How it started:
Tucker Carlson derisively refers to @DanCrenshawTX, who lost his eye while serving our country as a Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, as “eye-patch McCain.” pic.twitter.com/ItsrNyPGQd
— Jonathan Karl (@jonkarl) May 17, 2022
How’s it’s going:
BREAKING: Dan Crenshaw & Staff Physically Assaulted by Right Wing Attackers Shouting 'Eyepatch McCain' at TX GOP https://t.co/EVBFWZNV4Q
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 18, 2022
UPDATE: Second Video from TX Convention Shows Man in MAGA Hat Shouting Dan Crenshaw 'Needs To Be Hung for Treason' https://t.co/EVBFWZNV4Q
— Mediaite (@Mediaite) June 18, 2022
Crenshaw is anti- LGBTQ+ …
…who is, as far as I can tell, an all-around awful human being. But he’s not awful enough for the Texas GOP. I don’t condone this attack, but as far as I can tell, he should have seen this coming with his good eye (I’m going to hell for that one).
This is who they are.
Open thread
Saturday Morning Open Thread: Deliberately Seeking Inspiration
SpaceUnit
I’ll be rooting for injuries all around, figuratively speaking.
sab
Tucker Carlson is a menace.
Gvg
Context? Why did Tucker attack Crenshaw? What was the attack other than a nickname? Why is eyepatch McCain derisive?
Also I would think that is too direct an immediate for Carleton to get away with. I would think he could be charged for something since he came up with such a unique label that was so quickly used during a physical attack. If Crenshaw doesn’t want to take on Tucker, then his staffers maybe could.
Also staffers getting attacked is going to chill others.
Uncle Jeffy
TaMara, if you’re going to hell for that one, F*cker Carlson and the Texas Rethuglikkkan Party will be your honor guard.
scav
Apparently not even the one-eyed can lead the grand olk party of the (willfully) blind.
TaMara
I thought Colorado’s GOP convention was off the rails, TX is just driving the train straight off the bridge:
debbie
Carlson needs to go the way of Alex Jones.
scav
It’s also going to put a bit of a spanner in TFG’s claim that words he dun said could in no way ever possibly incite violence in his devoted pacifistic touristic followers, nohow.
kindness
Lord Of The Flies was fiction I had thought. Welcome to Tuckers world.
Scout211
@Gvg:
He attacked Crenshaw over his support for Ukraine.
encephalopath
Maybe Crenshaw IS hung. Maybe even really well hung.
Nobody said he should be hanged or anything so it’s all good.
hells littlest angel
Hey, in the country of the blind he could be president.
eclare
@TaMara:
Republicans? Narrow-minded? No! That’s crazy talk!
Citizen Alan
@TaMara:
The LCR shouldn’t worry too much. I’m sure they’ll still get their tax cuts even as they’re being marched into the camps.
Betty Cracker
Completely deranged.
Cameron
What incredibly dreadful creatures to share a species with.
Ken
@eclare: I’m hearing “Narrow-minded is fine, until it affects us” in that.
feebog
When you are invited to a party of cannibals you may be on the menu.
MisterForkbeard
@Scout211: In addition to that, Crenshaw has said a couple of times that the far-right is crazy. He’s absolutely guilty of the two things that get you in trouble with the Right:
1) Insufficient fealty to Republicans
2) Not reflexively promoting Russia when it would hurt Democrats and Democracy
Lapassionara
@Cameron: what incredibly dreadful creatures to share a country with.
eclare
@Ken: I think that is how everything is measured. Does this affect us? No? We’re good.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
Apparently, some right-wing “comedian” named Alex Stein and others were involved in this
NotMax
Been offering a variation of the tourist slogan for decades:
“Texas. It’s a whole ‘nother
countrydimension.”Sister Golden Bear
[Gozilla gif] Let them fight.
Mike in NC
The imbecile hawking Trump merchandise today had a yard sign that read, “Law & Order. Vote Trump”. Proving that irony is indeed dead.
Dorothy A. Winsor
Cripes. I guess if you go to a GOP gathering, you have to expect this kind of thing now. But Carlson’s power is terrifying
WaterGirl
@Ken:
Exactly. Republicans being narrow-minded is news?
Who wants to belong to a group that loathes you???
The Moar You Know
Where’s the gallows? I know these folks know how to put together a halfass one very quickly.
