Mike Huckabee warns that Republicans risk losing the vote from evangelical Christians if they back away from their opposition to gay marriage.
Let me explain what I mean by that. If we have subjective standards, that means that were willing to move our standards based on the prevailing whims of culture. "
All that's wrong with the anti-marriage equality movement in a couple paragraphs.
Kind of random aside:
Why exactly is there outrage over the White House cancelling tours? I though the right wing was all for spending cuts.
Yeah, they'll vote for Democrats or something, right?
Huckabee, your sheep will vote Republican until the end of time. There's no viable third party in the USA.
But without being dicks about gay rights, what do they have to sell to the public?The tea party has proven that conservatives can't create a viable third party. Eventually the GOP's power base will move from the south and begin moderating on a host of issues. And unlike in 1964 there will be no place for Dixiecrats to go.
Personally I think all they need to do is stop being dicks about gay issues, abortion, etc. They can oppose it and theoretically still win elections in the future, they just can't be as oppressive as they are now (like forcing Romney to drop the gay adviser he had)
When Prop 8 and DOMA are overturned, my eyes will be GLUED to Fox News and Twitter.
Oh god, the tears will be glorious!
Don't get ahead of yourself. It might not get overturned.
While everyone's getting distracted by the gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court decided another case today...
(Also on the topic of the law, Anthony Lewis died the other day.)
The tea party has proven that conservatives can't create a viable third party. Eventually the GOP's power base will move from the south and begin moderating on a host of issues. And unlike in 1964 there will be no place for Dixiecrats to go.
Personally I think all they need to do is stop being dicks about gay issues, abortion, etc. They can oppose it and theoretically still win elections in the future, they just can't be as oppressive as they are now (like forcing Romney to drop the gay adviser he had)
Good, and good on Scalia.While everyone's getting distracted by the gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court decided another case today...
But without being dicks about gay rights, what do they have to sell to the public?
Yeah, "defense of marriage" bullshit is losing popularity fast, but it's a much more viable election strategy that overturning the new deal.
While everyone's getting distracted by the gay marriage cases, the Supreme Court decided another case today...
At least he didn't say it to Anderson Cooper.i'm reading up on the case and people are saying they might throw the case out on some procedural grounds without deciding on the larger issue at play here? Hopefully it's just listening too much into things here...
Edit:
Lol @ that CNN exchange
The anti-gay marriage guy on marriage: "It brings together people who love each other to have babies..."
CNN host: "mm-hmm. I'm married and I don't have any babies."
AWK-ward.
As the Supreme Court weighs the merits of allowing gay and lesbian Americans the freedom to marry, right-wing anti-equality advocates are cranking the fearmongering up to 11, claiming that a world of marriage equality is one that would functionally ban Christians from practicing their religion.
Two Fox News contributors, independently and in other outlets, made dire predictions along these lines. Todd Starnes, speaking on American Family Radio, argued that persecution [of Christians] like we have never seen it had already started as a consequence of the marriage equality movement:
STARNES: You know, its as if were second-class citizens now because we support the traditional, Biblical definition of marriage, or perhaps we are pro-life, and that means were somehow second-class citizens who dont deserve to be in the public marketplace of ideas.
RIOS (HOST): Absolutely. In fact, itll be worse than that. You know theres going to be punishment. There will be tremendous punishment. If gay marriage is embraced by the country, if the Supreme Court goes south this week in its hearings, we are in for of course, were not going to hear about it until June but we are in for persecution like we have never seen it.
STARNES: Well, its already started.
In reality, every piece of marriage equality legislation thats been passed around country has included legal exemptions preventing clergymembers and religious institutions from being forced to provide marriage-related services to LGBT Americans. Indeed, as a recent a CAP report shows, these exemptions have become increasingly broad as marriage equality advances, suggesting more, not less, sensitivity to the views of religious opponents of same-sex marriage.
