Jesus Versus the GOP

How the Fringe Vindicated MSNBC

Several months ago, a Cheerios advertisement aired which featured a white mother, a black father, and their biracial daughter. To many, such a thing seems rather mundane, and rightly so. To others however, this ad was an abomination. Certain parts of society voiced outrage that seemed straight out of the 1960s.

Cut to last week when it was made known that another such ad was soon to strike the airwaves. MSNBC tweeted that the right-wing would probably rise in outrage yet again (paraphrasing). Apparently, the Republican Party took exception to this. In fact, Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, threatened to boycott the news outlet (meaning that he and the organization’s surrogates would not appear there) until the station’s president, Phil Griffin, apologized formally. Griffin did apologize and the tweet was deleted, though this is the internet we are talking about so nothing is ever truly deleted.

During the Super Bowl a few days later, the Cheerios ad which had been teased aired featuring the same biracial family as the first ad. That wound up not being the ad which garnered the most attention, both negative and positive, as another ad eclipsed it significantly. Coca-Cola had a commercial featuring “America the Beautiful” sung in English…as well as other languages mixed into the song’s verses. The response was…predictable.

Some people saw the ad for what it was: a recognition that America is a nation that draws its strength from its diversity. The usual suspects, on the other hand, were up in arms in protest. Many voiced their anger that America’s national anthem was being sung in languages other than English, even though “America the Beautiful” is not America’s national anthem. Even the angry responses that were not quite as ignorant as that proved that some people have no regard for the fact that much of the good of this nation is because part of the American dream is that people can come here from wherever and have a better lot in life if they are willing to put in the effort, which many immigrants have proven they are willing to do. Much of the greatness that America stands for is due in no small part to its heterogeneity, without which, for good or ill, our history as a nation and a people would be diminished.

In the end, the aforementioned tweet from MSNBC proved to be correct, which is truly unfortunate. It is a sad day when racial backlash can be so accurately predicted so far in advance. Racists and xenophobes have yet again shown that America, as beautiful as it is, still has very far to go.

The Conservative Agenda: The Week in Wing-Nuttery

So, how is the Republican rebranding going?

Guess Who's Running For Governor!

This past Sunday, Scott Lively announced that he will be running for governor of Massachusetts. Given who Lively is, this may not actually be news worthy, but it is hilarious. Lively’s claim to fame is inspiring Uganda’s “Kill the Gays” bill, a bill that would make it legal for that country to literally execute people for being gay. Lively’s involvement in Uganda has resulted in him facing a court challenge for crimes against humanity. He is an ardent conservative who is very vocally anti-gay, anti-abortion, and pro-gun, yet he is running to lead one of the country’s most liberal states. For some reason Lively thinks that the people of Massachusetts need him.

According to a press release from Lively, "The people of this state need a candidate who can clearly and unapologetically articulate Biblical values without fear or compromise. They need a candidate who will tell the simple truth that abortion is murder, and homosexuality is condemned by God (but that Jesus forgives and heals those who repent)." 

Let us compare this with what recently happened here in my home state: Virginia. Here, we had a very conservative Republican - Ken Cuccinelli - running on many of the same policy positions as Lively. As extreme as Cuccinelli was in those policies, he was not as extreme as Lively, nor is Virginia the liberal bastion that Massachusetts is. Cuccinelli still managed to lose. I have no idea how Lively thinks himself to be a viable candidate in Massachusetts of all places.

We’re living in a time when most people are more concerned about economic issues and health care while simultaneously, the tide on social issues - particularly those related to sexual orientation - is shifting demonstrably away from the conservative positions that Lively espouses so strongly. We have seen in the last few years that what were once winning issues for conservatives are now liabilities that have cost them numerous electoral contests. That is a lesson that Lively has yet to learn, though he is shaping up to be the latest political casualty of the right’s inability to learn lessons from past elections. He will just have to learn the hard way that he and those like him are no longer in touch with mainstream America.

Also, he thinks the Nazis were gay. Gubernatorial material indeed…

Boehner Is Angry At Conservative Groups

The Bible "Proves" Climate Change is a Hoax

Conservative Hypocrisy Over Marijuana

Science Textbook Publishers Defeat Texas Conservatives

From Texas Freedom Network:

...Some reviewers had criticized the proposed biology textbooks for failing to include a variety of discredited arguments attacking evolution. For example, reviewers lowered the rating of one textbook because it didn’t include the inaccurate claim that scientists have found no transitional fossils and that “the fossil record can be interpreted in other ways than evolutionary with equal justification.” Another reviewer insisted that all of the textbooks teach “creation science based on Biblical principles” alongside evolution.

