Here’s yet another example of a phenomenon I’ve noticed for quite some time now. For wingnuts, everything reminds them of Nazi Germany except actual Nazis. Eric Metaxas and the even more unhinged Kevin Swanson agreed on Generations Radio that the existence of a few gay-friendly churches is just like what led to the rise of Hitler.
Matt Barber must be running out of ideas for columns because his latest one recycles some tired old arguments against the ACLU, very dishonest ones at that. The ACLU are all communists, don’t you know. Because communism is totally relevant to today’s world. Nobody beats a dead horse like the right wing.
David Barton went on the TV show of Mike and Cindy Jacobs (yes, the “prophet” — read: con artist — who says God gave her a bottomless bowl of spaghetti) and said that it’s a myth that the Christian right wants a theocracy because you can’t be both a democracy and a theocracy.
Last week was the Western Conservative Conference, a sort of low-rent CPAC created by the Western Center for Journalism, which was created by Joseph Farah and out of which the Worldnetdaily grew. In addition to a roast of Joe Arpaio that included pointing to Hispanic waiters doing their jobs in the ballroom and yelling “Get him! Sic ’em!” to Arpaio, it also peddled the usual paranoia and gold scams. Oh, and Floyd Brown ran the whole thing.
David Barton was asked by a caller to his radio show whether he thought Obama would declare martial law to stay in office beyond 2016. He said he didn’t think that was likely, but the mere fact that right wingers worry about it proves that Obama is “lawless” and is capable of doing that. Oh, and George W. Bush didn’t violate the Constitution.
Sen. Ted Cruz has been making the rounds of the right wing fever swamps over the last few days, one far-right radio talk show after another. On Monday he was on David Barton’s Wallbuilders Live show spouting blatantly dishonest spin about Obama and marriage equality.
From David Barton:
“This is one of the things that liberals have done to us in recent years is make us think that everybody is inherently good and therefore if an accident happens with guns, it can’t be the individual’s fault who walked into the theater and shot everybody, it’s got to be the gun’s fault because people are inherently good.”
*headscratch* Um. What?
Nothing is certain except death and taxes. I propose we could add a third certainty to the list: When David Barton offers up a “fact,” it’s either flat out wrong or being badly distorted. Right Wing Watch catches him doing this so blatantly that one can only conclude that he is either intentionally lying or is a weapons grade moron.
In a statement so blatantly ridiculous that it should have left every one of his listeners shaking their heads in disbelief, Glenn Beck told his radio audience, “I don’t know anybody who is anti-gay, at least not any of my friends.” Bear in mind that he wore a baseball cap all last week to honor Ken Hutcherson, who was both virulently and violently bigoted. Right Wing Watch points out the obvious:
David Barton has officially endorsed Barry Smitherman, current chairman of the Texas Railroad Commission, to be the next attorney general of that state. Smitherman, among many other extremist views, is an advocate of secession. He’s also defended a white supremacist group founded by a neo-Nazi and objected to them being labeled a hate group. There simply is no such thing as a fringe in conservatism anymore. There is no limit to how loathsome, racist or extremist you can be and still be welcomed as part of the Republican coalition.
Jim Garrow, the con man who claims Obama tried to nuke South Carolina and will soon be talking to aliens, went on David Barton’s radio show and struck the martyr pose. Christians are facing “full-blown persecution” and the government will soon be shutting down churches that won’t perform gay marriages.
Dispatches From the Culture Wars
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