The worst thing about getting gay married is the social obligation to invite the entire 19-candidate Republican presidential primary field.
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) April 21, 2015
Per Wikipedia, the Iowa Faith & Freedom Coalition was founded by Ralph Reed, Jr as “a bridge between the Tea Party movement and evangelical voters”, after his old lobbying partner Jack Abramoff was convicted of conspiracy, fraud, and tax evasion. The Faith & Freedom Coalition, adds the Wiki, is “Not to be confused with the Faith and Freedom Conference hosted by the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan”.
You’d think a decently self-aware presidential candidate would want to stay the heck away from such people in public, but these are Republicans. From Politico:
WAUKEE, Iowa—Leading Republican presidential candidates came to Iowa Saturday to assure social conservatives that they still oppose gay marriage, despite shifting public attitudes and the recent backlash against religious liberty laws.
Speaking to some 1,000 evangelicals at the Point of Grace Church in this suburb of Des Moines, a procession of presidential candidates expressed support for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to re-ban gay marriage if the Supreme Court recognizes a right to such unions.
Many GOP elites, in the donor and operative class, want to move beyond gay marriage. They think it’s a losing issue for the party in the long-term and makes outreach to younger voters more difficult. But social conservatives are the most influential constituency in the caucuses, which kick off the nominating process.
The nuanced answers from many Republican candidates in recent months took a backburner Saturday night, as several of the candidates tried to outdo one another on who could speak out most strongly against a right to gay marriage…
Steve King, the Republican congressman from northwest Iowa, devoted his entire speech at the event to arguing that a Supreme Court decision recognizing a right to gay marriage would be illegitimate. He compared such a decision to the 1857 Dred Scott decision, which upheld slavery and said African-Americans were not entitled to the protections of U.S. citizens.
“This Supreme Court has made some good decisions too, but we should not see them as the final answer,” King said. “There’s no way I can accept that kind of decision.”
King touted legislation he introduced that would limit the jurisdiction of federal courts to hear marriage cases. He said he’ll be at the Supreme Court Tuesday when the justices hear arguments, and he asked the crowd to pray with him that they make the right choice…
… Confirming, yet again, my conviction that Steve “Pig Muck” King is the best illustration of why the Iowa caucuses deserve to lose their arbitrary first-in-the-nation status.
Hometown paper the Des Moines Register dutifully assembled a five-minute video compilation of all the candidates in (awkward, fumbling, definitely not-ready-for-prime-time) action. I don’t recommend watching it over breakfast, or at any time you don’t have your analgesics of choice available.
Rand in IA: “When they send police into your church and ask the minister for your sermons, that’s when it’s time for civil disobedience."
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) April 26, 2015
"cause we all know that a sunburn is worse than beheading" -Huck mocking Obama for saying climate change is top threat
— Jonathan Martin (@jmartNYT) April 26, 2015
Ted Cruz in Iowa tonight: "There is a liberal fascism that is dedicated to going after believing Christians."
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) April 26, 2015
“Here representing Donald Trump is his campaign manager…” #IAFaithForum
— daveweigel (@daveweigel) April 26, 2015
***********
Apart from pointing & mocking those infinitely deserving of such treatment, what’s on the agenda as we start another week?
Mustang Bobby
These are the same folks who are freaked out about the possibility of Sharia law being imposed on them by Muslims… because Sharia is too liberal, I suppose.
Still sniffling and coughing from some kind of cold or allergy picked up in my travels last week, so rather than share the joy with the office, I’m schvitzing it out here at home.
Patricia Kayden
“presidential candidates expressed support for a constitutional amendment that would allow states to re-ban gay marriage if the Supreme Court recognizes a right to such unions”
Such appealing folks. With all that is going on in the world, I don’t see why gays getting married is so important to the GOP. They need to let this issue go. They’ve lost the war.
Tissue Thin Pseudonym
On the one hand, I’m going to try to finish plotting out the revamped Part II of Becoming Phoebe.