JPL
@TaMara: The Log Cabin Republicans are breathing a sigh of relief. Imagine what would have happened if they were allowed in.
Scout211
@MisterForkbeard:
Update from Mediaite.
World Economic Forum sellout! (Huh?)
Supports red flag laws!
Leto
We’re going together because I lol’d.
eclare
@JPL: Good point.
JPL
The one thing Crenshaw did not do is walk out and refuse to speak at the conference. Let’s not give this guy another medal.
germy shoemangler
Benw
Patriotic, anti-communist, pro-military, real-man Republicans attacking an ex Navy Seal for supporting aid to our ally fighting a war against Russia because Tucker Carlson told them to! How do they keep it all in their heads at the same time?
eclare
@Leto: I’ll see y’all there.
Frank Wilhoit
@Sister Golden Bear: Let them, at any rate, wonder who is safe.
germy shoemangler
Nobody wants their face eaten. Leopard 2024!
Kropacetic
Crenshaw, for his myriad flaws, is one of the rare Republicans who occasionally says something I actually agree with*.
That is to say, I understand why wingers would want to get rid of him.
*Don’t ask for a citation. I don’t remember what he said or did, just that I felt once or twice “that’s a normal human attitude right there.” High praise from me for a Republican.
JPL
The reason the Pencette’s like Crenshaw won’t stand up against the extreme right wing, is because they want their votes. That’s it.
Tony Jay
Hey, they’re just trying to purify their movement. And as everyone knows, there’s nothing more attractive to middle-of-the-road, apolitical voters than the violent ideological flagellations of a really, really purified movement.
debbie
Whoever slimed Cawthorn and is trying to do the same to Boebert needs to stretch even further and go after Tucker. There’s got to be a reason he sounds like a prepubescent incel.
germy shoemangler
Kropacetic
I don’t like to kink shame, hell, this is close to my own flavor of kink (minus any Trumpy BS, of course). Still, your kinks should not be the basis of public policy or choosing officials.
When you put it that way, it explains itself.
EmanG
I just wonder how long it’s going to take for someone to apologize to Pete Davidson.
Ken
Family is important.
SiubhanDuinne
I have no use at all for Dan Crenshaw, but Tuckums makes him look like the second coming of Barbara Jordan, Lyndon Johnson, and Molly Ivins (to name three pretty impressive Texans at random).
germy shoemangler
@debbie:
The only way to shame him is to loudly and persistently amplify the story that he petitioned Hunter Biden for help in getting his son Buckley into Georgetown.
JPL
The Texas GOP is voting today to call homosexuals abnormal, so those who said I’m not a drag queen or a trans, so I’m safe are idiots.
Ken
Did Sen. Graham go on to praise the Green River Killer and Osama bin Laden?
Cameron
@germy shoemangler: It’s probably just a quirk of mine, but I’d actually prefer being “highly embarrassed” and “shamed/humiliated” to being, y’know, shot dead by a lunatic.
eclare
@EmanG: Hahaha…I think Pete is doing OK these days, now that he’s part of Kete.
debbie
@JPL:
I wonder what they’ll do? Try to fight the nutjobs for control of the party, or will they sit quietly outside the circle, not attracting attention, and vote for the nutjobs? You just know this won’t stay in Texas.
Baud
Dems wouldn’t let Nazis into their convention, so both sides.
germy shoemangler
Ksmiami
@sab: we are going to have to bring down the Fox News Oann ecosystem before it destroys us all.
Scout211
@germy shoemangler:
The new version they are leaking to the media is that they could have fired at the shooter, but we’re too concerned that they might hit the children.
Releasing the body cams could clear up all of these “confusing” versions of
CYAthe police response.jnfr
Yes, this is who they are.
Jackie
@MisterForkbeard: He and MTG have had a few Twitter fights re Ukraine. Disagreeing with MTG puts Crenshaw on Tucker’s enemy list.
@MisterForkbeard:
Ksmiami
@Lapassionara: we don’t have to be stuck in this suicide pact…
JPL
@debbie: Since abortion will not be an issue in 2024, they are turning to the gays. trump signaled it when he went after teachers who taught trans. That doesn’t happen but it sure riles up a crowd. Gay marriage is the next target and they hope no one pays attention to the supremes ridding us of the EPA.
just my opinion
jnfr
@Cameron:
This is so true. Truest comment ever.
lowtechcyclist
@Tony Jay:
You’d think, but they’ve purified their movement so many times between 1980 and now, and it hasn’t seemed to hurt them yet.
