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GOP To Use Bush-Rove Anti-Gay Hate Playbook To Battle Obama Re-Election

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The GOP has decided to use the Bush-Rove playbook of the early 2000s campaigns to drive voters to the polls by using anti-gay hate and a focus on social issues like gay marriage, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell repeal, religion, and abortion to battle President Obama’s re-election bid, which he announced Monday. Karl Rove, the man who claimed he would install a permanent Republican majority, used wedge issues like marriage equality to win the elections of 2000 and 2004, but left, some say in disgrace, when his tactics ultimately made his boss, George W. Bush, one of the most-unpopular presidents in recent history.

It took less than twelve hours after Obama’s announcement for the GOP’s Republican National Committee (RNC) to launch a new website, “Hope Isn’t Hiring,” as its latest Internet Alinsky-style attack against a prominent Democrat. Previous similar GOP sites included “Fire Nancy Pelosi,” “GOP Valentine,” and the now-defunct “BarackBook,” a Facebook-like parody that reportedly included statements like, “Barack Obama is now friends with Antonin ‘Tony’ Rezko.”

Read: “What The GOP Means By “Jobs Bills”

“Hope Isn’t Hiring,” essentially a fundraising site for the GOP’s upcoming billion-dollar campaign against the incumbent president whose poll numbers have remained remarkably consistent — and consistently above his Republican predecessors — lists five major “issues” in tabs at the top, including “Obama’s spending, Obamacare, Obamanomics, Broken promises, and Social issues.” The latter’s headline, in an attempt to appear like a legal arraignment, states, “The Case Against Obama: Social Issues,” and includes questionable rhetoric like, “Despite It Being The Law Of The Land, Obama Refused To Continue To Defend The Defense Of Marriage Act In Court,” “Obama Repealed Don’t Ask Don’t Tell While U.S. Troops Are Still On The Battlefield,” and, “Obama Opposed California’s Prop 8 And Has Expanded Government Recognition Of Same-Sex Couples.”

Many of the statements are decidedly anti-gay and homophobic, while others continue the GOP war on women and children, re-awakened after the November 2010 elections that gave the GOP control of the House of Representatives, a majority of governorships, and a heightened presence in other state and local governments.

Read: “The GOP’s War On Women And Children“

Yet this is a major gamble on the part of the GOP, which has decided to ignore polls which find that the majority of the American people do not want their government to focus on social issues. In fact, a recent Gallup poll found that only 17% of Americans who vote or lean Republican say social issues and moral values are important, and rank them third of four major categories, after government spending and business and the economy.

The “Hope Isn’t Hiring” attack on Obama and the gay community also flies in the face of other studies which show that 51% of voters oppose DOMA, the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act that bans the federal government from recognizing same-sex marriage (even conservatives are evenly split on DOMA,) and three nationwide polls that show a majority of Americans support marriage equality.

“And you’d have thought the Republican National Committee would have gotten over the gay-baiting, what will all the senior level gays working Republican Hill offices, the RNC, and considering that the former head of the RNC, Ken Mehlman, was himself gay,” wrote gay activist and blogger John Aravosis, in “RNC thinks gays shouldn’t be permitted to visit their partners’ death bed,” Monday evening. “You’d think with all of that, the RNC would know better than to start gay-baiting yet again. But the Republican party just can’t help itself. Hate, intolerance and bigotry is what they know best, whether it’s racism against blacks and Latinos, sexism against women, or homophobia against gays. If it’s not about who you’re supposed to hate today, the Republican party just isn’t interested in hearing about it,” the well-known Washington, D.C.-based blogger stated.

“It’s just mind-blogging that with all of the challenges that face us as Americans, the Republican Party apparatus would resort to this demeaning fundraising stunt so that the red-meat crowd will become energized,” said Joe Solmonese, president of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the nation’s largest LGBT advocacy organization, Monday night.

HRC rightly points to poll after poll showing Americans of all political affiliations support the LGBT community, and offers these facts:

  • Just a few weeks ago, an ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 53 percent of Americans support marriage equality. A growing number of Republicans are beginning to support the same rights, benefits and obligations for all Americans irrespective of their sexual orientation. The same ABC News/Washington Post poll found that 31 percent of Republicans overall and 29 percent of conservatives support marriage equality. Last year, the Pew Research Center found that 41 percent of moderate and liberal Republicans supported marriage for all Americans.