Editorial changes from all 14 publishers that submitted high school biology textbooks for adoption this year do not reflect those arguments and beliefs, TFN’s examination shows.

The anti-evolution arguments promoted by the textbook reviewers are based on claims that scientists have shown to be false or simply have no place in a science textbook, said Arturo De Lozanne, associate professor in molecular cell and developmental biology at the University of Texas at Austin.

“From what I can see so far, publishers are resisting pressure to do things that would leave high school graduates in Texas ill-prepared to succeed in a college science classroom,” De Lozanne said. “If we want Texas kids to be competitive nationally, we have to ensure that what they learn in their high school classrooms is based on facts, not ideology. Having said that, it’s remarkable and distressing that some folks are still arguing over what really is established, mainstream science...”

"Values Voters" Laugh About Nazi Camps

The GOP's Rift Over Obamacare

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House GOP Aides Are Fuming At Ted Cruz

From Talking Points Memo:

House GOP aides exchanged angry emails and even cursed at "amateur" Cruz in the cloakroom Wednesday, according to a National Review Online report published Thursday.

“Cruz keeps raising conservatives’ hopes, and then, when we give him what he wants, he doesn’t have a plan to follow through,” one aide said, according to NRO. “Nancy Pelosi is more well-liked around here," said another.

In a joint statement Wednesday with Sens. Mike Lee (R-UT) and Marco Rubio (R-FL), Cruz said that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) "likely" has the votes to strip language defunding Obamacare from any bill that makes its way over from the House.

"This is outrageous," a senior House GOP aide told TPM on Wednesday. "They demand a fight for two months, supposedly on behalf of the grassroots and constituents and then within hours of getting the fight, they slink away, abandon those same people and do nothing."

Conservatives Attack the Man Who Saved Rep. Giffords

 

How is a guy who saved someone who has just been shot not a "real man?"

Neocon John Bolton Backs Marriage Equality

From The New Civil Rights Movement: 

Bolton is seriously considering running for president. It was during an interview with the National Review about what political positions we could expect a Bolton campaign to espouse, that he let it be known he is now pro same-sex marriage. Bolton:

On gay marriage, I support it, at both the state level and the federal level. Gay marriage is something I’ve thought about at length as I’ve looked at my future. I concluded, a couple years ago, that I think it should be permissible and treated the same at both levels.”

The line that jumps out and does a tap dance in that announcement is “I’ve looked at my future.” I think Bolton has made the calculation that marriage equality will soon be necessary for political viability. He has studied the landscape of the next presidential contest and concluded by the time the 2016 election comes around, the voters will reward those who stand for gay equality and punish those who don’t.

Know what? If Bolton changed his position because he’s all about Bolton, and not out of a newfound empathy for the LGBT community, I’m ok with that. Nothing could spread LGBT equality faster than politicians who think it’s in their own best interest to embrace their inner gay. I hope Bolton’s way of thinking spreads through Washington. (There’s a sentence I never thought I’d write.) Because even if it is all about themselves, I’ll gladly welcome all the conservative trolls out from under the discrimination bridge and into the land of liberty and justice for all. (And maybe a little glitter on special occasions.) 

Fox News is Too Liberal...

Rep. Gohmert (R-TX) Blames Obama for Racial Tension

The Religious Wrong: Using the "God Excuse"

Conservatives Once Ridiculed Ayn Rand

From Salon: 

The late Gore Vidal would not have been surprised by the former Republican vice-presidential candidate’s choice of a patron saint. After all, it was Vidal who observed, in a 1961 article for Esquire:

She has a great attraction for simple people who are puzzled by organized society, who object to paying taxes, who dislike the ‘welfare’ state, who feel guilt at the thought of the suffering of others but who would like to harden their hearts. For them, she has an enticing prescription: altruism is the root of all evil, self-interest is the only good, and if you’re dumb or incompetent that’s your lookout.

Vidal might be dismissed as a biased leftist. But the late William F. Buckley Jr., the founder of post-1945 conservatism who engaged in a famous televised spat with Vidal during the 1968 Democratic convention, shared Vidal’s contempt for Ayn Rand. After her death in 1982, Buckley wrote in the New York Daily News: “She was an eloquent and persuasive anti-statist, and if only she had left it at that, but no. She had to declare that God did not exist, that altruism was despicable, that only self-interest was good and noble.” In 2003, Buckley described his encounter with Rand’s interminable propaganda novel “Atlas Shrugged”: “I had to flog myself to read it.”

For once, conservatives going back to the "good ol' days" wouldn't be such a bad idea.

"Stand Your Ground" Fails Again

Obama Isn't the One Starting a Race War

Tweet of the Day: August 8, 2013