On the other hand, I’ll be trying to think of new places to promote the Kickstarter. Fabulous day yesterday, with $400 in pledges, including one from the mother of a former Gopher player. Given how nervous I am about how this will be received by those in the program (assuming, of course, that any of them ever read it), that’s a good sign. I’m over $7,000 so I’m gaining confidence that I’ll make the $8,000 initial goal. I’d still like to find some other places to talk about it.
EconWatcher
On my worst day at work, I guess I can comfort myself that I don’t have Weigel’s job
EconWatcher
@Patricia Kayden:
I hate to be mercenary, but it’s good for our side. Please proceed, wingnuts…
jibeaux
@Patricia Kayden: what, you think it’s a stretch to say it would get 2/3 support in the house and the senate, then go on to be ratified by 38 states?
It’s Pander Bear time, baby!
OzarkHillbilly
Proposing a constitutional amendment is akin to admitting defeat. The math isn’t there and they know it. Any body with half a brain can figure it out. The only people fooled by such a proposal are the truly delusional. The rest are just hearing, “I am one of you.” which is comforting anyway.
Schlemazel
@Patricia Kayden:
But it is the bitter dead-enders that can make the most trouble and so far we have seen that there are enough of them to win the House & Senate. I used to cheer their finally going a bridge too far but, like peak wingnut, there is no “too far” it seems.
Joey Maloney
Some days I wish these numbnuts would go ahead and start the war they think they want. It would be entertaining to watch – from 8 time zones away.
jibeaux
@OzarkHillbilly: it’s basically every war movie scene where a soldier’s limbs have all been blown off and he’s in shock bleeding out and his buddy’s saying “you stay with me, man, you’re going to be just fine, you’re gonna dance at your wedding.”
dmsilev
@jibeaux: I wonder whether such an amendment could get majority support, never mind the steeper actual thresholds. A majority of the current House and Senate, yeah probably. But even 26 states would be a reach at this point.
OzarkHillbilly
@Tissue Thin Pseudonym: Good
On the celebratory side of things, the best movie Martin Scorcese’s ever made, and by far the greatest “Mob” movie ever made, is 25 years old. That opening scene… grabbed me by the balls and still hasn’t let go.
satby
We used to think they lost the war on abortion rights too, remember?
Instead the dead enders beat that horse for the last 40 plus years and have now racked up majorities in Congress.
Peale
@Joey Maloney: I guess. At this point, what’s a few hundred thousand more dead Muslims added to our pile. Especially when it’s done in the name of Jesus to prevent them from killing each other.
Bruuuuce
Very busy week indeed. First SCOTUS hears Obergefell (same sex marriage). Then the NFL draft starts Thursday and runs into the weekend. Finally, Marvel releases some flick or other, about a robot’s birthday party, I think :-)
On the already happened front, the Catholic school that booted the 12 year old girl who’s fighting leukemia has offered her readmission, and WINS newsradio in NYC reports that she’s told them to bugger off. Good for her!
jibeaux
@satby:
who thought that? Opinions on abortion have been more or less flat for decades. You don’t see a big shift between older voters and younger voters on it, so you can reasonably predict that it is going to stay highly contentious. It’s just not comparable in terms of sea change of public opinion.
satby
@jibeaux: I’m not sure I agree. Roe v Wade seemed to settle the issue in 1973 (I was a senior in high school and it was a huge deal to us). There were a few years where the opposition didn’t have much traction, but they kept at it and now threaten birth control rights as well, which was a well settled issue. I hope I’m wrong and that they have lost this battle, but they have a play book for how to reimpose their will on the majority that doesn’t agree with them, and they will use it.
delk
Fun Fact:
In December of 2012 when we went to Iowa to get our marriage license, we stayed at the same hotel as the Santorum campaign. Somewhere I have a picture of us going at it like teenagers in front of his bus.
I walked all over with the license in case I bumped into him, but was not to be.
