Demon-crats?

Last week I wrote about Texas Governor Rick Perry's big prayer event that happened to coincide with our formal banquet at the National Ordo Templi Orientis Convention. Perry announced his candidacy for the Republican presidential nomination on Saturday, and most political analysts believe that his prayer event, called "The Response," was an attempt to establish him as an acceptible candidate in the eyes of religious conservatives. Presidential candidates give a lot of lip service to the idea of transcending hostility and partisanship in Washington, which as the Obama administration found is much easier said than done. But Alice Patterson, one of the organizers for Perry's prayer rally, sure isn't helping. Last year she published a book in which she claims that the Democratic Party is controlled by demonic forces.

In fact, Patterson wrote a whole book about it which I have just finished reading called "Bridging the Racial and Political Divide: How Godly Politics Can Transform a Nation" in which mentions how she went to hear Chuck Pierce speak in Louisiana where he preached on "Saul Structures" at which points she realized that the Democratic Party is "an invisible network of evil comprising an unholy structure" that is, quite literally, controlled by demonic forces:

As Chuck described Saul Structures, my thoughts raced to politics. "Oh my God, Chuck is describing the Democratic Party!" This was the first time I'd ever considered that an evil structure could be connected to and empowered by a political party ... One strong fallen angel cannot wreak havoc on an entire nation by himself. He needs a network of wicked forces to restrain the Church and to deceive the masses. Unlike the Holy Spirit, who is everywhere at once and can speak to millions of people simultaneously, the devil can only be in one place at a time. By himself Satan would be totally ineffective, but in cooperation with other powers of darkness he erects structures to deceive and manipulate entire nations ... At the time I was listening to Chuck Pierce in Louisiana, I hadn't given any thought at all to strongholds in political parties. If I had ever thought about it, of course, it would have made sense, but it was new information. As Chuck's words began to sink in, I asked the "Lord, Father, what is the demonic structure behind the Democratic Party?"

Patterson goes on to explain that "the demonic structure behind the Democratic Party" is in fact "the Jezebel structure" which is rooted in long-ago Democratic support for slavery and which remains today because of the party's support for reproductive and gay rights.

I've heard of demonizing your opponents in politics, but Patterson really takes the cake here. I don't really understand the evangelical lingo about "Saul Structures" and "Jezebel Structures," but I haven't set foot in one of those churches in decades so I'm not surprised. What I do know is that the American political system was constructed with the idea that both parties would want what was best for the country above and beyond partisan gamesmanship even if they had different ideas about how to achieve it, and when one party decides that the other is irredeemably evil and must be defeated at all costs the whole thing tends to break down. For reference, see the last eight months.

As a sorcerer, of course, my response to these accusations of demonic infestation is a little different from that of most people. Political parties controlled by demons? I sure hope so! Because if that's really true all I need to do is conjure up the right one and command it to make sure the issues that I think are important get addressed. It would be like having a SuperPAC or something, but infinitely less expensive because all I'd have to spring for would be a couple of custom conjuring tools and a whole bunch of incense. I could have the entire nation whipped into shape in no time flat!

Sadly for me and my fellow evokers, this almost certainly is not the case and Patterson is being either delusional, ignorant, or a partisan shill catering to the most paranoid members of the Christian Right in her book. For that matter, maybe she's all of the above. The fact is that there are enough problems these days with our political system without having to worry about demons, and the ridiculous, unfounded accusations that Patterson is peddling to the most gullible can only make things worse.