Last week, Speaker of the House John Boehner appointed Robert George to the U.S. Commission for International Religious Freedom, an organization dedicated to addressing “the challenges of religious extremism, intolerance and repression throughout the world”.
what eye thynk: Robert George is not a household name so his appointment to what, admittedly, is a minor post was not a major news story and has gone mostly unnoticed; but Speaker Boehner's choice of Mr. George speaks volumes about the Republican party and their disregard for those who are not “like them”.
Robert George is the co-founder and chairman emeritus of the National Organization for Marriage, a group that identifies itself as a social welfare organization though the state of Maine identifies it more accurately as a political activist group and has decided it must follow disclosure laws pertaining to that true identity.
The day before Speaker Boehner appointed Mr. George to his new post, a Federal judge in Maine unsealed memos and e-mails written by the NOM. The details of these memos show that the National Organization for Marriage is nothing more than a front for a conservative political hate group whose main focus appears to be to deny gay men and women the right to marry.
Some of the memos brag about their “crucial” role in the passage of California’s Proposition 8. One memo talks about how the NOM made robo calls to residents in other states that were designed to scare residents away from supporting marriage equality; another details a plan where “the strategic goal of the project is to drive a wedge between gays and blacks--two key Democratic constituencies”. Hispanic voters also earned the attention of the NOM. One of their programs calls for the manipulation of Hispanic voters in order to exclude gay people from marriage calling it “a key badge of Latino identity”.
Mr. George’s campaign against equal marriage rights did not stop with his founding of the NOM. In 2001 he co-authored the Federal Marriage Amendment which attempted to add an amendment to the US Constitution that would ban any state from legalizing same-sex marriage. In 2009 he helped to write the 4700 word Manhattan Declaration, a document that denounces not just same-sex marriage but also civil unions of any kind.
It should be noted that both Mr. Romney and Mr. Santorum have signed a pledge in support of the Manhattan Declaration. (Is it just me who finds it really scary when elected officials--or those who hope to become elected officials--sign pledges promising to support private hate groups?)
What possible justification can Speaker Boehner have for appointing this intolerant extremist to an international commission supposedly dedicated to fighting intolerance and extremism? Mr. George would appear to any sensible person to be so uniquely unqualified for this post that his appointment would seem a joke…that is, if you find hatred funny.
Seems to go along with most of the republican agenda.
ReplyDeletethe 'labels' for this blog are listed as: boehner, gay marriage, politics, religion, republican, romney, santorum. And unfortunately, they all fit together in this confederation of hatred and devisiveness.
ReplyDeleteMay God help us.
I've read, and re-read this. It's not so much as to what they are against, it's what they are for. Hatred. Gender, racial, religious, and sexual orientation, hatred. I'm thinking you wouldn't have to go back all that far in world history to find a parallel situation.
ReplyDeleteSo much hatred and ignorance in the world -- more now than ever before we really need leaders who are strong and wise enough to rise above it and promote the good. I have not seen anything in the republican party anywhere that remotely resembles this. The party that labels themselves the christian right and the party of family values only offer more hate and selfishness as their ideals. Very sad.
ReplyDeleteLet's all go out and do something good today to help heal this sickness -- let's all have a wonderful day spreading the love!!!!! :)
Thanks again for all your comments -- you always hit the target dead on!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Absolutely correct. The republicans have done nothing over the past months during the primary campaign except tear down democrats and even those in their own part. We all know that there are things that the president can and cannot fix. And for those things that he cannot fix, he will be attacked. So rather that spread hate, try spreading something that will change our minds about how republicans really are. A governor recently vetoed a bill that would provide equal pay for women. I mean come on, this is not 1950. Someone in Arizona proposed a bill that would assume that a women is pregnant as soon as began a new menstrual cycle. This presumably would allow the state of Arizona to automatically disallow an abortion. Go figure. How about building up the republican party. After all, not all republicans are bad, so lets hear something positive about them.
ReplyDelete