In his new campaign commercial, Rick Perry serves up yet another platter of homophobia with a side of religious zeal. In a campaign filled with gaffes including, but clearly not limited to, failing to name the three agencies he would dismantle if elected, entertaining supporters at his hunting ranch with an overtly racist former name aligning himself with the birther movement, and his overall inability to understand the separation of church and state, Perry has decided to introduce into lexicon Obama’s “war on religion”. And he’s vowed that if elected President he’ll end said war.

While Perry’s strident anti-gay rhetoric has become a staple of his campaign his “war on religion” pitch could look to play into the perception of some voters that President Obama is “different” and remind them of the false assertions that
while Obama has clearly stated he is a Christian he is really a Muslim. Perry plays the race and religion card while fueling continued Islamophobia and proudly displays his unabashed homophobia.

Marching to his religious beat, Perry takes the legacy of puritanism in American culture and presents it from the perspective that the modern political parties of today penalize politicians for being religious and even more so that Christians, a majority faith, are a misunderstood group who are constantly being persecuted and denied rights. Declaring Obama has instituted a “war on religion” suggests that it is our current President and not the Supreme Court decisions from the 1960s, that took school-sanctioned prayer and the reading of the Bible out of public schools. As he continually fails to show how he is actually qualified to lead this country, he looks to stay alive in the race for the GOP presidential nomination by instead launching falsehoods.

Perry’s campaign may be losing steam but that shouldn’t mean an automatic dismissal of this ad as a desperate strategy. His accusations, although thrown out with an air of casualness, are corrosive to the core. His conservative counterparts have yet to denounce the ad. As disturbing as the ad itself would be not a single other candidate calling this one out. Perhaps they could show that if elected, divisiveness is not where they plan to lead this country.