No matter what the issue is, no matter what progress the rest of the nation is making, social conservatives are always moving in the opposite direction. Bob Vander Plaats, the extremist Republican who led the effort to remove the Iowa Supreme Court justices who ruled for marriage equality in that state, is now unveiling an anti-gay pledge that he and his wingnut group, The Family Leader, want all Republican candidates to sign:
According to Fox News, the pledge includes support for the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), the 1996 law that bars federal agencies from recognizing the legal marriages of gay and lesbian couples, opposition to gay marriage laws, picking constitutionalists for federal judgeships and opposition to Sharia law. Candidates are also being asked to pledge fidelity to their spouses.
Gay, gay, gay…wait, Sharia law? What? Andrew Belonsky analyzes that with one simple question:
Isn’t it clever how social conservatives, aware that national opinion on LGBT rights has shifted left, are now trying to link gay panic to another irrational fear, Islamophobia?
Clever, indeed.
“There’s such a fine line between clever and stupid…” David St. Hubbins
I’m not a big fan of islam.
I don’t know as I’d call not embracing sharia law as irrational islamophobia.
I’d like to see these people’s definition of a “constitutionalist.”
Where have all these whack-jobs come from? It’s like they were breeding in the walls like cockroaches and now feel it’s best to come out into the light. Sharia law? I believe it’s a sure thing that most Americans don’t like the tenets of Sharia law, but, that said, Sharia law does not exist in the USA. What a piece of total b******t. These people are boxing with shadows.
No, these people are cleverly linking an unpopular group with a completely unrelated unpopular religion in the minds of their followers and the uneducated in order to get a two-fer. Demagogues are like that.
Gianni,
Try visiting Dearborn,MI for starters.
[...] mentioned in a post yesterday that Bob Vander Plaats, Iowa’s Most Unhinged Wingnut, and his organization the [...]