Right-Wing Humor: A Cautionary Tale

I was procrastinating and cruising Wonkette the other day when a link to Volpac's "Bill Frist Birthday Card" caught my wandering eye. I followed the link, grimaced at the sycophantic comments, and was about to move on to more interesting fare when I noticed an entry by one Kathryn Shivley. In the context of "keeping a sense of humor," she posted the following joke:

"Media Interpretation:
The Pope is visiting DC and President Bush takes him out for an afternoon cruise on the Potomac sailing on the presidential yacht, the Sequoia. They are admiring the sights when all of a sudden the Pope's hat (Zucchetto) blows off his head and out into the water. Immediately the Secret service men start to launch a boat but President Bush waves them off saying, "Wait, wait I'll take care of this. Don't worry." The President then steps off the yacht, onto the surface of the water and walks out to the Holy Father's little hat, bends over picks it up and then walks back across the water to the yacht and climbs aboard. He hands the hat to the Pope amid the stunned silence. The next morning the topic of conversation among Democrats on the Hill, CBS News, NBC News, ABC News, the New York & L.A. Times is...
'Bush Can't Swim.'"

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!! OH my god! HA! Man, those Republicans, they really know how to tell a....
But wait a minute. I wonder if anyone else found this little pleasantry somewhat... disturbing. Anyone? Anyone notice the main theme of the joke? The lead-up to the anti-Dem "punchline," if you will? BUSH IS GOD. Yup. Bush walked on fucking WATER. This woman obviously found nothing disturbing, and was even amused at the idea of portraying Bush as JESUS.

Jesus Christ.

Still, this joke, never mind Ms. Shivley's questionable taste in posting it, is indicative of the thought process of a certain percentage of this country's population- you know, the 39% that support our C- in-C come hell or high water (quite literally). In the face of corruption, lies, dangerous cronyism, unmitigated ego and unprecedented power-grabbing, a relatively significant portion of our fellow countrypeople support this dude still. Logic is defied by this unless you place such faith in an obviously fallable man in the broader context of their faith in general. These people think that Bush is durn close to God, if not the big deity himself. As such, he is omnipotent (or should be, despite the whinings of the co-equal branches), omniscient (despite his famously low SAT scores), and can do no wrong. Can walk on water, some might say.

It would be funny if it weren't so unnerving.