I think part of it is that both the Dems and the media continue to treat the GQP like a normal political party, so the message really never gets through to low-info voters just how far they’ve gone off the rails this time.
Another part of it is that the media treat the GQP hordes like some force of nature that lacks agency: as someone said in the previous thread, they put the responsibility entirely on the Dems to reach across party lines. Cornyn threatens to kill the gun control deal? The story isn’t about Cornyn’s double-dealing, it’s how it’s up to the Dems to find a way to keep him on board.
Another part is the media not saying diddly as the Rethugs routinely vilify the Dems, just taking it for granted that that’s the way they are, while they say things that would give a case of the vapors to every MSM pundit in America if the Dems said them about the Rethugs.
There’s more, I’m sure, but that’s a start.
eclare
@JPL: I agree. That strategy got W elected in 2004.
NutmegAgain
Maybe it’s beginning of a (Night) Friedman Unit of the Long Knives, and the RW will consume its own. With a different outcome, of course.
debbie
@JPL:
Depressing. At what point will they go too far?
Kent
You are right and you aren’t right.
They throw every vile thing they can think of at the wall and just run with whatever sticks. Mostly that is hate. Hate for LGBT folks which is where all the trans panic comes from. But also pure unadulterated racism which is where all the CRT panic and “build the wall” comes from. I don’t think there is a particular master plan to achieve specific objectives like eliminating gay marriage except in the most fundie circles. It’s more about weaponizing hate for political power.
In 2024 we will have a full throated festival of hate and whatever seems to stick and incite the MAGAts will be what they run with. Remember, Trump isn’t actually a leader of any kind. He is simply a follower. He has a ferret’s nose for the worst stench out there and just follows along
Oh, and what makes you think abortion won’t be an issue in 2024? Of course it will be an issue. “We need to rein in those Godless abortion factory states like California. And elect good people to do it.”
karen marie
@germy shoemangler: Oh, my. I hadn’t heard that before. Not surprised though.
“There’s a club, and you’re not in it,” as Driftglass likes to say.
Steeplejack
“When they came for Eyepatch McCain I didn’t say anything, because I was in there swinging a fist.
“When they came for the Log
CabinCondo Republicans I didn’t say anything, because I was busy wielding a pitchfork.”JPL
@Kent: Hate is all they have.
germy shoemangler
@karen marie:
That’s the only thing he’s embarrassed by. The rest of the stuff we uncover, he just laughs at us. He doesn’t care.
mrmoshpotato
I have some popcorn in my cupboards, some cooking oil and salt.
And, yes, I can make enough for everyone.
karen marie
@Scout211: So let me get this straight. The police were outside, knew there was an active danger entering the school but they didn’t think to notify the school so an alarm could be sounded and classrooms locked?
Not exactly covering themselves with glory here.
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@eclare:
That was also 2004, tho. In 2022, approval for same sex marriage is at 70%
zhena gogolia
Couldn’t some enterprising reporter get to the bottom of tuckers ties to Putin?
mrmoshpotato
@debbie:
Very charitable of you to not say the way of Rush Limbaugh.
gene108
@TaMara:
Texas GOP has been shutting out Log Cabin Republicans since 1996.
https://mobile.twitter.com/wagatwe/status/1538237349200400384?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1538237349200400384%7Ctwgr%5E%7Ctwcon%5Es1_&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fdisqus.com%2Fembed%2Fcomments%2F%3Fbase%3Ddefaultf%3Dwonkettecomt_i%3D2657529453t_u%3Dhttps3A2F2Fwww.wonkette.com2Fgop-holding-up-gun-bill-to-make-sure-abusive-ex-boyfriends-can-have-gunst_d%3D0A2020202020202020GOP20Holding20Up20Gun20Bill20To20Ensure20Abusive20Ex-Boyfriends20Can20Have20Guns0A20202020t_t%3D0A2020202020202020GOP20Holding20Up20Gun20Bill20To20Ensure20Abusive20Ex-Boyfriends20Can20Have20Guns0A20202020s_o%3Ddefaultversion%3Dcfefa856cbcd7efb87102e7242c9a829
eclare
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): The geographic distribution of people who approve is an issue with the electoral college.
raven
@Sister Golden Bear: Shit, Crenshaw was a fucking Seal. That pantywaist motherfucker Carlson wouldn’t last a minute.
mrmoshpotato
I felt a ping of shame from laughing, then went “Aw, fuck it!”
