Friday, January 27, 2012

bout right wing watch

Gingrich: Gay Marriage a 'Perfect Example of What I Mean by the Rise of Paganism'

Yesterday, Newt Gingrich held another conference call for Religious Right supporters, seeking to mobilize them ahead of the Republican primary in Florida.
The call was hosted by Jim Garlow and featured several other of the Gingrich campaign's Faith Coalition leaders explaining why they had decided to support Gingrich ... and the consensus was that if President Obama wins re-election, it means the end of Western Civilization:
Mat Staver: I believe that if Speaker Gingrich wins Florida next Tuesday, he wins the nomination. If he wins the nomination, he beats President Barack Obama and we have not a cloud hanging over us in November and December of 2012 but we begin to see the clouds dissipating and some ray of sunshine of hope return to this land.
Jim Garlow: At the risk of sounding melodramatic, the United States as we know her will cease to exist as will, then, Western Civilization. Those who are discerning, those who are intuitive to what is happening morally and economically in our nation understand the truth.
George Barna: As you mentioned Jim, for the last twenty years I have steadfastly refused to endorse any individuals or organizations or products. But as I've analyzed the severity of America's situation today, I've come to believe that such self-restrictions are a luxury that we can no longer afford. So after carefully studying all the candidates in regards to the needs I just described and assessing their ability to win in November, I concluded that Newt Gingrich is the best man for the job.
Jim Garlow: We are in a situation that is so crisic in America, I'm actually stunned that President Obama could do this much destruction to the nation in a three year span. I never anticipated that this much harm in the moral and economic arenas of our nation could be brought on by one particular president.
Don Wildmon: This is not a typical election. This is an election unlike any ever held in our country. We're not just voting for a president; we're voting for the continuation of Western Civilization. If those who are listening think that what we enjoy, the freedoms we enjoy, the right to practice our Christan faith, is merely an accident and is there, it's not, people paid for it. And we can lose it, and we will lose it, if we lose this next election. What's at stake is everything that the human race, Western Civilization, has fought for for the last two thousand years.
When Gingrich joined the call, the thrice-married candidate served up some red meat to the audience by declaring that efforts to grant equal marriage rights to gays and lesbians are "pagan behaviors":
It's pretty simple: marriage is between a man and a woman. This is a historic doctrine driven deep into the Bible, both in the Old Testament and in the New Testament, and it's a perfect example of what I mean by the rise of paganism. The effort to create alternatives to marriage between a man and a woman are perfectly natural pagan behaviors, but they are a fundamental violation of our civilization.
Finally, Gingrich explained that he didn't really have any interest in being president but decided that he had to do so because all the other Republicans are so terrible so that he had a moral obligation to step up and save this nation and that he would just magnanimously have to suffer the insults that come his way:
I want people to understand, I'm a volunteer. Callista and I had very long talks for over a year and then we talked with our two daughters and our two son-in-laws because we knew if we tried to offer help the country that we would be subjected to news media assaults, we'd be subjected to vicious gossip, we'd be subjected to people on the web saying horrible things and we'd be subjected to negative ads from our opponents. And we concluded that we are in so much trouble and we are in such grave danger of losing the America that we grew up in and the lack of Republican ability to articulate and communicate and defend is so great that both of us - this was a dual decision - we both concluded that we had a moral obligation to endure whatever comes and to at least offer, as citizens, to try and be of service.

3 comments:

J said...

While no one is as sinister as Santorum, who told a Florida crowd that it would be better for a child to have a criminal as a father than a gay man, Newt has become so desperate he is pandering to the same religious extremists. He knows he will lose the nomination to Romney if he loses Florida. As bad as this seems, Gingrich's most terrifying idea is that we should change the judiciary acts to eliminate lifetime tenure for Federal judges,see to it that judges are not reappointed if they don't back the religious right agenda and change the judicial circuits to promote political objectives. This would destroy the judiciary as an independent branch of our government, and insure that there will be a wholesale decimation of the judicial ranks whenever there is a change of administration. I know of no more dangerous an idea than this. Every conservative lawyer knows that the law requires stability, and they are terrified by this prospect. Gingrich has shown himself to be right wing bomb thrower. It is a shame he has no insights into his shortcomings, and is so brilliant and narcissistic that he will never listen to reason. By contrast, Romney has never worn his religion on his sleave because he knows he's of a mistrusted minority. He's also a capable manager, which this nation needsmore than ever. The Republican "Establishment", which has been despised by right wing extremists since Goldwater ran for the presidency, will prevail, and Romney will be the nominee. I also believe he will be our next president.

gp said...

Gingrich knows that his only chance of winning the nomination is to appeal to the racists & other bigots in his party. This study suggests some reasons for this strategy: http://news.yahoo.com/low-iq-conservative-beliefs-linked-prejudice-180403506.html

It's laughable to me to call this guy brilliant- he's nothing more than a pseudo-intellectual demagogue in the guise of an academic.

If Romney somehow becomes president, the only chance he'll have of being successful is if he abandons all this campaign promises. Otherwise we'll be back in recession with increasing wealth inequality, growing military spending, and a new bout of neo-con foreign policies.

Gary Kelly said...

Notice how quiet Bush is in all this debate?