Current GOP Insanity Versus What Once Were GOP Values

Lon, a reader from GOP Rep. Michele Bachmann's 6th District of Minnesota sent me an e-mail earlier today bemoaning the embarrassment of Ms. Bachmann's ignorance and homophobic venom. One does have to wonder how individuals who are so untethered from reality manage to get themselves elected to high office when and insane asylum would be a more appropriate place for them to be holding court. Lon was especially miffed at Ms. Bachmann's comments in opposition to the Matthew Shepard Hate Crimes Bill. Here's a sampling of Ms. Bachmann's verbal diarrhea via C-Span:

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"[A]pparently people who are practicing pedophiles would be considered protected under this legislation, but not, I understand, veterans, not, I understand, pregnant women, not, I understand, 85-year-old grandmothers would be protected under this law," she said. "But who would be protected? A pedophile, someone who considers themselves gay, someone who considers themselves transgender, someone who considers themselves a cross-dresser? That is who is protected."

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Once upon a time the GOP stood for individual rights and recognized that extreme religious views should not govern the civil laws and that legislators should rebuff attempts to intimidate their voting decisions on legislation. Moreover, the "conservative" thing to do was to call out those who sought to subvert freedom of religion and to condemn their efforts. This was the Republican Party that I grew up in and it is a memory of a Republican Party that has ceased to exist currently. Andrew Sullivan has a marvelous quote from Barry Goldwater that mkaes this case all to eloquently and directly:

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"There is no position on which people are so immovable as their religious beliefs. There is no more powerful ally one can claim in a debate than Jesus Christ, or God, or Allah, or whatever one calls this supreme being. But like any powerful weapon, the use of God's name on one's behalf should be used sparingly. The religious factions that are growing throughout our land are not using their religious clout with wisdom. They are trying to force government leaders into following their position 100 percent.

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If you disagree with these religious groups on a particular moral issue, they complain, they threaten you with a loss of money or votes or both. I'm frankly sick and tired of the political preachers across this country telling me as a citizen that if I want to be a moral person, I must believe in 'A,' 'B,' 'C,' and 'D.' Just who do they think they are? And from where do they presume to claim the right to dictate their moral beliefs to me? And I am even more angry as a legislator who must endure the threats of every religious group who thinks it has some God-granted right to control my vote on every roll call in the Senate. I am warning them today: I will fight them every step of the way if they try to dictate their moral convictions to all Americans in the name of 'conservatism,'" – Barry Goldwater, Congressional Record, September 16, 1981.

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One can only assume that Goldwater - and I suspect even Reagan are rolling over in their graves over the vile, religious party the GOP has become. The Christianists have utterly subverted the principles that once defined the Republican Party.