secular-minded undecided voters, leaving Mitt scrambling with nowhere to turn for more battleground votes before Nov. 6.

Ryan’s antics at the end of a long campaign spell doom on Election Day. Lashing out at the president about his lack of “Judeo-Christian values” feels like a cheap shot to what’s left of undecided voters. Most Catholic voters don’t look any differently at government entitlements like Medicare and Social Security. They don’t subscribe to Mitt and Paul’s charity model that only needy citizens expect government to provide valuable services to the elderly and disabled. Obamacare doesn’t attack “Judeo Christian values,” it celebrates them by providing a measure of help like other nations in the Western hemisphere. “We should not have to sue the federal government to keep our Constitutional freedoms,” referring to the Church’s objections to providing contraception services at their affiliated hospitals. Ryan’s conspicuous attempts to pander to religious groups have indeed backfired

John M. Curtis writes politically neutral commentary analyzing spin in national and global news. He's editor of OnlineColumnist.com.and author of Dodging the Bullet and Operation Charisma.

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