JPL
There is some good news to share. You know who supports Red Flag Laws? …… DeSantis. Won’t the gun nuts be proud.
Steeplejack
@karen marie:
I’m not even sure this story is true. It’s like the third or fourth version they’ve trotted out.
dexwood
@raven: He might last a minute if he stays to the blind side, but not much longer.
Jim Vandewalker
This looks like a test: “Who can we send our flying monkeys after?” *pteradactyl scream
JPL
@gene108: Was this in their platform before .. just askin
Sergio Martínez-Beltrán on Twitter: “Here’s part of the proposed 2022 platform of the Republican Party of Texas. “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice.” #txpol #txlege https://t.co/azGXxIKYUm” / Twitter
JPL
@dexwood: oh
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@JPL:
Huh. That’s interesting. Wonder if he’ll flipflop?
NotMax
‘@JPL
No amendment stating “But day-um, them lesbians are hot!”
//
Tony Jay
@lowtechcyclist:
Hasn’t it hurt them? In 1980 the Republicans won the Presidency by almost 10%, the popular vote by something like 8 and a half million votes, and took 44 states. Compare that to the Glorious Shrub’s razor thin wins and the tiny number of voters who tipped 2016 towards The Pustule.
Yes, you’re right to point out that they’ve been given too much unearned credibility by Dems and had the Media firmly in their corner while they’ve been transitioning from a national political Party into an apocalyptic cannibal horde, but that’s just masked the problem that inevitably comes from winnowing your Base down to the scummiest scum and your candidate list down to the most villainous villains.
They’re heading towards midterm elections with their racist TV hosts inspiring their hyped-up Party stalwarts to attack their Party candidates on camera. And it’s only going to get worse as the hysteria on the Right gets amped up by their Citrus Messiah’s paranoid ravings.
I’m hardly the Oracle of Delphi, but sniffing these vapours is giving me visions of a Party that a – lot – of normies are going to shy away from voting for.
Cameron
@karen marie: It might be best to start with the assumption that everything they’re saying is a lie. All that SWAT-training bullshit was just macho posturing – when the shit hit the fan, why….hey…a man could get hurt here, y’know?
Philbert
@Leto: me first, I saw that coming with my bad eye!
JPL
@Goku (aka Amerikan Baka): Of course he will. They are all cowards. If it doesn’t pass Congress, he’ll probably call for a review and say it’s a waste of money.
Cameron
@JPL: Wow. I did not know this. He does a few more things like that, he might almost rise to sea level in my opinion. Not that he would give a shit about my opinion.
MisterDancer
Yes. There is no plan. The Conservative Movement — yes, even the Club for Growth and Federalist Society wankers — aren’t building out 10 Year Plans to take over America.
Or rather — it’s the same game plan their fore-fathers used to create Jim Crow. Cull the voting population, terrorize the ones they can’t cull out, and throw empty promises of money and power to the ones they tell to Hate.
Y’all gotta recall — they got so many with tax and budget cuts. SO MANY. The GOP was the Party (or so they claimed!) for low taxes and “fiscal responsibility” off the backs of some lower classes. Which lower classes? Oh, the ones who also happened to be pilloried as “Welfare Queens.” They sold to so many that the Democrats were taking money from “ordinary Americans” and giving it to, well, Black folx, keeping alive the Hate while tying it directly to the slow loss of financial power.
They did all that not with careful planning, but just by various Right-Wing groups throwing shit at the media and seeing what stuck. When you’re funded to do this full-time, with a staff at your beck and call, it’s a lot easier than the shoestring-funded Left-of-Center advocacy groups have it!
Now: they literally write Hate bills. They have a whole system for shoveling Right-Wing Judges into the court system. They have so much dark money they can sue — and win! — to basically let politicians pay themselves in “contributions”.
No carefully-developed plan could have worked all that out. No, they literally let a thousand points of filthy light bloom, and like the cockroaches these assholes are, they’ll let one or another get squashed if they fail — but leaves so many more to grow and breed in the underbelly of American life.
RSA
@germy shoemangler: Wow, those twitter threads were eye-opening. I had to laugh about one contribution in particular.
Never change, LP. And I say that out of pity, because they just can’t change.
