Political Animal
Blog
A week from today in DC, the religious right’s Values Voter Summit will kick off with an extraordinary guest list. Every Republican presidential candidate will be on hand, as will the House Republican leadership, and leading Fox News personalities, among many others.
This is to be expected. The Values Voter Summit is the year’s biggest gathering for social conservatives, and the GOP’s theocratic wing has enough foot soldiers to make a big difference in Republican politics.
There is, however, one pairing in particular that’s worth keeping an eye on. My friend Kyle Mantyla had this report yesterday.
[W]e are once again asking Republican leaders who will be attending the upcoming Values Voter Summit to denounce Bryan Fischer’s long history of unmitigated bigotry. This time we are focusing on Mitt Romney because, according to the conference schedule, he will be speaking immediately before Fischer on Saturday morning.
Our efforts in the past to get someone, anyone within the GOP or Religious Right to condemn Fischer’s relentless bigotry have not amounted to much, mainly because nobody within the movement seems to be particularly bothered by it, which is why GOP leaders continue to appear on his radio program and on stage with him at Religious Right events.
But we wonder if Mitt Romney might finally raise some objections to sharing the stage with someone who openly declared just earlier this week that the First Amendment does not apply to Mormons and asserts that the LDS church still supports polygamy.
This seems like a fair question, doesn’t it? I seem to recall, in 2008, the right took a pretty strong interest in whom Democratic presidential candidates chose to associate themselves with.
And in this case, Mitt Romney will be sharing the stage with a loony, radical bigot who doesn’t even believe the First Amendment applies to Mormons — and Romney’s a Mormon.
Maybe some enterprising campaign reporter covering Romney can ask whether Fischer belongs on the Values Voter Summit stage, and whether Romney feels comfortable serving as Fischer’s opening act.
Facebook
Twitter
walt on September 30, 2011 10:11 AM:
There is no Republican majority without bigotry. Working-class Americans wouldn't vote against their own self-interest if Republicans relied only on their usual economic arguments. Now, we know who the GOP's traditional target is. It's the reason the Southern Strategy was invented. But there have been other demographic subsets that have also served to rally aggrieved white people in their sense of victimhood - gays, Muslims, and the hottest group of devils, Latinos. To vote Republican today only requires one of several perceived interests: a) you're rich, b) you're a bigot, or c) you're both.
Mitt Romney is group a. Most of the remaining Republican Party is is group b.
T2 on September 30, 2011 10:12 AM:
"sharing the stage with a loony, radical bigot " hell, that could apply to every one of the GOP candidates.
p.s. Huntsman's a Mormon too, maybe he'll say something-he's got nuthin' to lose.
c u n d gulag on September 30, 2011 10:16 AM:
"Fill-in the ____________" Mitt will more likely try to kiss-up to this loon, and get the Dominionist Christian Reich-wing seal of approval.
He'll flip, he'll flop, he'll spin, he'll pray, he'll beg.
Maybe they'll relent.
After all, the Church of LDS has an equally attrocious record when it comes to women and minorites as do many of these predominantly white Dominionist Churches.
The enemy of my enemy...
FRP on September 30, 2011 10:28 AM:
How simple , and satisfying it is to write of an American mainstream political party , loony , radical bigot . Sigh , just gives you goosey style bumps !
What dull times we had back when decorum insisted that balance be an equal weight of measure rather than the equal of sound and fury .
Now with the spiffy new if its loud give to the crowd imperative from our patricians , the new Optimates , acting as Trojan Horse Plebeians , we hardly need to register a thought let alone a deed . Yes it merely requires the approval of the mob whether it is presented fairly is the kind of mewling , kittenish emotionalism , we have come to adore about our effete snobs of common sense and egalitarian nattering , buzzing from the refuse heap of old ideas . Snif , hardly worth the time to cut off their heads , but do it anyway . Later is time enough to decide whether or not we support the nasty work , let alone had a hand in it .
Lets do it and say we didn't .
Ah ! The work of the angry rich ! So satisfying and non fattening !
bleh on September 30, 2011 10:38 AM:
Why on earth would Romney ask embarrassing questions? He WANTS the approval of the racists -- they're his only problem right now.
And the Right does NOT go for "Sister Souljah" moments. nor do the media ask it of them. That's only for suspect librul hippie leftists, like Democrats.
And the racists would DEFINITELY not take kindly to it. Race hatred is CENTRAL to the Tea Party "movement." Their interest in "immigration reform" is racist on its face. Their opposition to government and to deficits is really only opposition to giving honest hard-working white people's money to lazy blacks and immigrant Latinos, as is quite obvious from their lack of opposition to anything that really costs money or drives deficits. Their enthusiasm for war depends heavily on the fact that we're killing Muslim brown people, as their lack of enthusiasm for the activity in Bosnia and Serbia (which resulted in NO US combat-related deaths) makes obvious.
If you're gonna get the Tea Party vote, you gotta show -- overtly and in code -- that you hate the right people. That's what they care about.
ComradeAnon on September 30, 2011 11:10 AM:
What with all the Mittster's flip-flopping, are we sure he's still a Mormon?
Eeyore on September 30, 2011 12:47 PM:
Mitt Romney would don a burqa, slather on Boehnor-brand Spray On Tan(tm) and claim to be a socialist transgendered moslem latina if he thought it would get him elected.
Ocotillo on September 30, 2011 12:48 PM:
I know it is an extreme longshot but perhaps the Democrats might want to begin trying to work over winning the LDS vote. On social issues, they are worlds apart no doubt but how long do they (Mormons) want to be treated like red headed step children within the national, particularly southern GOP?