It appears that the RNC has horribly misread the strong opinions of Americans. An HRC/Greenberg Quinlan Rosner Research Poll conducted last month found:

  • Sixty-nine percent of Americans believe that the Republican Congress is doing a fair or poor job of focusing on issues important to the American people.
  • Eighty percent of Americans believe that Republican Congress is doing a fair or poor job creating jobs and improving the economy.
  • Seventy-one percent of Americans believe that the Republican Congress is doing a fair or poor job of keeping their campaign promises. And 74 percent believe that the Republican majority is doing a fair or poor job of dealing with the federal deficit.
  • When giving a list of priorities, 54 percent of Americans rated the economy and jobs as their top priority; only 5 percent of Americans rated gay marriage as their top priority.

What the GOP and the RNC, whose new Chair, Rence Priebus has been conspicuously quiet since his election earlier this year, decide to do next will pave the way for the 2012 elections. But it’s clear that they’ve decided to look back at what worked then, not realizing this is a new millennia, and the American people, who have changed in the past decade, have more on their minds than social issues.

 

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

Fox Host Says Democrats Don’t Believe in Heaven So They Play ‘Hard’ to ‘Perfect’ Earth

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June 4, 2023

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Fox News host Rachel Campos-Duffy blamed the differences between Republicans and Democrats on religious beliefs about Heaven.

On Sunday’s Fox & Friends program, co-host Pete Hegseth argued religion was liberating because people could realize they aren’t perfect. A video clip of the moment was shared on social media.

“It changes the way you look even at politics,” Campos-Duffy agreed. “And sometimes, you know, we look at how hard on the left they play. They really play for keeps. They play in a way that’s very, you know, a lot of times conservatives look at it and go, why don’t we play as hard as them?”

The Fox News host said Democrats were trying to perfect the Earth because they did not believe in Heaven.

“Well, for them, where we live right now, this place, Earth is it,” she opined. “So everything’s on the line here for them. They think, as you said, they can perfect this Earth. Those of us who have faith don’t believe that. And we believe how we act here determines where we go after. And so we had to behave.”

“And so even in politics, we don’t, you know, we act within those moral limits,” Campos-Duffy insisted. “And you know, the ends justify the means is sort of the rules for radicals. That’s not how Christians act.”

Watch the video below from Fox News or at the link.

 

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News

Extremist Group Targets Florida High School’s Yearbook Over Inclusion of LGBTQ Students Section

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June 3, 2023

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The publication of a Florida high school yearbook that included an LGBTQ section has drawn rebuke from a conservative group, The Orlando Sentinel reports.

Lyman High School’s 256-page yearbook includes two pages that highlight the school’s LGBTQ students and features gender identity terms such as “genderfluid” and “nonbinary.”

The Seminole County Public Schools in response to the criticism is offering to issue refunds or reprint the yearbook without the LGBTQ section that the conservative Seminole County Moms for Liberty claims is offensive.

“They shouldn’t have any sexual definitions in a yearbook,” the group’s chapter chair Jessica Tillmann told The Sentinel.

“This is a yearbook that goes to every student as young as 14.”

The school’s yearbook is stirring controversy for a second straight year after the district in 2022 considered putting stickers over photos of a student walkout protesting the so-called “don’t say gay” law, the report said.

The Sentinel’s Skyler Swisher reports that “An LGBTQ+ section in this year’s yearbook includes a picture of members of the student’s Gay-Straight Alliance, definitions of key LGBTQ+ terms, a passage on the evolution of pronouns and a profile of a student who advocates for the LGBTQ+ community.”

Danielle Pomeranz, the school yearbook’s faculty advisor, isn’t on board with the district’s decision to remove the LGBTQ content.

“They are definitions,” Pomeranz told The Sentinel.

“They are not teaching anything about sex at all. … Nobody is teaching anybody about sex acts. It is ridiculous.”

Pomeranz has since resigned from her position in the district, citing in part the Sunshine State’s political climate and an unsupportive district, the report said.

“We’ve always had the LGBTQ+ spread in there,” she said.

“Our job as journalists and members of the yearbook staff is to provide coverage of the entire school and that includes all of the communities, including the LGBTQ+ community.”

Read the full article here.

Image via Shutterstock

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RIGHT WING EXTREMISM

‘No Longer the Lord’s Chicken’: ‘Christian Woman’ Says She’s ‘Grieving’ Over ‘Woke’ Chick-fil-A Hiring a Diversity Officer

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June 2, 2023

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A self-described “Christian woman” who is a contributor to the far-right wing students organization Turning Point USA, is being widely mocked for posting a video attacking Chick-fil-A over claims the conservative, privately-owned, faith-based fast food restaurant chain recently hired a diversity officer.

“So I’m grieving,” the video, apparently by Morgonn McMichael (below), begins. “It’s lunchtime. I’m here with Aubrey. And we really wanted some Chick-fil-A but because they decided to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion corporate position, and also bow down to the woke lord because their ESG scores, and also I found out do you know their chicken is funded by BlackRock and Vanguard? Yeah their farms, they use Tyson and this other farm, BlackRock and Vanguard funded chicken.”

