{"id":3960,"date":"2016-07-02T09:55:40","date_gmt":"2016-07-02T14:55:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/?p=3960"},"modified":"2016-07-02T09:55:40","modified_gmt":"2016-07-02T14:55:40","slug":"sardonic-self-parody","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/2016\/07\/02\/sardonic-self-parody\/","title":{"rendered":"Sardonic Self-Parody"},"content":{"rendered":"

Steve Benen @ Maddowblog<\/strong><\/em> reports<\/a> on the latest remarks of former Governor and former candidate for Vice President Sarah Palin regarding the Republicans Against Trump movement:<\/p>\n

\n

\u201cThat gang, they call themselves Never hashtag, whatever, I just call \u2018em Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short,\u201d the former governor of Alaska told attendees of the Western Conservative Summit in Denver, ahead of Trump\u2019s address. [\u2026]<\/p>\n

\u201c[T]he \u2018splodey heads keep \u2018sploding over this movement because it seems so obvious,\u201d she said. \u201c[Colorado Republican Senate candidate] Darryl [Glenn] wins, Trump wins, America will win because voters are so sick and tired of being betrayed.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

She added, in reference to Trump\u2019s GOP critics, \u201cAt such a time as this, you cannot be lukewarm. We\u2019re going to take our country back, and you are either with us or against us.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

So she’s thinking voters will vote against those who betray them. Fair enough. Here’s a few statements from her own<\/em> allies, a year ago, courtesy<\/a> Right Wing Watch\u00a0<\/strong><\/em>(and via Steve Benen):<\/p>\n

Family Research Council President Tony Perkins, for example, said there would be an anti-gay \u201crevolution\u201d that would \u201cjust break this nation apart\u201d<\/a>\u00a0if marriage bans were overturned, warning that such a ruling would<\/a>\u00a0\u201cliterally split this nation in two and create such political and cultural turmoil that I\u2019m not sure we could recover from it.\u201d …<\/p>\n

Focus on the Family founder James Dobson warned that the U.S. could witness a second civil war<\/a> over a same-sex marriage decision and televangelist Rick Joynerpredicted<\/a> that the court would \u201cstart an unraveling where our country fractures like it hasn\u2019t since the Civil War.\u201d …<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is just a question of how soon the wrath of God is going to come on this land,\u201dtelevangelist Pat Robertson warned<\/a>. Florida-based pastor Carl Gallups<\/a>, now a staunch Donald Trump ally, maintained<\/a> that \u201cthis ruling may prove to be the final death knell of divine judgment upon our once great nation.\u201d …<\/p>\n

[Former House Speaker Tom] DeLay warned that the ruling would pave the way for a secret government plan <\/a>to legalize \u201c12 new perversions, things like bestiality, polygamy [and] having sex with little boys.\u201d Ben Carson, then a GOP candidate for president, suggested that NAMBLA would benefit from the ruling<\/a>. …<\/p>\n

Mike Huckabee said that America was witnessing \u201cthe criminalization of Christianity<\/a>\u201d and that any pastor who didn\u2019t want to officiate a wedding for a same-sex couple would be liable to face criminal charges <\/a>:<\/p>\n

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 \u2018I can\u2019t perform that wedding\u2019 will now be breaking the law. It\u2019s not just saying, \u2018I\u2019m sorry you have a preference.\u2019 No, you will be breaking the law subject to civil for sure and possible criminal penalties for violating the law\u2026. If you do practice biblical convictions and you carry them out and you do what you\u2019ve been led by the spirit of God to do, your behavior will be criminal.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/blockquote>\n

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<\/a> 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<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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<\/a> 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<\/a> by CNN<\/strong><\/em>). What can be done?<\/p>\n

Start a service to rehabilitate regretful extreme-right conservatives?<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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: \u201cThat gang, they call themselves Never hashtag, whatever, I just call \u2018em Republicans Against Trump, or RAT for short,\u201d the former governor of Alaska \u2026 Continue reading → <\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3960"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3961,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3960\/revisions\/3961"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/huewhite.com\/umb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}