Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum going nowhere
Posted on Wednesday, July 13, 2011 at 10:23 AM
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They're going nowhere of any great consequence and most of the country already knows it. They may even know it themselves.
Why am I impatient to see the back of them? Because they're raging fundamentalists posing as populists. Because they represent the most backward bigoted echoes of the past. Because the list of Americans they don't like is already too long.
And worst of all, because their social agenda is dragging the GOP into the past not the future.
Both Bachmann and Santorum last week signed the controversial 'pledge' pushed by conservative crackpot Bob Vander Plaats, of the Iowa based group The Family Leader.
The 'pledge' requires candidates to oppose same sex marriage, infidelity, pornography and for good measure Sharia law (which is a hot topic in Des Moines, apparently).
It wouldn't be a social conservative document if there wasn't also a swing at African Americans and sure enough Vander Plaats 'pledge' contained a section which said African American families were better off under slavery.
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'Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA's first African-American President.'
Nice, eh? This week Mitt Romney said he would not sign the 'pledge.' Andrea Saul told The Associated Press on Tuesday that Romney 'strongly supports traditional marriage,' but that the oath circulated last week by The Family Leader 'contained references and provisions that were undignified and inappropriate for a presidential campaign.'
Meanwhile another controversy surrounding Bachmann's candidacy has emerged. At her husband's counseling center, Bachmann & Associates, he is an enthusiastic practitioner of the completely discredited practice of ex-gay 'reparative' therapy. Gays, Bachmann has stated, are a part of Satan and should be opposed with Christian quack 'therapy.'
As Republican presidential candidate Gary Johnson put it at the weekend, the 'pledge' Bachmann and Santorum signed is odious because it condemn gays, single parents, divorcees, Muslims, women who choose to have abortions 'and everyone else who doesn’t fit in a Norman Rockwell painting.'
These candidates have no chance, but we should oppose them all the more for selling their divisive snake oil (and in the case of the Bachmann's receiving government funding to do so) to the American public.
32 Comments
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mayoman | Jul 18, 2011, 12:11 PM EDT
I understand you critique of Michelle Bachmann, Cahir. She is a homophobe, a bigot, and an all-purpose whacko. However, I'd rather see Bachmann win the GOP nomination, and then get crushed by President Obama, than have the President run against the least of the Republican crazies; Mit Romney.
Its really too bad that poor Romney has to characterize his greatest achievement (health reform in Massachusetts) as his greatest blunder. A health care reform plan that was initially devised by The Heritage Foundation, a conservative think-tank. But that's the dysfunctional GOP for you. One moment they are pleading for "personal responsibility, and the next moment they[re howling the libertarian notion of "get this government out of my life!"
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seanomelbourne | Jul 15, 2011, 09:09 PM EDT
petersen is a religious bigot.It matters not if bachmann is a christian or a Muslim what matters is she follows an extremist sect.Who is "reliable source" no such person.I do acknowledge that the lutheran church conemn this lutheran sect ,Therefore condemning bachmann as a christian extremist like most of you tehadists
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jamieLM | Jul 15, 2011, 06:36 PM EDT
Salem Luth. is part of the Wisconsin Synod which is an extreme right-wing conservative branch. The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) is nothing like the Wisconsin Synod and often works closely with Catholic churches and charities. The Wisc. Synod has no relationship with the ELCA because they think the ELCA is too liberal. With all the problems with sexual child abuse, I know some Catholics who think the Pope is the antichrist.
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hollabackgurl | Jul 14, 2011, 10:51 PM EDT
Obama has given the House GOP a sweetheart deal and they're still saying no. So it's not his fault that the ideological stranglehold of the Tea Party on the wider GOP has taken hold. The GOP civil war is their own doing. Bachmann, Santorum, Palin et al ares symptoms of an internal decline and lack of seriousness. It's a circular firing squad.
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peterson | Jul 14, 2011, 09:45 PM EDT
At least she is a Christian and not a Muslim. The claim that her church says that the Pope is the antichrist is unfounded (from a reliable source) so get your facts straight!
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maloney | Jul 14, 2011, 09:19 PM EDT
Unfortunately this is what it has come to that some of these Repubs are even considered. If the Dems had not turned into what they are today includung obama in the White House desperation and panic wouldn't be the norm.
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seanomelbourne | Jul 14, 2011, 07:50 PM EDT
Bachmann is (or was) a member of the salem evangelical Lutheran Church in Stillwater Minn.The church preaches that the Pope is an antichrist.It has 400,000 adherents.Bachmann and her strange husband try to "cure" homosexuality by prayer and take money for their efforts.And I was under the impression snake oilmen were an American urban myth.
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PhoenixZouave | Jul 14, 2011, 07:11 PM EDT
Although he pretends to be from Pittsburgh, Santorum is from Butler and personally a real jerk
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eiriamach | Jul 14, 2011, 07:18 AM EDT
Maloney, the still-sane Romney-type Republicans who think that they can take their party back before the election from far-right social conservatives like Bachmann, Santorum, Gingrich, and Palin are kidding only themselves. Sure, their party will have lots of money, but no coherence, no viable platform, no economic plan, no vision of a country united on a path back to prosperity. Divide and conquer is a strategy that works only in the sort run to hurt the opposition. Republicans will be unable to unite behind any candidate because too many will be filled with resentment that their favorite anti-union, anti-gay, anti-Muslim, anti-women's rights, anti-taxation-of-the-wealthy, anti-civil-rights, anti-other-people's-freedom, or pro-theocracy candidate will not be carrying the banner in the 2012 election. And most Republicans, who know that the Tea Party has utterly destroyed sane Republicanism, will stay home from the polls.
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maloney | Jul 13, 2011, 11:53 PM EDT
eiriamach..I actually agree with some of what you said. Although any of the Rebup candidates could beat No Drama. The next Potus has not entered the race yet but he is climbing in the polls. I think he's 3rd or 4th now. The more the libs kick sand in the ladies faces the more money pours into conservative coffers. Keep up the good work.
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hollabackgurl | Jul 13, 2011, 10:53 PM EDT
The writer of this article quoted - verbatim - the racist and discriminatory 'pledge' that Vander Plaats authored. Vander Plaats tacitly admitted it was racist by removing the incendiary language after it was signed. The writer has in no way misrepresented the language or the spirit of the document - which is easily verified by a Google search. Even Mitt Romney thought it was contemptible.
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hollabackgurl | Jul 13, 2011, 10:48 PM EDT
'Natural order' is code for 'white christian evangelist' isn't it, Geroid4? I mean why else did Bachmann sign a list that omits everyone else who is not? But the 'natural order' is a very subjective proposition. What you consider 'natural' I find to be discriminatory and unnatural.
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allentown | Jul 13, 2011, 10:42 PM EDT
Relax everyone. Republicans haven't begun to vote.
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peterson | Jul 13, 2011, 09:02 PM EDT
Anyone would be better for the U.S. than another four years of obama and his thugs !!
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