The evangelical right's answer is to do the same thing they usually do only do it shriller, crazier, and with even more lies. In the process, the evangelical right is falling victim to something they're all in danger of -- self parody. And it's pretty entertaining.
We'll start with the Big Gun -- James Dobson. As I pointed out yesterday, Dobson hired a big hall -- 18,000 seats -- for a big get out the vote rally. At the last minute, he changed to a smaller 6,000 seat hall and filled half of it. I neglected to mention that the original event was a ticketed event -- you had to pay to get in. But the final event was free. And Dobson still couldn't fill the smaller hall. It'd be one of those funny/sad things, but since it's James Dobson, it's just funny -- it's hard to find just desserts sad. Evangelical Right has the sorry details.
That should show you where the religious right stands in this election. Christian soldiers are deserting the culture war in droves.
Which is why their leaders -- or, more accurately, those who until recently were their leaders -- are freaking out and saying some really crazy and entertaining stuff. Take American Family Association's Don Wildmon (People For the American Way has the video):
They want to silence, and they will silence, Christians. If we don’t win this battle, the day will come when they’ll walk into your church if you say one thing wrong [or] bad about homosexuality; they’ll walk in your church and they’ll shut you up and you’ll be arrested for a hate crime. That sounds far, far removed but it’s the truth.
Far, far removed from reality, maybe. It's pretty hard to see anyone believing this BS. Who's been standing up for the First Amendment against morons like you, Don? Why, that'd be liberals, wouldn't it? Trying to scare people with visions of leftwing thought police is beyond ridiculous.
Then there's Cliff Kincaid of Accuracy in Media (a rightwing propaganda mill not to be confused with Fairness & Accuracy In Reporting, which serves a purpose similar to Media Matters). Cliff's busy trying to grind the edge off the Foley Page scandal by arguing that gay Republicans are really Democratic moles.
If you are getting the idea that gay Republicans may be closeted Democrats, then you are beginning to understand how the Mark Foley scandal could have been a Democratic Party dirty trick.
So if the gay Republicans are not really Republicans, what are they? One veteran observer of this network told AIM that the Foley scandal should make it crystal clear that the gay Republicans are in reality "liberal activists" who want to use the party to advance the same homosexual agenda embraced by the Democrats.
Yeah, that's it... Gay Democrats joined the GOP years ago, helped them to destroy the lives of gays and their families for decades, and then -- in a midterm election they were predicted to win anyway, not the 2004 presidential election which was so close that something like this could actually be the turning point -- Democrats send Mark Foley (who'd been laying the groundwork for years as well) on a political kamikaze raid to bring the GOP down. A flowchart of this conspiracy would look like a Rube Goldberg machine -- "Then Mark Foley lights the candle which burns through the rope holding the weight..."
Finally, in our parade of crazy-assed crap the religious right expects you to believe, we come back to James Dobson.
People For the American Way:
In a video message to the “Liberty Sunday” audience, Focus on the Family founder James Dobson warned that if “homosexual activists and the liberal media” have their way, they will legalize “not only same-sex marriage, but also polygamy and perhaps group marriage and who knows what else.” Then, according to Dobson, “the family as we know it will die, and with it will go everything else that sits on that foundation.”
[...][DOBSON:] I just want to emphasize how very important this election will be for many reasons. Our country in great danger from the radical Islamic fundamentalism which is telling us now that they plan to destroy the United States and Israel—and I’m convinced that they mean it. I beg you not to sit out this time of decision. You owe it to your country, to God, to your children, and to future generations to let your voices be heard.
That's right, Dobson is literally begging people to vote Republican.
--Wisco
Technorati tags: politics; republican; scandal; crime; gay; religious right; James Dobson, Don Wildmon, and Cliff Kincaid are using ridiculous propaganda to scare values voters -- it's hard to see it working, though
