open tabs of crazy

[solarbird]

The Pope is ratcheting up the rhetoric on following the church line in politics, telling US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi outright that Catholic politicians and legislators cannot back abortion rights. You also have Archbishop Raymond Burke picking up fundamentalist rhetoric, talking about the Democratic party as the "party of death."

The theoconservatives keep coming up with new ways to be more absolutist, really. elfs has a very good collection of articles about the increase in "eliminationist" rhetoric on the social right; you should read that, here. Andrew Sullivan notes it here and here, as well. Personally, I don't think you can go around for a decade declaring everyone not on your side of all issues a "traitor" (which was done, consistently and routinely, by the GOP and its talking heads) without starting to mean it. As I've said before, I personally think this an artefact of the fundamentalist capture of the GOP; it's essentially identical to fundamentalist culture's treatment of all opposition as being a manifestation of Satan.

Relatedly, former Concerned Women for America wonk Peter LaBarbara's organisation "Americans for Truth about Homosexuality" - a particularly vicious anti-GBLT hate group - has started targeting groups for harassment, with a new system of joining alt-sex mailing lists to learn about event dates and demanding police and boycott action against them. And, really, why not; they're proud of the effects harassment has had against doctors and clinics providing abortion services, so it's only natural they'd unleash these efforts at new targets.

Andrew Sullivan discusses the spin-about in Utah - watching how everyone on the right supposedly in favour of civil union-type benefits suddenly says 'oh fuck no, you perverts deserve nothing' if marriage is off the table. (In that case, they were ignoring testimony in favour of a bill that would've granted hospital visitation rights, before voting it down unanimously.) He occasionally seems surprised, but we've had this same spin-on-a-dime since Hawai'i in 1996. If marriage is on the table, the right says they're just protecting the word and institution "marriage" but support at least some equal treatment. The second marriage is off the table, it goes right back to 'nothing for you, filthy faggots.' I'd hope that a solid decade of this being demonstrated over and over again will let it sink in, but I doubt it will.

In some cases, they've gone back to campaigning against bills which don't exist, which got Time Magazine's attention. At least, on the Catholic side. Quoting James Salt, of Catholics United, "These right-wing organizations are deliberatively misleading people in order to stoke the culture war. They're using this as a fundraising tool, as a way to gin up their relevancy. And unfortunately, some of these groups have the ear of certain bishops," as part of an attempt to paint Mr. Obama as "the most pro-abortion president ever."

I had more economic-rage stuff in here - I want to talk about some of the things I'm seeing out there - but I'm moving it to a separate post.

Comments

[elfs.livejournal.com]

Hey, but there's some good news. Chris Buttars has been stripped of all chairmanships in Utah. He refuses to apologize, but his peers are basically in the "You have gone to far" mode of thought. At least they realize that he's gone too far.

[epawtows.livejournal.com]

Have you seen the Initiative Measure No. 1040 attempt? Comparitively harmless, by comparison, but still disturbing.

[solarbird]

Yes, elfs had a post about it.

For anyone else curious, that post is here, and the initiative text is here.