Steve Benen @ Maddowblog reports on the latest remarks of former Governor and former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin regarding the Republicans Against Trump movement:
“That gang, they call themselves Never hashtag, whatever, I just call ‘em Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short,” the former governor of Alaska told attendees of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, ahead of Trump’s address. […]
“[T]he ‘splodey heads keep ‘sploding over this movement because it seems so obvious,” she said. “[Colorado Republican Senate candidate] Darryl [Glenn] wins, Trump wins, America will win because voters are so sick and tired of being betrayed.”
She added, in reference to Trump’s GOP critics, “At such a time as this, you cannot be lukewarm. We’re going to take our country back, and you are either with us or against us.”
So she’s thinking voters will vote against those who betray them. Fair enough. Here’s a few statements from her own allies, a year ago, courtesy Right Wing Watch (and via Steve Benen):
Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, for example, said there would be an anti-gay “revolution” that would “just break this nation apart” if marriage bans were overturned, warning that such a ruling would “literally split this nation in two and create such political and cultural turmoil that I’m not sure we could recover from it.” …
Focus on the Family founder James Dobson warned that the U.S. could witness a second civil war over a same-sex marriage decision and televangelist Rick Joynerpredicted that the court would “start an unraveling where our country fractures like it hasn’t since the Civil War.” …
“It is just a question of how soon the wrath of God is going to come on this land,”televangelist Pat Robertson warned. Florida-based pastor Carl Gallups, now a staunch Donald Trump ally, maintained that “this ruling may prove to be the final death knell of divine judgment upon our once great nation.” …
[Former House Speaker Tom] DeLay warned that the ruling would pave the way for a secret government plan to legalize “12 new perversions, things like bestiality, polygamy [and] having sex with little boys.” Ben Carson, then a GOP candidate for president, suggested that NAMBLA would benefit from the ruling. …
Mike Huckabee said that America was witnessing “the criminalization of Christianity” and that any pastor who didn’t want to officiate a wedding for a same-sex couple would be liable to face criminal charges :
If the courts rule that people have a civil right not only to be a homosexual but a civil right to have a homosexual marriage, then a homosexual couple coming to a pastor who believes in biblical marriage who says ‘I can’t perform that wedding’ will now be breaking the law. It’s not just saying, ‘I’m sorry you have a preference.’ No, you will be breaking the law subject to civil for sure and possible criminal penalties for violating the law…. If you do practice biblical convictions and you carry them out and you do what you’ve been led by the spirit of God to do, your behavior will be criminal.
That last one is clearly a deliberate attempt to confuse theological marriage with civil marriage, which can then be used to push the damaging Christian nation meme. However, the real point I’m making is that the right-fringe leadership persistently uses hysterical predictions to frighten their followers into obedience. But as Palin inadvertently clarifies, voters and followers do pay attention, even if it’s at the prompting of, let us say, competing leaders.
So, as the realization hits that Palin, Dobson, et al, are merely lying every time they want something, what will these “betrayed” voters do? Will they head even further right, perhaps into the waiting arms of the KKK and White Supremacist groups? Or will that prove too repugnant? Given the dominance of Fox News and further right radio channels, it’s a little hard seeing them returning to the neighborhood of reasonable conservatives, such as the GOP of 30 years ago – which doesn’t exist in organized form anyways? The prejudices and false information that informs their thought processes are firmly in place; interesting historical information that dismantle their mythos won’t penetrate (such as this fascinating piece on the history of abortion by CNN). What can be done?
Start a service to rehabilitate regretful extreme-right conservatives?
