Wednesday, April 24, 2013

Phyllis Schlafly: Bring Back McCarthyism, Limit Immigration


While the "godly folk" riot in Paris, back home in America conservatives who pat themselves on the back for their supposed piety and godliness want to bring back the bad old days of Joesph McCarthy and the reign of terror he conducted through the House Committee on Un-American Activities.  A case in point is the virulently anti-gay, anti-women's rights Phyllis Schlaf'ly who has added virulent anti-Muslim bigotry to her list of hate and horror.   In a column in Wing Nut Daily (my name for World Net Daily) she lets lose with a screed that makes it clear she wants to see Muslims deemed guilty of treason and would be violence until proven innocent.  Right Wing Watch looks at her batshitery.  Here are excerpts (note the double standard for Christofascists):

Eagle Forum founder and Joseph McCarthy admirer Phyllis Schlafly is using the Boston marathon bombings as an excuse to push for the reinstatement of the notorious House Committee on Un-American Activities.

“It would be useful to reinstate the House Committee on Un-American Activities,” Schlafly wrote in a column yesterday, “so we can have a look at those in our midst who may be jihadists, dupes of violent Muslim indoctrination, or (in old Communist lingo) fellow travelers or useful idiots.”
In her column, which she titled, “Are You American 1st or Muslim 1st?,” Schlafly further argues that while it is okay to be a Christian first and American second, Muslims who put faith first should not be allowed in the country.
The Boston bombing crime shows that comprehensive immigration reform should not be only a southern border problem or even just a problem of illegal aliens. It’s also a problem of foreigners who are admitted legally but should never have been admitted, and of others admitted legally on a visa but are not tracked to make sure they depart when their visitor’s time expires, as U.S. law requires.

For starters, why would our government have admitted the Tsarnaev family whose son was named Tamerlan? That should have been a red alert because that is the name of one of the world’s notorious mass murderers, a 14th-century Central Asian warlord named Tamerlan, who killed about 17 million people.
 It would be useful to reinstate the House Committee on Un-American Activities so we can have a look at those in our midst who may be jihadists, dupes of violent Muslim indoctrination, or (in old Communist lingo) fellow travelers or useful idiots.

There is plenty of evidence that legal and illegal immigrants of various nationalities, in contravention of our citizenship pledge, retain their loyalty to the land they came from.
Schlafly’s argument is reminiscent of an incoherent answer that Pat Robertson gave last year to a 700 Club viewer who asked him why he criticized Muslims who put their faith ahead of their nationality when he does the same. Robertson claimed that Muslims are different from Christians because they are “under control of a foreign power.”

Based on Pat Robertson's comment, should Catholics be worried that they could be next on the hit list?  After all, the Vatican is treated as a sovereign nation - Muslims have no comparable nation state controlling them.   Let's get real.  Schlafly and those like her - Robertson, Bryan Fischer, Tony Perkins, members of the KKK, etc. - believe that America belongs to white conservative far right Christians. They'd be happiest if the rest of us simply ceased to exist or were expelled from the country.  I'm sorry, but with ancestors who were in this country since before 1825, I for one are more American than many of Ms. Schlafly's followers. 


No comments: