From attacks against ‘the homosexual movement’ and ‘the HIV people’ to lamenting church and state separation as a ‘moral lobotomy,’ Barr is not only bad, he’s dangerous.

Some Americans right now are probably thinking that President Donald Trump’s announcement he will nominate William Barr as Attorney General is a good move. They would be wrong.

Barr (photo, left, with President George H.W. Bush) is a former Attorney General, Deputy Attorney General, and Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Legal Counsel. His résumé makes him seem qualified. But his history, policies, beliefs, and actions disqualify him.

William Barr is a devastating pick for LGBTQ people, people who support a woman’s right to choose, those who believe in the separation of church and state, and anyone who believes the rule of law must apply to all – including the President of the United States.

Barr served for 14 months as President George H.W. Bush’s last Attorney General. But it was during his time as Deputy Attorney General that he exposed a set of beliefs and took actions that make him not only unqualified – but dangerous.

It was the early 1990’s, and Barr was able to overturn a draft rule that would have allowed people living with HIV/AIDS to enter the United States. Not only did he stop that rule from taking effect, he proposed that even refugees living with HIV/AIDS seeking asylum not only should be barred from entering into the U.S., they should be sent to America’s military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. Today, that’s where America sends enemy combatants in the war on terror.

In a 2001 interview he called people with HIV/AIDS, “the HIV people.” He bragged that he had told Colin Powell, who at the time was serving as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, “we’re not bringing these people into the United States.”

That’s far from the only reason he should not be confirmed.

Another reason? Barr thinks Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided.

There are other statements he’s made that make clear his beliefs and interpretation of the Constitution are just plain wrong – and dangerous to a diverse, progressive America.

“This moral lobotomy of public schools has been based on extremist notions of separation of church and state or on theories of moral relativism which reject the notion that there are standards of rights or wrong to which the community can demand adherence.”

That’s what Barr had to say in 1992, on the topic of separation of church and state, as GLAAD reports in a statement sent to NCRM opposing Barr’s nomination.

“It is no accident that the homosexual movement, at one or two percent of the population, gets treated with such solicitude while the Catholic population, which is over a quarter of the country, is given the back of the hand. How has that come to be?” Barr, who is Catholic, once also said.

In that same essay Barr called for school “vouchers at the state level and ultimately at the federal level to support parental choice in education. We should press at every turn for the inclusion of religious institutions.”

GLAAD says that “like his predecessor Jeff Sessions, Barr has a vicious anti-LGBTQ history, even suggesting that equality for LGBTQ Americans has ‘led to America’s decline.'”

“William Barr, who has wrongfully suggested that LGBTQ people – not Trump and his destructive policies – have harmed the United States, is the latest in a long line of replacements who President Trump has appointed to his Cabinet who are just as anti-LGBTQ as their predecessors,” said Sarah Kate Ellis, President and CEO of GLAAD. “If confirmed, there’s little doubt that William Barr would continue the Trump Administration’s objective of erasing LGBTQ Americans from the fabric of this nation.”

Tuesday night outside Houston’s Toyota Center Trump supporters were hanging out ahead of the president’s rally to endorse embattled Republican Senator Ted Cruz. And they were only too happy to elaborate on their deeply held beliefs in support of President Trump.

“It doesn’t really matter what he says, we’ll support it,” one Trump supporter told Right Side Broadcasting, a right wing network created to live-stream every one of Trump’s rallies.

A reporter for Right Side Broadcasting (RSBN) asks one of the gathered Trump supporters what she’s hoping the president will talk about later that evening.

“The caravan,” she blurts out, with no hesitation. “I would like to know a little bit more about what he’s going to do, ’cause that’s an invasion of our country.”

(Fact check: it is not an invasion.)

She adds that they’ll “see what he has to say tonight,” but admits it won’t matter: “I love everything that comes out of his mouth.”

Another woman, dressed in a red MAGA hat and red MAGA sweatshirt jumps in. “It doesn’t really matter what he says, we’ll support it.”

The man next to her interjects: “Vote Republican.”

“I’m a Trumpette,” the woman in red adds. “I’ll support anything.”

They all laugh.

Watch:

“It doesn’t really matter what he says, we’ll support it.” – Trump supporter on line for Trump/Cruz rally. Says it all. pic.twitter.com/oojPlMeFgD

— Tommy Christopher (@tommyxtopher) October 22, 2018

Thanks to ShareBlue’s Tommy Christopher for posting the video clip.

Imagine if you listened to Fox News all the time. When you’re having your morning coffee. Driving to work. Getting alerts on your phone during the day. Maybe you catch a few minutes on TV during your lunch hour. You see Fox News tweets on your break. And you listen on your way home, when you’re stuck in traffic. Maybe you watch a few more minutes at the gym. Or when you’re visiting a neighbor or friend, and the TV just happens to be tuned to the Fox New channel.

Here’s what you’d be seeing and hearing all the time: Immigrants are crossing the border by the thousands. They’re bringing drugs. They’re bringing crime. They’re rapists. And none of them are very good people.

Sound familiar?

Oh, and they’re going to help Democrats overthrow the U.S. government.

John Kerr from Media Matters just put together this compilation of Fox News hosts and their GOP operatives obsessing (aka, lying) about immigration. It’s a good slice of what your friends, co-workers, neighbors, and family members who watch the conservative cable news outlet are hearing all the time.

Take a look:

Fox News claims that immigrants will:
-kill you
-drug you
-rape you
-replace you
-and help democrats overthrow the governmentpic.twitter.com/henz2SgyJ3

— John Kerr (@JohnnyHeatWave) October 19, 2018

Yes, the “caravan” of 3000 or 4000 immigrants from Honduras, are seeking asylum because they live in such horrific poverty and violence the country was (until recently) literally named the murder capital of the world.

“To have 3000 people in a caravan, cross the American border, break American law, recognizing that if that happens, the next caravan will be even bigger,” Newt Gingrich warns. “Everybody who thinks we don’t have enough crime in America, enough drugs in America, enough violence in America, vote Democrat.”

“An organized effort to crush or rush the border, right before the midterm elections,” Laura Ingraham fear-mongers, later asking if they’ll “be stopped, ever?”

“Criminal illegal aliens coming in, it’s basically end the rule of law,” one Fox News guest says.

And on and on and on.

“Criminals mixed in with these families.”

“Human trafficking.”

“Democrats,” Laura Ingraham screams, then pauses for effect, “want to abolish ICE.” They also “want to replace you, the American voters, with newly-amnestied citizens, and an ever-increasing number of chain migrants.”

“Radicals Dems prefer open borders, more crime, more drugs,” Lou Dobbs shrieks, then pauses for effect, “and more illegal immigrants.”

“They’re going to tell you it’s about civil rights or some other principle they pretend to care about,” Tucker Carlson claims, “but they’re lying. It’s about seizing power, and holding it. That’s their only aim – they’re deadly serious about it. While you were grilling in the backyard last night, they were plotting, in effect, a coup.”

And just to be clear, it’s not true.

What is?

Immigrants, including those in the country illegally, (which is a misdemeanor), commit crimes at a far lower rate than U.S. citizens – especially those whose families have been here for generations.

Democrats do not want open borders, more crime, or more drugs – although the majority of the country supports the legalization of marijuana. They don’t want to replace anyone (except, perhaps, the current occupant in the White House, snd the GOP in Congress.) Few Democrats want to abolish ICE – although many want the agency cleaned up.

Democrats are not – repeat, not – plotting a coup. Republicans, on the other hand, effectively are – since they are doing everything in their power to take away the right to vote.

Sorry, Tucker, Laura, Lou, Newt, Sean, and all the other propagandists at Fox News. You’re wrong, and America is going to prove it to you on November 6.