Wingnuts and wackos win again
I’m sure conservatives, extremist evangelicals and plutocrats are rejoicing over victories at the polls yesterday. But in the long run, I’m certain those wins at the ballot box will only delay or, perhaps, even accelerate change those groups oppose.
In the Indiana GOP primary, voters turned out six-term Senator Richard Lugar, one of the few Republicans remaining in the Senate who will cross party lines to negotiate compromise. Lugar lost the nomination to state treasurer Richard Murdock with the backing of Republican wingnuts and Tea Party crackpots who believe compromise is a sin.
The fatcat plutocrats, who have been pumping big bucks into Super PACS to defeat incumbents and promote more dysfunction in Congress, consider this a victory for their cause, I’m sure. We’ll have to wait until the November election to determine if the Indiana electorate agree or will go for the more moderate Democratic candidate for Lugar’s seat.
Lugar’s defeat is another step in the extremists’ takeover of the Republican Party, which could eventually give it permanent status as a minority fringe.
Speaking of sin, the other celebration today is over North Carolina’s whammy of gay rights. Following the call of wacko evangelical misinterpretation of Biblical scripture, approximately 60% of voters approved an amendment to the state’s constitution, defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The amendment also has the effect of banning the concept of same sex unions.
The victory for ignorance and bigotry is really no surprise. North Carolina and other states in the South have used the Bible as justification for slavery and failure to allow women to vote. Why should we expect voters there who deny science and believe the earth is flat to see the handwriting on the wall that American society is coming to accept gays and lesbians and their right to marriage?
Newspaper columnist Leonard Pitts, Jr. wrote about the North Carolina bias against gay men and lesbian women in a recent column. It’s still a good read. In his column, Pitts refers to a presentation Matthew Vines made on “The Gay Debate: The Bible and Homosexuality.” This YouTube video is a reexamination of six verses from the Bible traditionally used by conservative theologians to condemn homosexuality. It, too, is worth viewing.
