Stephen King Bashes Tea Party On Twitter
Stephen King has been no stranger to political discourse over the past few years. He’s spoken out on gun control, said that tax breaks for the rich don’t create jobs, and generally tossed his two cents in several times. The current border crisis, though, with numerous unaccompanied immigrant children seeking refuge, and many government officials seeking only to demonize them, sent King to Twitter, where he mounted his soapbox and preached.
He started today’s sermon by adding on to his comment from Sunday, in which he spoke about the Tea Party and the mixing of religion with government:
Revised Tea Party Gospel: “Suffer the little children come unto me. Unless they’re undocumented kids from Central America.”
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2014
Followers lashed back:
.@StephenKing You willing to host the slumber party in your backyard?
— J.T. Gilgo (@JTGilgo) July 22, 2014
.@StephenKing on the issue of illegal immigration, you’re in the minority. You understand this, right?
— Savannah the Bossy (@thesavvy) July 22, 2014
Others still were rude and vulgar enough that their tweets won’t be reproduced here, calling King various names and telling him to stick to book-writing and leave politics alone (though, again, not in such gentle words). King persevered, though. While he didn’t directly quote Matthew 19:14 (Jesus said, “Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these.” NIV version, BibleGateway.com), he did call up the same sentiment, as have many who are incensed by the way these kids have been treated:
Much easier to be a Christian when the little children aren’t in your back yard, isn’t it?
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2014
Many called King out, asking why he isn’t personally taking in any immigrant kids, or why he isn’t donating all his money to the effort, to which he responded:
As Lennon said in Revolution, “We’re all doing what we can.”
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2014
He even offered a suggestion for the very bare minimum we might do:
Maybe send them back w/o screaming at them, for a start? Or is that too much to ask?
— Stephen King (@StephenKing) July 22, 2014
This, and other political commentary, from Stephen King may be alienating some of his readership, but he doesn’t seem to be concerned. If alienating conservative audiences was a problem for him, he might have backed off two years ago, when NewsBusters, among other conservative sources, lambasted him for his “Tax me!” editorial.
The editorial in question, published in The Daily Beast, made King’s views clear: tax cuts for millionaires aren’t helping anyone; heaping the burden on the middle class isn’t the American way, or shouldn’t be, and he called conservatives short-sighted, comparing them to Ebenezer Scrooge and Marie Antoinette:
[Conservatives’] response [to the Occupy movement] was either Marie Antoinette (“Let them eat cake”) or Ebenezer Scrooge (“Are there no prisons? Are there no workhouses?”).
All in all, it’s clear that King knows where he stands, doesn’t mind saying so, and isn’t afraid of losing readers (and at this point, why should he be, really?) Is there any good reason why authors like Stephen King should shut up and keep their opinions to themselves, or can we benefit from their words, even those of us who disagree with said words?
[Photos: Facebook]
