In God We Trust

Andrew Sullivan pointed me to this outrageous mural in which the fusion of conservatism, Christianity, and the US Constitution is complete. When you scroll over the different parts of this mural, you can see an interactive commentary accompanying the person or item that the cursor scrolls over.

A few things I noticed. First, there is only one Democratic politician of the 20th and 21st century included in the mural, and that person is John F. Kennedy. On the Republican side, there is Teddy Roosevelt, Dwight Eisenhower, and, of course, Ronald Reagan. Among recognizable politicians from the mid-19th Century, there's Ulysses S. Grant and Abraham Lincoln.

But most notable is the dichotomy presented between the evil modern liberal folks on the bottom right quadrant of the mural compared to the patriotic "real" Americans on the bottom left quadrant of the mural. Since the liberals seem to have their home on the bottom right quadrant, one must presume that the folks on the bottom left quadrant are constituted by conservatives.

Now, among the evil modern liberal folks is one character called the "Professor." Of course, as a liberal "professor" myself, I was just tickled to death by being lumped in among the worst of the worst in America. I'll come back to this in a moment, but now I must digress to the main feature: Jesus in the center of the mural holding the U.S. Constitution in his right hand, as if the U.S. Constitution is the equivalent of divine scriptural revelation. I wonder where this leaves the whole "give to Caesar what is Caesar's" mandate from Christ? Anyway ... If we've got Jesus in the middle, cetainly we've got to have Satan around, too, only in some subordinate position. Which brings me back to the bottom right quadrant. It's almost easy to miss, but if you look to the right of the "Professor" and just behind the "Mr. Hollywood" character, you'll see a rather sinister, dark, hooded figure. You guessed it! SATAN! And he's got the back of all his minions in that bottom right quadrant. Which reminds me ... I need to check my backpack to make sure I've got my Satanic Cult Soul Sucking paraphernalia all together and packed up to take to my class tomorrow. Wouldn't want to cheat the "Dark Lord" by failing to corrupt the souls of my students by having them discuss the "humanistic" importance of tacos and mariachi music to Mexican identity, now would I?