Desperate Men in Desperate Times do Desperate Things
Posted: December 8, 2011 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, Republican politics, Republican presidential politics | Tags: Pat Robertson, pure evil, Rick Perry 19 CommentsTexas Governor Rick Perry is supposed to be the next president of these United States. Perry’s wife insists that “god” told her this in some sort’ve conversation that used to
Rick Perry Keeps Shooting off his mouth and foot.
land people in huge institutions for long periods of rest far away from the rest of us. However, this day and age, all kinds of socially rude and crude behavior usually winds up in political ads. Perry’s desperate attempt to gain momentum in Iowa is pathetic and mean.
Perry’s debate performance, some giddy speeches that brought up questions of drug and alcohol abuse and his demonstrable inability to get simple facts correct–like the country’s voting age–has pushed him down to the bottom of the crazy clown pack. So, when the going get’s tough, Rick Perry turns mean and sanctimonious. He’s launched an Iowa Ad that has not only disturbed people in the state, but people in his own campaign. I’m going to let you watch the you tube and let you absorb Perry saying how the majority’s religion is just so disrespected by those gay people who refuse to stay in the closet and by liberals and those of us that are heretics or pagans or whatever they call it now.
HuffPo’s Sam Stein spoke with some members of the campaign and many of them are not happy campers with the tone of the ad either. What exactly does it mean when a campaign has to scapegoat and belittle the country’s minorities? I’m trying hard not to Godwin here, so be patient with me.
That a presidential campaign would suffer from internal disagreements over a controversial ad or broader campaign strategy is far from shocking. High-stakes political operations are often rife with strategic disputes. But it is rare for those disputes to spill over into public view and even rarer (at least when it comes to Republican politics) for them to center on the issue of gay rights.
It just so happens that several members of Perry’s campaign staff have worked to advance LGBT causes inside the GOP. Liz Mair, a consultant to the Texas governor, serves on the advisory board of the group GOProud. And Fabrizio has done polling for the Log Cabin Republicans in addition to urging lawmakers to reconsider their approach to the culture wars and embrace basic fairness for gay Americans on the issue of marriage. He was considered an ally by pro-gay rights conservatives.
This isn’t a unique feature of Perry’s campaign. Republican candidates are increasingly relying on younger operatives who are far more sympathetic to gay rights. Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour did during his exploratory run for the presidential nomination earlier this year. But Barbour never aired a blatantly anti-gay ad campaign that demonized one of the LGBT community’s signature legislative achievements.
“It is the height of hypocrisy for Tony Fabrizio to have been a part of that,” said Jimmy LaSalvia, co-founder and executive director of GOProud. “He has lined his pockets for years with money from the gay community to conduct polls to ostensibly help gay people in this country, and for him to be a part of this is the height of Washington hypocrisy. It is absolutely what is wrong with Washington. It is all about the payday for these people.”
If Fabrizio found the ad repugnant and it aired over his objections, LaSalvia argued, he should have quit in protest. “Perry said in the ad that the service of tens of thousands of patriotic gay Americans is what’s wrong in this country,” LaSalvia said. “That is an outrageous and un-American statement.”
How Rick Perry can suggest that the white christian straight majority in this country is under attack is beyond me. He argues that his way of life is under attack simply because nonwhite, nonchristian and/or nonstraight minorities want their constitutional right to be themselves and not be forced to conform, hide, or skulk. This time of year constantly puts me in the position of having to opt out of things or violate my beliefs. How are his rights under attack by forcing me–and many others like me– to participate in things that the constitution says that I have the right to refuse to participate in? He can go pray and sing christmas carols in his church any times he wants. That’s the really beautiful thing about the Constitution. Every one has the right to erect a house of worship and do their thing there. What he doesn’t have the right to do is make the rest of us participate and applaud, fund them, or sanction their dogmas as public law.
You have no idea what it feels like to have to continually opt out of some one else’s sacred cows when they are in a solid majority and they can make life a living hell for you in the workplace if you don’t appease them. It’s not a pleasant experience to either give in or say no way. No, I do not want to do Secret Santas. No, I am not donating to buy gifts and lunches for secretaries. I will do that myself on Secretaries’ Day. No, I do not want to pay for or attend “holiday parties’ or have decorations every where in my workplace. No, I do not want to celebrate your marriage in a church that excludes people and openly discriminates . If I cannot celebrate marriages of gay friends in the same way and you support some bigotry under any guise, I will opt out.
It’s okay for Rick Perry to kiss his wife in public but he expects two gay men to do it at home so he doesn’t feel under attack? People in a minority have to continually watch themselves so as not to ‘offend’ the majority or they will face all kinds of consequences including discrimination in many places including their work environment. The white, straight, christian majority in this nation does not have to tip toe around the minorities’ sensibilities. In fact, people like Rick Perry prefer to aggressively promote it to the detriment of others. He can be in the face of the public but wants everything that’s not his thing to go hide behind close doors and not object to his proselytizing and promoting ways.
I do not think it’s right or constitutional that because you have some specific religious belief, Mr. Perry, that says certain things that means my daughters can’t access safe and legal abortions or that if they were lesbians, that their relationships would not be given the same privileges given to straight couples. I never did practice Perry’s brand of Christianity even when I was going along with the rest of the group and not questioning things. I’m not about to start it now that I’ve opted out.
