Marcus Bachmann, The Man To Whom Michele Is Submissive

Michele Bachmann, fundamentalist Christian candidate for the GOP, is aided in her run by her husband, Marcus.  In case you haven’t been paying attention, when it comes to gays and lesbians these are two seriously bigoted and hateful people.

Now comes the news that Marcus made these comments about gays on a radio show in May 2010:

“We have to understand: Barbarians need to be educated. They need to be disciplined. Just because someone feels it or thinks it doesn’t mean that we are supposed to go down that road. That’s what is called the sinful nature. We have a responsibility as parents and as authority figures not to encourage such thoughts and feelings from moving into the action steps….”

Whenever I hear this kind of language I’m immediately suspicious that the speaker is trying to repress something of his own.  But far be it from me to accuse anyone of being a closet case.  I’ll let others do that for me:

James Urbaniak of The Venture Brothers … Tumbled: “It’s pretty much a given that the most vociferously homophobic men are usually repressing something. But, oh Mary, Michele Bachmann’s husband Marcus takes the ever-loving cake. He’s a cure-the-gay therapist out of a John Waters movie. I haven’t seen flames this high since the last California wildfire…”

This brings up my other point about this schmuck.  He runs a counseling company that engages in the highly discredited (and potentially dangerous) practice of “reparative therapy.”  This is otherwise known as “praying away the gay.”  Mama Michele subscribes to this.  A gay Minnesota state senator reports that she used to pray over his empty desk.

(It might also interest her Tea Party buddies to know that Marcus’ counseling company accepted $137,000 in Medicaid payments.  You will recall that Mama Michele has placed Medicaid squarely in her political cross-hairs.  Her family has also accepted a quarter million dollars in farm subsidies.)

Now Marcus is not just Michele’s screwy husband.  He is her chief strategist.  The two of them also subscribe to the idea that a good Christian wife should be obedient and submissive to her husband.  I assume this would have political consequences.

It is high time that the GOP decide just what kind of party it wants to be.  Is it a political party concerned with the best interests of a pluralistic, secular nation?  Or is it the champion of a bigoted new theocracy?  They can level all the charges that they want to at Democrats, but no one in that party is promoting a Christian nation ideology.

This is not a new trend.  It has now become an ingrained Republican tradition.  It began decades ago with Reagan’s pact with the Moral Majority.  The Jewish Republicans that I know seem to be indifferent, brushing her aside (along with her fellow fanatics Palin, Huckabee and company) in favor of the Romneys and Pawlentys (who, by the way, also pander to the religious right).  In the case of many Republican Orthodox Jews, they are actually quite thrilled by religiously fanatical candidates like Bachmann.  (I have reliable sources on the this!)

Matt Taibbi, in his Rolling Stone expose of Bachmann, put it this way:

Bachmann’s story, to hear her tell it, is about a suburban homemaker who is chosen by God to become a politician who will restore faith and family values to public life and do battle with secular humanism. …Whatever she is, she’s no joke.

She is no joke.  And this secular humanist has decided to take on her challenge to do battle.