And speaking of my husband, I got to see him perform last night at Orchestra Hall, where the Chicago Symphony Orchestra performs. Very cool.
Cervantes
@Patricia Kayden:
The war they’re fighting is against the Enlightenment, and that happened (for most of us) hundreds of years ago.
Gene108
@dmsilev:
26 states is within reach. Republicans control 31 state legislatures, per Wikipedia, and 24 state governments outright.
There are 11 Democratic controlled legislatures and 8 split.
Gay marriage is still very unpopular in enough pockets in this country to still be a potent issue. Look for possibly some laws to creep in, like they do with abortion, to undermine the Courts rulings that it should be legal.
Outright harrassment and threats of violence are probably less likely than a few decades ago, but if you get right-wingers fired up some of them are capable of anything.
Edit: Maybe 7 million out of 8 million NYC residents do not care if gays get married, and that is more than the population of Kansas and Utah combined, but for those states most of their populations are probably anti-gay marriage, so it is still an useful wedge issue there, though on a national level most folks do not care.
Randy P
Meanwhile, among Christians who actually live their faith, Jimmy Carter has resigned from the Southern Baptist Convention. Here’s an article on a religious website.
Doesn’t appear to be directly relevant to the marriage equality issue, and I can’t quite tell from that writeup what his tipping point was.
But still, here’s a lifelong Baptist who has decided that, doctrinally, the Baptists are no longer a fit.
jibeaux
@satby: oh, I know. I think it’s going to be a tug of war for the foreseeable future. I don’t see it ever becoming a settled issue.
Gene108
@satby:
They have a playbook dating back to the end of the Civil War to undermine the parts of the Constitution they do not agree with. The real issue is they are only truly successful, when state, local and/or the Federal government tacitly give their approval to attempts by conservatices to screw over minorities.
They need the approval because part of their playbook is the use of violence and the threat of potential future violence to intimidate people they do not like. They did this with abortion clinics in the 1980’s and government response was slow.
The real issue is how to bend government away from discriminatory policies the right -wingers want to inact?
I do not know. They are still able to disproportionately have the judicial system stacked against blacks, with the approval of many people, 150 years after the civil war ended.
Gene108
@Randy P:
I thought JEC split a long time ago from the SBC or maybe it was his church in Plains that got too liberal for the SBC and became independent. I remember this happening with Pullen Baptist Church in Raleigh, NC many years ago, when they dropped out of the SBC.
Jerry
@Randy P:
That split happened 10 to 15 years ago. The article you linked to doesn’t have the year in its article date. Which is kinda weird.
My wife and I attend a UCC church every now and again in Raleigh and the pastor is a former Southern Baptist member. If you’re not familiar with the United Church of Christ, it’s, well, pretty much everything that the Southern Baptist Church is not.
Iowa Old Lady
I’m still looking at those tweets. Apparently on twitter, it takes less that Charlie Pierce’s five minute for Rand Paul to sound crazy. What the hell is he talking about?
Baud
@Iowa Old Lady:
He’s technically right.
ThresherK
@delk: I walked all over with the license in case I bumped into him
As a teen I got my ham radio license. The first thing you learn for the test is that you need to have your license on you to transmit.
After my wife and I got “straight-married*, but in the 36 hours before the honeymoon plane flight, I misplaced our marriage license. Out of habit I convinced myself, somehow, that we needed that piece of paper or we wouldn’t be able to…get on the plane? Check into the hotel?…as husband and wife.
She had to remind me how many trips and beds we shared in nine years before the wedding, and nobody was going to stop us for a little piece of paper.
(*It was the ’90s, all of our straight friends were doing it, we were crazy for each other, what can I say?)
Iowa Old Lady
@Baud: Ya got me there.
D58826
Well Hillary may not be able to walk on the Progressive Sea but she beats any of the GOP clowns. But lets hold out for the perfect candidate and not vote for the good candidate. Then we can spend 4 years moaning and groaning about the evils of the GOP president.