JPL
not sure what happened but this is one article about DeSantis and the Red Flag Law.
btw I didn’t bother reading it cuz I knew he supported it link
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@MisterDancer:
So how do we stop them?
Also, any opinion on Sotomayor’s comments on Clearance Thomas?
Cameron
@MisterDancer: Yeah, they can pretty much run with knuckle-walkers. What’s really dangerous is the fact that these bozos control the Supreme Court – and those folks actually sort of understand the law (yes, even Beer Bro). So they can have howling mobs in the streets, and sortakinda official-looking judgements from the SC. I think it’s going to be a hard road ahead.
gene108
@JPL:
I don’t know, but thinking homosexuality is a lifestyle choice seems to be the dominant belief among conservatives across the U.S.
Maybe their belief used to be so widespread across the country, they didn’t need to explicitly mention it?
RSA
It’s amazing. It wouldn’t be out of bounds for the general public to see Crenshaw as a war hero. (I’m also remembering the attacks on McCain and Kerry.) And yet that’s what they explicitly go for! “Let’s make fun of Crenshaw for the injury that brought him a Purple Heart, awarded in the name of the President.” Anyone with an ounce of patriotism would think twice.
NotMax
‘@RSA
Also the not so veiled attacks unleashed on Max Cleland were unconscionable.
Kropacetic
Well, a not insignificant portion of them are choosing not to despite their inclinations or choosing to hide it in airport bathrooms…
Goku (aka Amerikan Baka)
@RSA:
I’ve read this is the work of right-wing YouTube trolls like Alex Stein. They think they’re the good guys who love America and Crenshaw is a “globalist” who’s betraying America
Dan B
@JPL: The GOP getting back in power is frightening to me because of the existential threat. First they want LGBTQ people to be silenced. When that doesn’t happen they will seek punishment. States that push back against draconian laws will be subjected to thousands of lawsuits. The Supreme Court is likely to be expanded with authoritarian, White Supremacist, and Dominionist appointments. The thirst for total control seems to be growing.
gene108
@MisterDancer:
I wish more people understood the reason Republicans seem to “be winning” is the nearly unlimited funds billionaires are willing to spend to get their way.
I don’t know how to get this across to all the people upset at Democrats for not “fighting like Republicans”. Republican politicians are the beneficiaries of decades long investments by rich fuckwads to advance an agenda Republican politician either have to agree with or be forced out of Republican politics.
Republican politicians don’t come with much of anything on their own. All the operatives and right-wing media do the heavy lifting.
Jeffro
one hunnert and ten percent THIS
all the more reason to progressively tax the crud out of high earners…good things for more people happen with those funds, and we disarm the loons in the same stroke
Danielx
@mrmoshpotato:
Any alternative will do.
Another Scott
@RSA: They always attack their enemy’s strength early on, to try to make it old news and to belittle it. They went after Carter’s decency and nuclear bravery vs Reagan’s movies. Even on their own side they do the same thing. They went after GHWB’s strength (youngest Navy fighter pilot, called him a wimp), etc., and of course the slime they threw at McCain.
They’re totally predictable.
Maybe enough voters will recognize it this time…
Cheers,
Scott.
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
This is Great News for …. (checks notes)… McCain!
David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch
They hate McCain because he lost to a black guy, which is the ultimate betrayal to white supremacists
RSA
@NotMax: Yes.
You have a plausible explanation—I’m mainly shocked that it’s effective. Naive me.
Poptartacus
All fucking repukelicans need their faces smashed in.
Cameron
@David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: @David ☘The Establishment☘ Koch: And even worse – he’s dead! How much more of a loser can you be?
Percysowner
On an utterly sickening note Uvalde surveillance video shows cops did not try to open door to classroom for 77 minutes: report There is a good chance the door to the room with the shooter wasn’t even locked and instead of trying to find the key to the room they were trying keys in unoccupied rooms to see if they could figure out the Master Key. You know, because our brave police can’t risk breaking a nail, even if kids die.
Kropacetic
@Cameron: Makes it much easier to use his name to disparage someone else by proxy. I doubt Tuck’em would have gone that route if McCain were still alive.
Cameron
@Kropacetic: Well, yeah. Like I’ve said about the Uvalde cops: going up against somebody who can fight back, a man could get hurt…
CliosFanBoy
@Another Scott: A small correction, BUsh I was a pilot of a torpedo bomber, not a fighter pilot. Still very dangerous and you make a good point..