If you think that’s a mouthful just wait, there’s more.

“Chick-fil-A,” Morgonn continues, “you are no longer the Lord’s chicken. You’re actually the woke chicken and I’m really upset about it as a Christian woman. All we wanted was some good fried chicken so now we’re gonna go to Cane’s, we’re going to try it out.”

READ MORE: Classified Pentagon ‘War Plans’ Document Trump Bragged About in Audio Recording Is Missing: Report

Raising Cane’s Chicken Fingers is a Louisiana-based fast food restaurant with 600 locations in the U.S. and Western Asia.

“This is really difficult because there’s a Chick-fil-A is across the street. Now eating chicken fingers instead of chicken nuggets. I know, first world Christian woman problems, but no one will ever understand the love that I had for Chick-fil-A.”

“You know, we’re taking this boycott Chick-fil-A thing seriously, and it’s really difficult.”

The video was posted to Twitter by the anonymous group PatriotTakes, which has been described as a liberal political action committee. It quickly went viral, garnering over 2 million views in just eight hours. Late Friday afternoon Morgonn tweeted, “sarcasm and satire are things the left doesn’t seem to understand.”

For those who don’t know, Turning Point USA, a far-right Christian nationalist organization, was founded by the ultra-MAGA Charlie Kirk, now a member of the highly-secretive Council for National Policy.

CNP’s membership list also includes former Trump attorney, ally, and advisor Cleta Mitchell, and Ginni Thomas.

“CNP members range from the leaders of the Heritage Foundation and the Federalist Society, to the Southern Poverty Law Center designated anti-LGBTQ hate groups Family Research Council and Alliance Defending Freedom,” Documented reported last year.

Turning Point USA was in the news last week after Rolling Stone reported: “Charlie Kirk’s TPUSA Teamed Up With a Registered Sex Offender.”

Meanwhile, over at TPUSA, Morgonn McMichael’s bio says she is “a Gen Z social media influencer from Texas whose effort to empower and inspire America’s next generation of young conservative female leaders through patriotic online video content has amassed over 100,000 unique social media impressions every week on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, and more.”

READ MORE: ‘I Don’t Want Reality’: Senate Republican Explodes Over Origin of Concept of Race – Calls to Teach ‘Jesus Loves Me’ Instead

“Morgonn has dedicated the last year promoting freedom of speech, religious liberty, personal responsibility, and limited government both online and across TPUSA campus chapters. Morgonn has also reached tens of thousands of viewers of all ages with her articles and appearances on Newsmax, Real America’s Voice, OAN, and Breitbart, offering insightful cultural commentary into the most pressing issues concerning young conservatives today.”

Apparently, Chick-fil-A’s diversity officer (more on that next) is one of “the most pressing issues concerning young conservatives today.”

Morgonn did claim Chick-fil-A “decided to hire a diversity, equity and inclusion” officer.

Well, stunningly, the company – long known for its hate-filled attacks on same-sex marriage – did, over a year ago.

A USA Today fact check found Chick-fil-A hired Erick McReynolds, its vice president of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, more than a year and a half ago. The company even has a DEI page featuring him on its corporate website.

PatriotTakes also tweeted, “TPUSA Contributor Morgonn, who is now calling for a boycott of Chick-fil-a, previously said, Cancel culture is toxic’ and ‘needs to be canceled.'”

As some social media users pointed out, Cane’s Chicken Fingers is very pro-LGBTQ.

READ MORE: Decision to Not Charge Pence in Classified Docs Probe Is ‘Prelude to DOJ Seeking Charges Against Trump’: Legal Expert

“Since its inception in the early 2000s, Raising Cane’s has been a strong supporter of the LGBT community,” San Diego Gay & Lesbian News (SDGLN) reported in November. “The chicken chain was one of the first companies to offer domestic partner benefits to its employees and has been a vocal advocate for LGBT rights. In 2015, Raising Cane’s was named one of the best places to work for LGBT Equality by the Human Rights Campaign.”

In response to Morgonn’s video, Mississippi Free Press editor Ashton Pittman posted this screenshot from a Raising Cane’s tweet:

Over at TPUSA, Morgonn has written content including a piece titled, “Disney’s Male Employee in a Dress Sparks Outrage,” that begins, “At Disney, anyone can be a princess — even a grown man.”

Also, “Disney in Decline: Company Loses Billions Due to Woke Agenda.”

Noted actor and activist George Takei weighed in, tweeting simply, “They’ve lost their goddamned minds.”

Watch Morgonn below or at this link.

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