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“Low-Hanging Fruit”: the Right’s Rotten Apples

Posted on October 17, 2011 .. 90

I’ve recently had several conversations with friends and family in which I have worried that maybe I was spending too much time picking off right-wing “low-hanging fruit.” It almost seems unfair to pick so many fights over reasoning with those so inexpert at the task. But among right-wingers, who else remains but “low-hanging fruit”?



There was a time when the conservative population was tinctured with at least a smattering of intellectuals. William F. Buckley comes to mind. But where are thoughtful conservatives to be found in 2011?

A rite of passage for modern Republican presidential candidates is an appearance at the “Values Voters Summit” hosted by an outfit so brazenly bigoted that the Southern Poverty Law Center has classified it .. http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2010/11/family-research-council-labeled-hate-group-by-splc-over-anti-gay-rhetoric.php .. a “hate group”: the “Family Research Council.” So the Republican Party has so prostituted itself to religion-based execration that one cannot ascend its apex without the blessing of a hate group. Where again is the high-hanging fruit?


FRC founder George Alan Rekers and his 'rent-a-boy'

Last weekend, the Family Research Council’s “Values Voters Summit” counted among its confirmed speakers, .. http://www.valuesvotersummit.org/ .. House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, former Senator Rick Santorum, .. http://www.spreadingsantorum.com/ .. Congressman Steve King, former Secretary of Education Bill Bennett, and former Attorney General Ed Meese. That’s hardly a Republican fringe brigade; it reads more like a “who’s who.” In case the Family Research Council’s sway with Republicans isn’t clear enough, when the Southern Poverty Law Center declared it a hate group, none other than John Boehner signed a very public defense .. http://erlc.com/article/labeling-of-frc-afa-as-hate-groups-prompts-response-by-land-boehner-others/ .. of the FRC – Mr. Boehner graced the summit with his erudite if weepy remarks as well.

Here, Pastor Jeffress (First Baptist Church of Dallas), introduces perhaps the summit’s lowest hanging fruit:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvEo4inOnGY&feature=player_embedded

Christianity’s own Gomer Pyle. Charming.

The FRC recently posted this on its “Prayer Team” .. http://www.frc.org/prayerteam/prayer-targets-call2fall-israel-utah-case-planned-parenthood-dadt-pastors-convene-in-dc .. page:

Dear Praying Friends,

God is trying to get our attention! Moral, spiritual, and economic upheaval; violence, terrorism, war; spiritual blindness, division and disgrace among our political and cultural leaders; moral confusion among our youth; disasters from human error and cataclysmic weather are all around us. Jesus warned those analyzing such calamity “except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish” (Lk 13:1-5). God is calling America to repentance!

With drivel like this representing the American right, perhaps we should try shaming our Republican friends back into lucidity.

But at least we now see the design behind so much right-wing policy making. Republican policies cause moral and spiritual upheaval by doing violence to the peaceful private lives of non-conformists, and then Republicans claim the moral and spiritual upheaval that they caused as a sign from God that they were right to cause it.

Republican neglect to take bin Laden seriously before 9/11 or to catch him after 9/11 caused an explosion of war and terrorism that FRC types now claim is a sign from God that validates their own neglect.


Rick Perry'sTexas

Right-wing religiosity causes moral confusion among our youth, driving pure-hearted young people into self-loathing and even suicidal tailspins, and the FRC now claims the very confusion that it helps cause as a sign from God that our society is crumbling. And to cap off all this idiocy, the FRC now claims that the weather patterns that its own allergy to scientific evidence promotes is proof that God is angry.

All this might be funny did it not represent mainstream modern Republicanism. We are dangerously near the time when any self-professed Republican is by virtue of such profession also a self-professed imbecile.

For anyone doubting the wisdom of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s position on the FRC, I leave you with this from the same .. http://www.frc.org/prayerteam/prayer-targets-call2fall-israel-utah-case-planned-parenthood-dadt-pastors-convene-in-dc .. FRC “Prayer Team”:

Pray that efforts to stop the homosexualization of the US military will prevail and that this ugly social experiment at the expense of our national security will be reversed. (Gen 19:27-28; Lev 18:22-28; Jos 22:20; 1 Chr 12: all; Mt 5:6; Jude 7).

What else need one say?

~

Are there any intellectual heavyweights left among the ranks of contemporary conservatives?

Yes, I can think of a few. No, contemporary conservatism requires mindlessness.

VoteView ResultsShare ThisPolldaddy.com
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Insert: Thank you for voting!

Yes, I can think of a few. 7.56% (13 votes)

No, contemporary conservatism requires mindlessness. 92.44% (159 votes)

Total Votes: 172 [...]
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By Brendan Beery

http://beeryblog.wordpress.com/2011/10/17/low-hanging-fruit-all-thats-left-in-right-wing-population-2/

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