Subsole
@Benw:
They don’t. They just swap the placard on the shrieking ball of (very, VERY white) white-hot rage that fills their skull.
It’s all just excuses anyway. The actual verbiage doesn’t matter.
Geminid
@Percysowner: Those cops had good reason to fear that shooter’s high powered, high capacity rifle, . I’d have been terrified. I wish they would admit it, though, instead of acting like there were reasons other than a military grade weapon that kept them out of that room. If it had been some black guy with an ounce of weed and a .38 caliber revolver behind it, that door wouldn’t have lasted very long at all.
Kay
@Geminid:
This is the error though:
I think they’re focusing on the wrong part. It’s what happened before “Ramos was holed up”.
J R in WV
@Kropacetic:
I’ve flown all over the nation, even into other continents, and I’ve never been in an airport toilet where I was inclined to engage in a sexual encounter with anyone. And I’m kinda a horny person!
Toilets are not a place where I think “Wow, lets get into some great sex right now, right here!!” Just not a thing where I react with “Whoo, lets go now!”
More like “Please, Let me discharge my waste in time to find my departing flight!!”
Another Scott
@CliosFanBoy: Thanks for the correction.
Cheers,
Scott.
Geminid
@Kay: The police certainly blew their chances to stop the shooter before he “holed up.” But once he did, that door was only so big a problem. Cops break down doors without master keys, even ones as strong as this one may have been. They have special rams for the purpose. And the class room’s walls were most likely regular 8″ cinderblock, lightly reinforced if at all. Knocking holes big enough to aim and shoot through would not take long at all.
I think the destructiveness of the shooter’s rifle was the crux of the problem, at least once he holed up. He could shoot through that door and those cinderblock walls. Rather than hiding behind the door, the police would do better to point out how crazy it is for us to allow civilians to own military grade firearms. They lack the moral courage to do this, though, which is the crux of a second problem.
Ksmiami
@Poptartacus: I’m so ready for this. It’s punch them into submission or a national divorce- you can’t negotiate with violent crazy Nazis
persistentillusion
@NotMax: And Rick Wilson was to blame.
Jinchi
There’s a lot to criticize about the Uvalde police, but that’s a weird report.
Two officers didn’t make a split second decision to open fire at school grounds on a man they didn’t see before he went on to commit a crime???
That’s a far cry from “passing up” a chance to stop the shooter.
Amir Khalid
@gene108:
For as long as I have known of their existence, I have never quite understood why the Log Cabin Republicans are Republican.
Soprano2
@Percysowner: You’ve got to be kidding me! There wasn’t a janitor with a master key anywhere to be found? Sounds like a bullshit excuse to me.
Geminid
@Amir Khalid: Their website tells me that the Log Cabin Republicans began their existence as an organized group in the aftermath of California’s “Briggs initiative.” Mr. Briggs was an ambitious politician who in 1978 succeeded in qualifying a ballot initiative that would prohibit homosexuals from teaching in public schools. Gay rights activists organized against the initiative, and with the help of former Governor Ronald Reagan the Briggs initiative was defeated. Gay Republicans then decided to take a visible role advancing their rights by starting the Log Cabin Republicans.
Since then the power of political evangelicals has increased within the party to the point where the Log Cabin Republicans are marginized. In my state of Virginia, the bible thumpers used to be a junior partner in the state’s Republican coalition. During the last decade, though, they formed an alliance with the radical tea party cranks and now have the upper hand over the establishment Republicans who used to call the shots.
I think this is more or less the case nationwide, and the Texas Republicans are a good example. The religious zealots fear homosexuality, so they hate it. The politicians in the party do not stand up to their bigotry, but try to exploit it instead. Now the Log Cabin Republicans might as well rebrand as the Log Closet Republicans.
Citizen Alan
@Amir Khalid: They’re rich. They think their wealth and status will insulate them from the worst aspects of institutional homophobia and so tax cuts are a bigger priority.
HeartlandLiberal
“he should have seen this coming with his good eye (I’m going to hell for that one)”
No, you’re not. But you do get only one angel’s wing.
(Rim shot sound effect)
Cat
Does Carlson have power or is he just giving them license to be who they are? @Dorothy A. Winsor:
Uncle Cosmo
@eclare: “Heaven for climate, hell for clientele.” :^D
taumaturgo
Texas leading the way and showing America how much worse it could be.