Another Fox News contributor, Erick Erickson, went further. Writing on RedState, a conservative blog thats commonly read by Republican legislators, Erickson fantasized about a world where the United States government with a Congress that is roughly 80 percent Christian began terrorizing Christian institutions, shuttering Christian businesses for opposing marriage equality, and labeling Christians themselves criminals:
Any Christian who refuses to recognize that man wants to upend Gods order will have to be driven from the national conversation. They will be labeled bigots and ultimately criminals Once the world decides that real marriage is something other than natural or Godly, those who would point it out must be silenced and, if not, punished. The state must be used to do this. Consequently, the libertarian pipe dream of getting government out of marriage can never ever be possible.
Within a year or two we will see Christian schools attacked for refusing to admit students whose parents are gay. We will see churches suffer the loss of their tax exempt status for refusing to hold gay weddings. We will see private businesses shut down because they refuse to treat as legitimate that which perverts Gods own established plan. In some places this is already happening.
Erickson here is arguing for a broad-based license to discriminate against LGBT Americans. Other than the wedding case addressed above, Ericksons examples arent situations where freedom of conscience or freedom to worship in the way your religion dictates are at stake. Rather, hes asking that schools and businesses, two of societys most basic institutions, be given carte blanche to discriminate against gay parents or patrons merely because theyre gay. Its the difference between the freedom to be racist and the freedom to kick black people out of your store for being black and theres a reason why society protects the former but punishes the latter.
Expect more of this stupidity as time goes on.
Meaning work for a woman's father for ten years, then marry her and steal some of his goats.
I think that's how it goes.
Edit: wait, why are you posting image macros from a banned site?
Meaning work for a woman's father for ten years, then marry her and steal some of his goats.
I think that's how it goes.
Edit: wait, why are you posting image macros from a banned site?
Mark Begich is great. Probably the best red state senator.Mark Begich apparently supports marriage equality now? That's really strange IMO because he's up for reelction next year (as opposed to Tester and McCaskill who have five and a half years). That takes some real balls. Props to Begich
Anyway, heading up to the Supreme Court tomorrow for the DOMA trial. Should be good, hopefully I can get some nice pictures of the crowds
Genuine question, before the schism in the democratic party, were the "dixiecrats" liberal on everything else besides civil rights? Like say social security and Medicare. If so, did they all just turn on those policies when they jumped ship? Are there any good books on that. Thanks!
Expect more of this stupidity as time goes on.
Shut the fuck up, Erickson. People hate the 'God hates fags' jackasses but no one tries to shut them up. You don't even like those jackasses. But do you see the government trying to shut them down? No. They just do a few reasonable things like allow a private funeral to keep such jerks as least X feet away an what not.Erickson fantasized about a world where the United States government with a Congress that is roughly 80 percent Christian began terrorizing Christian institutions, shuttering Christian businesses for opposing marriage equality, and labeling Christians themselves criminals:
Any Christian who refuses to recognize that man wants to upend Gods order will have to be driven from the national conversation. They will be labeled bigots and ultimately criminals Once the world decides that real marriage is something other than natural or Godly, those who would point it out must be silenced and, if not, punished.
It's complicated, is the short answer. The reality in the South for a long time was that you simply could not be a successful politician under the banner of the Republican party. Why? Because it was the Republican party who defeated the South in the civil war and imposed Reconstruction (which Southerners viewed as black rule). What that meant was that all political competition in the South had to be waged under the banner of the Democratic party. So, post-civil war, a Democrat could be an arch conservative and racist (e.g., Strom Thurmond), or could be somebody who aligned more with the more liberal national Democratic party (e.g., LBJ). Going back further in time, you could be an economically conservative railroad magnate or an economically progressive farmer (both of whom were likely to be racist). But what you had to be was a Democrat. Or at least not a Republican (progressive farmers did form a third party).
At least until 1964, when the national Democratic party passed the civil rights act and ended segregation, ending forever the Southern taboo against claiming the Republican banner. An earlier partial break, led by Strom Thurmond, came in 1948 when the national Democratic party supported integration of the armed forces, but that was still too soon to claim the Republican banner. Thurmond, who had been a Democrat, ran for president under the banner of a new party that came to be known as the Dixiecrat party. It was also Thurmond who was among the first to claim the Republican banner after the national Democratic party ended segregation. All politics in the South is about race. It has been so since the founding of the country and has not changed to this day.
