Social Con Extremists Tightening Their Hold on the GOP
At the “How to Take Back America” conference last week, attended by Republican leaders including Mike Huckabee, Steve King, and Michele Bachmann, speakers railed against the “Marxist and/or Nazi dictatorship” of President Obama, and promoted a full raft of far right conspiracy theories. Following the Values Voters Summit the previous week (run by the Family Research Council’s Tony Perkins, a man with ties to white supremacists such as David Duke and the Council of Conservative Citizens), this conference was another step in the religious far right’s move to tighten its hold over the GOP by driving out all signs of moderation and inflaming the most extreme elements of the right wing base.
Perhaps the most bizarre speech was this one by pastor Rick Scarborough, a member of Mike Huckabee’s Faith and Values Committee during his presidential campaign.
Scarborough declares himself neither a Republican nor a Democrat, but a “Christocrat,” who believes the US Constitution was a “godly document,” and the Bible is intended to “direct the affairs of all of mankind.” Then he turns his increasingly hysterical attention toward Planned Parenthood, calling it a “demonic” organization that “slaughters innocent unborn children.” Homosexuals are “sodomites,” he shrieks, promoted by the “minions” of the Obama administration who are planning to put Christians in jail and ban the Bible.
This is the religious far right at its crazy, ranting worst — and as you watch, remember that Scarborough is actually an adviser to major GOP politicians.
The St. Louis Beacon has a report on the conference with more details on its extremist agenda: Leaders at conservative conference call for tougher talk against abortion, gays.
U.S. Rep. Michele Bachmann — a favorite among conservatives — brought hundreds here to their feet Saturday as she asserted that Americans are now witnessing a “gangster government” controlling Washington and running the country.
But Bachmann, R-Minn., contended that the Tea Parties and other conservative rallies are galvanizing public support to “defund the left” and put conservative Republicans back in power. …
The conference was organized by Eagle Forum, a conservative public policy organization founded by Phyllis Schlafly, a St. Louis area native who now lives in Ladue. …
Tough talk by Bachmann and Huckabee exemplified the chief message at the conference:
When it comes to the conservative battle over various matters — from health care and taxes to social issues like gay rights and abortion — it’s time for activists to get less genteel and more graphic.
“We’ve circled the wagons defending the word ‘marriage,’ ” said Matt Barber, a leader in Virginia’s conservative “Liberty Council.”
“We need to highlight the fact that homosexual behavior will always be destructive, wrong and dangerous. It’s time for fighting back against homosexual behavior.”
To do that, Barber said, conservatives need to be more specific about what homosexuality entails.
Barber was the co-leader of one of the two dozen workshops to be conducted during the two-day conference. Barber called for conservatives to be more confrontational if they want to succeed against the “radical homosexual activist movement,” that he said has the ear and support of President Barack Obama.
At Saturday’s luncheon, convention co-chair Janet Folger Porter — founder of Faith2Action, a conservative family resource group — contended that the proposed federal hate-crimes legislation should really be called “the pedophile protection act.”
Porter and other conference leaders offer a similar approach when it comes to the conservative quest to outlaw abortion. During a workshop, attendees are to be encouraged to watch “MAAFA 21,” a new movie that asserts that abortion providers are targeting African Americans.
“At the core of the abortion agenda is to actually exterminate an ethnic people,” Porter said.
UPDATE at 9/28/09 10:17:25 am:
And of course, the Birther contingent was represented, as well as the kooks who believe the Harry Potter novels promote Satanism.
Sharing the stage with Bachmann will be Janet Porter of the religious right group Faith2Action. Her latest fear is that the Obama administration will force H1N1 vaccinations on citizens, carting off those who refuse to internment camps. She’s made friends within the “birther” movement for her frequent articles calling for an investigation of President Obama because she doesn’t think he’s a citizen.
“The media bought it. The voters bought it. And now some in Congress are resisting the idea of congressional hearings because they believe that Barack Obama’s ‘birth certificate’ has been posted online,” she wrote in WorldNetDaily, a rightwing news service. “What if an imposter from another country ran for the presidency and won? What if the media blocked any news of his birthplace and citizenship?”
WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah is also a rightwing conspiracy theorist whose website encouraged readers to send letters to Obama on his birthday inquiring about his place of birth — all for the low price of $6.95. Farah is an organizer of the event as well.
Mat Staver of the Liberty Counsel, also a conference organizer, made headlines when his group threatened to sue a school library for violating the separation of church and state for awarding children who finished Harry Potter novels with a “Hogwarts’ Certificate of Accomplishment.”
“We believe that witchcraft is a religion and the certificate of witchcraft endorsed a particular religion in violation of the First Amendment establishment clause,” Staver said of the threatened lawsuit.
