On this last day of our annual review of the most outrageous things we heard from the right over the past 12 months, here is our final installment of Potluck Nuttery. (Click here for previous posts on what we heard from the right in 2015.)
“The Left hates the Duggars because they have standards – even if they fall short – they have standards. The Left will not tolerate that”
– Texas state Rep. Bill Zedler, R-Arlington, tweeting that the famous Duggar family – with 19 children – was being unfairly persecuted after revelations that the oldest son, Josh Duggar, repeatedly molested little girls (including his sisters) when he was a teenager. News reports indicated that after Josh’s parents learned about the molestations, they delayed seeking counseling for their son for 16 months and that the statute of limitations had run out by the time police began an investigation. Josh, who stepped down as executive director of the religious-right group Family Research Council Action, later admitted to cheating on his wife on the Ashley Madison website and having sex with strippers.
“I am not accusing anybody, I am raising questions. If the United States says, ‘Here, Palestinian terrorist groups, we want to provide you the vehicle to have a powerful place […][and] once you are there, you are going to wipe out Israel,’ does that make the United States’ leaders that facilitate that, does that make them accessories? I am just asking.”
– Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX) in a floor speech in the U.S. House, “asking” whether President Obama is an accessory to terrorism.
“I want to remind people that, you know, the Nazis weren’t able to take the Jews to the crematoriums immediately. The German people wouldn’t have allowed for it. Instead, the Nazis had to change public opinion. They marginalized the Jewish people, disparaged them, and make them objects of contempt… [Christians] are being marginalized right now, treated as objects of contempt by the media, and once that happens, then the taking away of further rights will be very easy.”
– Robert Jeffress, a far-right Dallas pastor, explaining the persecution he sees facing Christians in the United States.
“Unfortunately, in the northeast, the Jews are Democrats first and Jews second. This is what has happened to a great many in the Catholic Church. They are Democrats first and Catholics second.”
– Rafael Cruz, father of Texas Sen. Ted Cruz, questioning the faith of Catholic and Jewish Democrats.
“What I was talking about was the specific case of fraud being committed in organized efforts — and frankly, it’s more related to Asian people — coming into our country, having children in that organized effort, taking advantage of a noble concept, which is birthright citizenship.”
– 2016 Republican presidential candidate, Jeb Bush, in remarks made in the Texas Rio Grande Valley. In attempting to clarify his position on immigration after using the disparaging term “anchor babies,” Bush offended Asian Americans.
“That’s the day when millions of children and adults will be dressing up as devils, witches, and goblins … to celebrate Satan.”
– Pat Robertson, warning about Halloween.
“If I become president, we’re all going to be saying Merry Christmas again, that I can tell you. That I can tell you.”
– Donald Trump, suggesting a boycott of Starbucks over the design of its annual holiday cups.
“The overwhelming majority of violent criminals are Democrats. [They] go in and fight to give the right to vote to convicted felons. Why? Because the Democrats know that convicted felons tend to vote Democrat.”
– U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas, speaking on a conservative radio show. The Washington Post has debunked Sen. Cruz’s claims.
“We should be demanding that these people give us our rights back. Or else it’s punishable by death.”
– Kory Watkins, the leader of radical gun-rights group Open Carry Tarrant County, suggesting that Texas lawmakers would be guilty of treason if they didn’t vote for open carry legislation. (Lawmakers later passed the measure.)
The quote about the Jews and Catholics I believe is pretty close to the truth. I have taught at a Catholic School and that is their mindset. The Jews are a in the same boat but with a little more severity and part of it has to do with their breaking of the covenant with God, He didn’t turn, but He did call His chosen people obstinate and stiff-necked.