There are so many things that are wrong with this ad that it’s hard to know where to start. The biggest one is that it’s clearly not representing the values that were expressed in our Constitution, in which there is no mention of ‘god’ and a clear mandate to separate distinct religious dogma–majority or other–from state policy. People being able to live their lives by being true to their own beliefs and their own selves is not a war on your religion.
Rick Perry is one dumb and arrogant ass. At least he has no chance in hell of ever being remotely near the presidency. It’s a shame that he chooses to exercise his right to free speech in such a reckless and mean manner AND as a Governor of one of the two major political parties. Excuse me while I go brush my teeth. I have a very bad taste in my mouth for some reason.
Maybe it’s because I also watched this take on the same policy from evil old Pat Robertson.
and in other Rick Perry News: He’s declined Trump’s Debate invitation.
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Carissa
dakinikat
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NW Luna
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Great rant, Dakinikat. I agree with everything you wrote except that I think a lot of us here know what it feels like to opt out of majority activities. We opted out of supporting Obama even though it led to many of us be attacked, banned from blogs, and called racist.
Personally, I have opted out of Christmas and Easter for all of my adult life, and I’ve opted out of organized religion since age 13. As a recovering alcoholic, I opt out of drinking at social activities. Sometimes that means you’re pressured to have a drink or asked to explain why–although that doesn’t happen as often as it used to. I could probably think of other examples too.
Anyway, Rick Perry is a pathetic excuse for a human being, and it sure seems like his “God” doesn’t really want him to be president. His wife should see a therapist, and he should go back to Texas as STFU.
True, you don’t know how it feels unless you’ve done it and I’m assuming most of us here have plenty of experience in that.
That’s just one if the reasons that I, and a majority of the people in my state, detest Rick Perry. I can’t imagine a worse person for public office, but there he is in all his bigoted glory. We really don’t want him back here. Won’t someone else please claim him? Please!
I think we should arrange some version of the Island of Misfit Politicians and exile them all there after nice fair trials that show how much damage they’ve done. I will offer up Governor Jindal for the test run. He’s an ass too only he’s smart enough to know better. He just does it for the votes. Rick Perry is too dumb to know what’s what.
Dumber than a rock! But a lucky politician up to now. Thank goodness his luck seems to have fled.
How does he keep getting reelected, Ralph? I just don’t get it. Perry has to be one of the stupidest politicians I’ve ever encountered.
Speaking of Father Knows best and science be damned and this is definitely NOT what a feminist looks like:
http://fdlaction.firedoglake.com/2011/12/08/obama-deeply-paternalistic-statement-on-plan-b-decision/
m
emptywheel
Obama: “As the Father of 2 Daughters” I Want the Government to Ignore Science
That’s pathetic!
Godless heathens fight back in Iowa and New Hampshire. 🙂
wonderful!
LOL!
There’s the Perry bigotry on display, but I’m seeing a lot less about what seems a far huger issue: the Man Who Would Be President is against the separation of church and state.
We should really be up in arms about that. Bigotry against one group is tiny potatoes by comparison. If religion is the guiding principle of the state, nobody has any civil rights, including gays and everybody else.
The Overton window has moved so far towards fundie land it’s made that part of what Perry said sound normal, par for the course. That’s much worse in terms of what it says about where our heads are at than Perry’s pathetic bigotries.
You’re right, but, every Republican candidate since Reagan has made the same argument just not quite so bluntly. It’s not new at all.
I know it’s not new. I’m boggling that we’re so used to it, we don’t even hear or react to it any more. Gives me something of the same feeling as an immune system ignoring cancer cells.
Great post, Dak. I agree with everything you said.
and Obama makes no sense.he doesn’t want his girls to be punished with a baby.yet applauds the decision to prevent that
I’m sure he thinks his girls tell him everything because he’s the bestest daddy evah! I’d just be happy my girls had the presence of mind to go protect themselves. What on earth if a child is a victim of sexual assault by a relative–like a FATHER–and they don’t have the luxury of holding family court?
A very long time ago I was ignorant and naive about evilness in families. When I was a freshman in college on visit with my room mate’s boyfriend’s family I learned about incest — and how hard it was at that time to get the girls away from the father. Back then fathers had ownership of children — especially if said father was rich and powerful.
Anyway the roommate’s boyfriend’s father was a MD — and he was dealing with the SECOND incest pregnancy — this time the younger daughter. This doctor was pissed off beyond measure.
What gives parents the ownership of their girl’s bodies? Is 0bow-wad saying he owns his daughter’s bodies? Well F**k him. No way in hell will I vote for a chauvinist male pig.
I understand Perry’s own staff had major duty problems with the recent ad, which I saw and heard yesterday. I suspect he’s taking the cue from Fox News, which has begun its annual whine: The War Against Christmas.
Well, hello. I was out and about earlier today and Christmas is everywhere! If there’s a war going on it’s pretty hard to find. I heard the Fox News staff bellyaching yesterday [my husband had it on, I swear :0)] and they were on the typical rant–people [meaning dirty Dems/atheists] were trying to take Christ out of Christmas.
Well, hello again. I’d suggest the marketing of Christmas, earlier each and every year, accomplished that decades ago.
Rick Perry is the poster child of the ‘public’ Christian, quick to spout articles of faith but quick to do the unChristian thing when bucks or political advantages are involved. He’s preaching to the lowest common denominator–let’s find ourselves a scapegoat and blame the country’s problems on “THEM,’ the other, the gays, the immigrants, the Muslims, loose women, whatever.
Well here’s a newsflash for Rick Perry: You sir, are the problem.
Great rant, Dak.