The Values Voters Summit began today and it was a doozy. LGBT people and our rights were certainly demonized and trivialized, as were African-Americans, and women, but the real enemy at the annual Christian conservative theocrats conference was Islam, and Muslims, thanks in large part to the tragedy that continues to unfold in the Middle East this week.
Michele Bachmann, in re-election crisis, may have won for the most inflammatory oratory. Twenty minutes of xenophobic (but, shockingly, not homophobic) conspiracy theories attacking everyone from President Obama (“the most dangerous president we have ever had on American foreign policy,†who ceeded to the demands of an Islamist organization and the Muslim Brotherhood, and mandated that all U.S. security agents, including the military and FBI, be “retrained†and “brainwashed in political correctness toward Islam,â€) to Hillary Clinton (whom Bachmann accused of breaking the law by arranging for visas and entry into the White House.)
Gary Bauer, the man responsible for a recent anti-Obama ad that claims “Obama is trying to force gay marriage on this country,†this afternoon launched into a racist class warfare attack, claiming President Obama’s voters are mostly welfare recipients and dead voters in cities with large Black populations.
Then there was GOP Rep. Tim Huelskamp, who told the Values Voters Summit that abortion is slavery, Planned Parenthood is a racist organization, and President Obama pays for them.
Of course, there was the strange concoction that Congressman Eric Cantor, the House Majority Leader, brewed up, telling the Values Voters Summit today that only “traditional marriage†allows for the “pursuit of happiness.†Go figure.
And then there was the Romney/Ryan ticket. Paul Ryan, who had been scheduled to speak for weeks, did (full text, video), but it was Mitt Romney‘s unscheduled, surprise address via a pre-recorded video that made headlines.
By addressing the Values Voters Summit, Mitt Romney revoked his call for civility, pointed at American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer, the public face of the certified anti-gay hate group, American Family Association, last year at CPAC, and aligned himself with the voices of hate.
The Values Voters Summit is, in fact, a hate group conference. Hosted by the lobbying arm of the anti-gay group, the Family Research Council’s FRCAction, and sponsored by another anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association, along with anti-gay organizations like jerry Falwell’s Liberty University, and Gary Bauer’s American Values, The Heritage Foundation, and Mat Staver’s Liberty Counsel, the Values Voters Summit is truly the nexus of anti-gay, anti-women, anti-Islam, anti-Black hate.
Congratulations, Mitt. Your dad would be so embarrassed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32545640