The undisputed preeminent scholar of the South is C. Vann Woodward. He has two books I would highly recommend. Origins of the New South is about the reclamation of the South by Southerners after Reconstruction. The Strange Career of Jim Crow is about, obviously, the rise and fall of segregation.
Much more comprehensive of an answer than I expected. How was the southern democratic party able to function while containing such a large swath of seemingly conflicting interests? Our nation's political parties are no stranger to being dissolved or branching out, so why didn't any schism occur earlier within the party? Was racism enough to hold the party together. I never knew it was that systemic. Thanks btw, I'll check out those books!
Listening to the oral arguments from today now. Scalia asked one of the pro- SSM lawyers when it became unconstitutional to keep gay people out of marriage. The lawyer responded by asking when it became unconstitutional to ban interracial marriage. Scalia said it became unconstitutional when the 14th amendment was passed. Then the lawyer tripped all over himself instead of just agreeing with Scalia - it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage the moment the 14th amendment was ratified, and court decisions otherwise in the meantime have been wrong and were rooted in a failure to understand homosexuality and equal protection. Why not just bite that bullet? The lawyer gave some rambling answer about we as a society deciding that sexual orientation isn't something we should discriminate on or something.
He's always been so-so on marriage but a dick towards the LGBT movement in general, from what I can tell.Whoa, Bill O'Reilly come out for gay marriage? :O
Whoa, Bill O'Reilly come out for gay marriage? :O
Listening to the oral arguments from today now. Scalia asked one of the pro- SSM lawyers when it became unconstitutional to keep gay people out of marriage. The lawyer responded by asking when it became unconstitutional to ban interracial marriage. Scalia said it became unconstitutional when the 14th amendment was passed. Then the lawyer tripped all over himself instead of just agreeing with Scalia - it was unconstitutional to ban gay marriage the moment the 14th amendment was ratified, and court decisions otherwise in the meantime have been wrong and were rooted in a failure to understand homosexuality and equal protection. Why not just bite that bullet? The lawyer gave some rambling answer about we as a society deciding that sexual orientation isn't something we should discriminate on or something.
When I listened to the arguments earlier today and that section came up, I thought like you did initially, but Olson is a smart guy, and I suspect the reason he didn't go with that answer is that Scalia was basically setting a trap that "No, the 14th Amendment had nothing to do with homosexuality or same-sex marriages. It was an Amendment made in the aftermath of the Civil War which explicitly concerns only Black African males" or something along that line. Scalia asked an impossible question to answer because both he and Olson knew the answer already. Olson did his best under the circumstances and tried to open up the question to a great and higher moral appeal rather than a word game with Scalia.
But where he went was exactly where Scalia wanted things to end up. I agree that Scalia was going to start talking about how nobody at the time thought the 14th amendment would extend marriage to gay people, but the lawyer already won that fight by asking about interracial marriage. The 14th amendment would not have passed if it was understood to be granting a right to interracial marriage, and Scalia had just committed himself to saying that the 14th amendment meant something that the people who wrote it and voted for it would not have endorsed and in fact were specifically opposed to. By Scalia's lights, it actually makes a lot more sense to say that the 14th requires gay marriage than that it requires interracial marriage, since lots of people at the time would at least have had thoughts about interracial marriage and would have specifically wanted the 14th amendment not to require it. It's a lot easier to argue that gay marriage is an unintentional consequence of the principles in the 14th, since people weren't even considering it.
The only sense I can make of it is that Kennedy doesn't want to have to admit that we've just been reading the 14th amendment wrong since it was written and is a lot more willing to listen to this weird cultural argument.
Yep, I like where this is going.
Mark Begich is great. Probably the best red state senator.
I'm not really a fan."Alaskans are fed up with government intrusion into our private lives, our daily business, and in the way we manage our resources and economy."
Isn't this like where there needs to be at least one gas station open every XX miles? Maybe there is some U.S. Marshals or FBI facility that needs 24/7 access to an airfield.Also, "Long Island, N.Y.’s Westhampton Beach airport — will stay open due to “national security” concerns." ???