Is Rick Perry (or possibly one of his campaign strategists) finally realizing that the support of wild-eyed religious zealots might be detrimental to his presidential aspirations? Perry is as intellectually listless as former President Bush - but I've never said the man was dirt dumb. The Texas governor possesses a sly streak when it comes to crafting a public persona that's palatable to voters, no matter how chimerical that persona might be. But his close relationship with the odious AFA has raised the eyebrows of corporate titans who, thanks to the Supreme Court's 2010 Citizens United v. FEC ruling, are expected to handily purchase the Oval Office for whichever GOP candidate is willing to guarantee more tax cuts for the wealthy. Conventional wisdom says that America's robber barons would likely balk at financing a politician who (to borrow Sarah Palin's pet phrase) "pals around" with Christian Right leaders making statements such as ...
"Homosexual bigots continue the 'Night of the Long Knives' purge against anyone and everyone who believes in natural marriage... The homosexual lobby is rapidly turning us into China and the former Soviet Union. Christians are now being treated officially as second-class citizens with far fewer human and civil rights than those who engage in aberrant sexual behavior... The homosexual agenda and religious liberty cannot co-exist. America will have to choose between the two, because we cannot have both... The day has already arrived when it has become a criminal offense for a Christian to act on his convictions. The day is coming when it will be a criminal offense to have Christian convictions at all."
... So Sayeth Bryan Fischer, Director of Issues Analysis for American Family Association, the SPLC-designated hate group that's hosting Governor Rick Perry's August 6 fundie hoedown (aka: The Response, A Call To Prayer For A Nation In Crisis) at Reliant Stadium in Houston. (Non-Christians open to changing their religion will be permitted to attend.)
Right-wing evangelicals are so delusional that they can condemn, castigate and deny equality to LGBT citizens while at the same time hanging themselves upon imaginary crosses and crying out against non-existent persecution. (Needless to say, any person who believes in the Bible's absolute inerrancy would have to be a bit, shall we say, fanciful?) With the eager collusion of sex-obsessed Roman Catholic prelates and professional homophobes like Tony Perkins at FRC, Brian Brown and the miserable Maggie Gallagher at NOM, and an overwhelming majority of Republican politicians south of the Mason-Dixon Line, America's Christian extremists are just itching to destroy the last vestiges of church-state separation and create a Sharia-esque conflagration with the remnants of our constitutional republic.
But never mind that. Look how persecuted the Bible thumpers are! Poor, put-upon, crazy old things.
Rachel Maddow reports that Rick Perry might be starting to suspect his hasty coupling with AFA's deranged haters will lead to suicide by political auto-asphyxiation (particularly in the eyes of moderate voters) and so he's trying to slip out of the noose-strewn bed before fat-cat GOP donors begin doubting The Guv's crossover appeal in vital swing states.





