Ted Cruz and Sarah Palin at shutdown rally: Prophets in their own minds?
During the 16-day government shutdown, Tea Party Republicans rose above, or somewhere beyond, earthly politics. Their aim was to stay true to their principles, to be faithful, not necessarily effective. At their meeting behind closed doors on Tuesday, House Republicans began not by calling themselves to order, but by singing all three verses of “Amazing Grace.” In other words, the shutdown Republicans were prophetic in their own way.
By this, I don’t mean they accurately predicted a future state of being. If their stance foreshadowed anything, it was probably some dark days ahead for the GOP. But they were prophetic in the sense that they exhibited the style, if not the substance, of ancient biblical prophecy.
Abraham Joshua Heschel said the prophet is “an assaulter of the mind” who speaks “one octave too high.” This biblical figure is given to “sweeping generalizations” and “overstatements.” He is often “grossly inaccurate” because he concerns himself primarily with meaning, not facts, as Heschel explained in The Prophets, his classic 1962 study.
“Carried away by the challenge, the demand to straighten out man’s ways, the prophet is strange, one-sided, an unbearable extremist,” wrote Heschel, who looked the part of an Old Testament prophet, with his disorderly white hair and conspicuous white beard. The rabbi-philosopher-activist also believed that what a prophet says is radically true. It’s God’s truth, not merely the human variety.
The Tea Party crowd in Congress would seem to fit much of this description, but the truth part is problematic. Normally a prophetic stance involves speaking out for the lowly and oppressed. Prophets do not necessarily take the right stands on every issue, but they stand in the right places, biblically speaking – with the poor and vulnerable.
The job of a prophet is to “strengthen the weak hands,” as the prophet Isaiah declaimed. Arguably, in contrast, the people who brought us the shutdown are more often found strengthening the strong hands, including those of upper-bracket income earners and, at one peculiar turn in the shutdown brawl, medical device makers specifically. And to be fair, many politicians of both parties are often up to these same old tricks of that trade.
Still, the government shutdown tossed light on what you could call, especially if you edit out some biblical material, the prophetic personality.
“the people who brought you the shutdown” Were the radical democrat socialists! The barricades were ordered three weeks before the shutdown! All armed police of each branch of each government department were told that they would have to work overtime! And the shutdown didn’t apply to them! The signs were ordered over a month before (the bid list required that they be delivered by that date) the shutdown! And Obama has NEVER kept any agreement or obeyed ANY LAW. The media was consulted and told what to write (JournaList) along with the TV media! Obama exceded his authority completely! But the Justice Dept is controlled by the same people! WE were played for fools by the communists! Now they want to blame everything Obama did on the Tea Party?? Old people who think we are being taxed too much for government excess and waste? But the dems need a scape goat!
Hyperbole much?
Which part is hyperbole?
The fact about prior preparation for a shutdown.
It’s the first I hear of it.
But it can be checked.
Hyperbole my myopic left foot.
Sans that check, hyperbole boomerangs back to the accuser.
Is it or is it not fact?
Does anyone care?
There is an old German carpenters saying which applies to the Tea party.
Schon zweimal abgeschnitten und immer noch zu kurz.
We cut it off twice and it still is too short.
Beautiful.
Totally unenlightening as to this issue.
Guffawing fit for a barroom.
Did the US Government prepare for a shutdown, or not?
Why is no one interested in the facts?