The Extremists Behind Cruz's Rise in Iowa

Last night's GOP debate focused much on how to battle Islamic extremists, yet, as Right Wing Watch reports, much of the momentum behind Ted Cruz's rise in the polls comes from Christian extremists who in their own way are just as hate filled and clamor for a theocracy just like ISIS followers.  Leading the pack of Christofascist is Tony Perkins, a white supremacist affiliated individual who leads one of the leading Christian hate groups in America.  Indeed, as National Review is reporting, Perkins convened a meeting of Christofascist groups and cobbled together a plan for ll of them to back Ted Cruz.  One can only imagine the promises Cruz made to win such an endorsement.  Here are excerpts from Right Wing Watch:

The National Review reports today that Tony Perkins, the president of the Family Research Council, convened a meeting last week at which several dozen influential Religious Right activists sought to unify their support behind a single presidential candidate. Ted Cruz ultimately won a supermajority of those involved, and as a result “an avalanche of endorsements is forthcoming from conservative leaders,” including a looming endorsement from Perkins.

Perkins previously served as a state lawmaker in Louisiana and unsuccessfully ran for U.S. Senate in 2002. His career was not without controversy: He spoke at least twice to the white nationalist Council of Conservative Citizens and reportedly “paid former Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard David Duke $82,500 for his mailing list” while working as the campaign manager for failed U.S. Senate candidate Woody Jenkins.

Despite Perkins’ high standing in the conservative movement, his positions place him far outside the mainstream. This isn’t just because he opposes things like gay marriage and abortion rights, as most conservative leaders do. Instead, Perkins has a record of labeling his political opponents as satanic, conjuring up wild conspiracy theories and backing extremist legislation around the world, including a Uganda bill that would have imposed the death penalty or life prison sentences for some gay people.

Of course, seeing that Cruz has already touted endorsements from a convicted abortion doctor stalker, an activist who wants abortion providers to be executed and activists who link gay people to everything from Ebola to Amtrak crashes to terrorism to the Holocaust, Perkins will fit right in.

Perkins on LGBT rights:

·        Accused the government of backing “the promotion of same-sex relations” as part of its “push for population control.”

·        Said that “the human race would be extinct” if homosexuality were to become “normal.”

·        Defended Uganda’s “kill-the-gays” bill as a “laudable” effort “to uphold moral conduct.”

·        Claimed gay youth have a higher suicide rate because they intrinsically know their sexual orientation is “abnormal.”

·        Asserted that there is “a correlation between homosexuality and pedophilia” and that pedophilia “is a homosexual problem.”

·        Said homosexuality is incompatible with evolution, which he doesn’t believe in.

·        Repeatedly predicted that a Supreme Court ruling in favor of gay marriage would lead to a “revolution” and “the dissolution of our republic.”

·        Urged states to defy court decisions in favor of marriage equality since they are “inconsistent with nature itself” and “certainly inconsistent with scripture.”

·        Claimed that the Supreme Court’s marriage equality ruling has led to an anti-Christian “onslaught” and “crackdown.”

·        Likened homosexuality to alcoholism and drug addiction.

·        Said lawmakers who backed the repeal of Don’t Ask Don’t Tell have “the blood of innocent soldiers on their hands.”

·        Claimed gay parents “provide distorted values to innocent adopted children.”

·        Urged gay people to seek conversion therapy to “escape the homosexual lifestyle.”

·        Asserted that gay marriage “perverts the word ‘love’” and has “exacerbated” problems facing the black community.

·        Called on troops to fight the gay “agenda” as an enemy within.

Perkins on religious freedom and religious minorities:

·        Said Democrats are “mostly aligned with a lot of the Jewish lobby” as they “enjoy the money coming from the Jewish community.”

·        Warned that “liberal Jewish folk” who support marriage equality and abortion rights are undermining Israel.

·        Lambasted Christians who support Planned Parenthood and abortion rights as phony Christians.

·        Asserted that Christian pastors who are willing to marry same-sex couples shouldn’t have the same religious rights as conservative Christians since their stance isn’t “based on orthodox religious viewpoints.”

Argued that Muslim-Americans shouldn’t have First Amendment freedoms because Islam “is incompatible with the Constitution” and dominated by terrorists. 

 Said the government shouldn’t treat those who adhere to “fringe religions” as equals to Christians.

Labeled advocates of the separation of church and state as “cultural terrorists.”

 There is much more and, if Cruz accepts the support of such people, one can't help but wonder if he supports their extremist views (I suspect that he does).