Baud
@D58826:
Not that I disagree, but what triggered that comment here?
Woodrowfan
@Gene108: It would take 38 states, not 26.
Iowa Old Lady
At a writers’ con this weekend, I talked to a woman who was an enthusiastic HRC supporter, but in a way that’s politically disengaged. Her husband had been talking up “some guy,” she said. She had her phone out searching for the name when I suggested Martin O’Malley, and she said “Yes!” She thought O’Malley sounded fine but she thought Hillary was more electable.
It’s good to be reminded some times of how most people seem to have a political mind set and tribal identity but are pretty fuzzy on the details. They’re busy with their lives.
Patricia Kayden
@Gene108: Public opinion has swung so far towards accepting SSM that I doubt the Republicans are serious about taking the dramatic step of changing the federal constitution to ban it. This would be a lengthy and acrimonous process which would put their bigotry and pettiness on full display. Just don’t see how this would be a good investment for them at a time when they’re already having a hard time getting non-White, non-old voters.
They need to let this issue go, as their big donors want them to do.
Baud
Everyone is assuming that Kennedy will vote the right way. Probably a good assumption, but I’m still keeping my fingers crossed.
Villago Delenda Est
I’ve got news for Rafael Cruz. He can be a “belliving Christian” all he wants. It’s when he insists that the laws of the country must comply with his beliefs, and others must comply with his beliefs, that I start to get into the “these lions need to be fed” mode.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
Well the people they are talking to are the same people who believe Jesus rode a dinosaur, the earth is 6,000 years old, and the 1% Atheists majority is persecuting the 75% Christian minority.
David Koch
somewhere ¡Jeb! is screaming, “I can’t believe I’m losing to these people!”
Germy Shoemangler
@David Koch: Adding the upside-down exclamation to Jeb! was a touch of genius IMHO
Iowa Old Lady
@David Koch: That’s probably what Romney thought at this point in 2011. I still think he’ll be the nominee.
Germy Shoemangler
..part of their playbook is the use of violence and the threat of potential future violence to intimidate people they do not like. They did this with abortion clinics in the 1980’s and government response was slow.
I know a woman who took down her liberal blog. She expected the usual trolls, and tried to ignore them. But then it escalated to threats and then finally stalking.
Lots of folks here say liberals should begin at the local level and work up (and I agree) the same way the rightwingers are doing. But don’t forget though how many liberals are concerned about their personal lives becoming a living hell if they dare put themselves out there in front of their lush rimbaugh/blen geck/Nox Fews consuming neighbors.
I don’t know of any republicans running for local office who faced the same sort of harassment.
Botsplainer
Oral arguments on SSM out of the Sixth Circuit case (originating from the People’s Democratic Socialist Shariah Republic of Louisville) at SCOTUS tomorrow, if I understand my Facebook feed correctly – those lawyers are personal friends of mine. I’ve got clients eager to divorce, so the issue is important to my practice.
My prediction is that it’ll be a divided opinion, no absolute right to it BUT Full Faith and Credit recognition of marriages from other states will become mandatory on a 5-4 vote.
Germy Shoemangler
@Iowa Old Lady: It’s up to the Koch brothers.
The decision is theirs.
El Caganer
Ted Cruz worries about “liberal fascism?” I did not know that Doughy Pantload was required reading at Harvard Law.
Joey Maloney
@Peale: You misunderstand. I’m talking about Civil War II: The Deconstruction.
Woodrowfan
@Germy Shoemangler: yep. and that’s a sign of genuine fascism.
boatboy_srq
@jibeaux: Aren’t these the same wingnuts who insist every single amendment after the 10th is illegitimate? Except the ones that they like, of course.
boatboy_srq
@Randy P: Another case of “the church left him” rather than “he left the church,” methinks.
Gene108
@Woodrowfan:
I know it would take 38 states to ratify an Amendment to the Constitution, but I think people do not realize how much control Republicans have at the state level, after 2014, and how close they are to getting to 38 states.
MomSense
It seems to work pretty well for the Dems to have the Iowans pick the nuttiest candidates of the bunch. The Dems in Iowa seem to be a practical bunch so this probably works well for us. Steve King is pretty good at picking the next Fox contributor and that is as it should be.
boatboy_srq
@Enhanced Voting Techniques: Problem here is definitions.
And if you ask that group, that 13.1% is the sum total of Christians, because Catholics, Anglicans, Methodists, Presbyterians, Lutherans and the rest of the 86.9% don’t count. Unless of course you’re Religious Liberty™ is infringed, or your missionaries (sent to exotic locations like Rome and Avignon) are laughed off their soapboxes, in which case “Christians are being persecuted!!11!1!” (by which of course they mean Xtians are being inconvenienced, and they think the rest of Christianity is dumb enough to be persuaded that they’re at risk of some unspeakable horror as well).
NotMax
@Randy P.
The link you provided is from 2000.
Carter and Bill Clinton teamed up (with others) to begin a new Baptist umbrella organization about a half dozen years ago.
boatboy_srq
@Germy Shoemangler:
THIS. The Reichwhing may whinge about “death threats” and all, but the stats I’ve seen point to far more violent intimidation from the Right than the Left.
Cervantes
@El Caganer:
HLS has much to answer for but not this. Cruz had graduated long before the book was published!
Randy P
@NotMax: Huh. I heard about it in the last couple days via a Great Orange Satan email. Wonder why they got the news so late.
WaterGirl
@satby: I agree.
Denali
After I got hate mail and obscene phone calls after writing letters to the local newspaper advocating gun control, I stopped writing. I was spooked. Although I admire people who stand up for what they believe, I don’t need this.
Right wingers firmly believe in intimidation. Look at Texas, where people can now openly carry guns to intimidate others.
WaterGirl
@MomSense: Iowa brought us President Barack Obama, and I will be forever grateful.
I’m not confident that the outcome would have been the same if Hillary had won in Iowa.
Jerry
@Randy P:
Yep, 2000 as evidenced in this New York Times article.
Woodrowfan
@Gene108: OK, fair enough.
Mike in NC
Best bumper sticker ever: “Hate is not a family value”.
Matt McIrvin
@Germy Shoemangler: My mom got death threats for campaigning for McGovern in 1972.
Germy Shoemangler
@Matt McIrvin: Sorry to hear that. I’ve seen examples of that. Sometimes it’s not as blatant as death threats. Obscene phone calls, vandalism.
The teatards run for every and all local election from dogcatcher to county clerk to school board to commissioner in charge of rain gutters. Nobody on the left stalks them or leaves dead animals on their porches or threatens violence. Because if they did, I’m sure I’d hear about it loud and clear.
But write a letter to the editor suggesting maybe, maybe we should have sensible gun laws, or write a blog critical of dick cheney, or run for some local office as a liberal, and you will be intimidated.
Maybe this explains why the right is taking over every corner of our local governments? They intimidate whoever they don’t like. They’ve got a ton of people soaking up their propaganda from talk radio (the local market talk radio shows are just as vile as the national) and ready to attack whoever disagrees with them.
Germy Shoemangler
@Denali: Their intention was to spook you and silence you. They are thugs.
And I’m guessing their social circles, the folks they barbecue with and go to their kids’ games with, are law enforcement and other local government types who agree with everything they stand for.
SWMBO
@Randy P: According to wikipedia, Carter resigned in 2000 from the Southern Baptist Convention.
stinger
“the Iowa caucuses deserve to lose their arbitrary first-in-the-nation status”
Is there a state in the nation that doesn’t have an elected Republican embarrassing them at the national or gubernatorial level? Wisconsin? Alaska? SC? AZ? NJ? What state doesn’t have its Michele Bachmann or Scott Brown? Who does “deserve” to go first? Doesn’t putting Barack Obama on the road to the White House count for anything?