October 12, 2009
|
Blog

Hoping Hate Will Win Votes in Texas?

When it comes to right-wing extremism, sadly, Texas seems to provide an abundance — especially with political attacks on gay people.

Case in point: Congressman Louis Gohmert, an East Texas Republican. Last week during debate over hate crimes legislation in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Gohmert launched into a diatribe comparing homosexuality to bestiality,  necrophilia and pedophilia.

Yes, that’s right: Rep. Gohmert equates gay folks with people who have sex with animals, corpses and children.

From Talking Points Memo:

“There are all kinds of perversions, what most of us would call perversions, some would say it sounds like fun, but most of us would say were perversions and there have been laws against them,” said Gohmert.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qm_adM-14K4]

Of course, Rep. Gohmert is following in the footsteps of other prominent Texas politicians who have gone down the trail of gay-baiting to win votes. Gov. Rick Perry, for example, infamously said that gay veterans returning from the war in Iraq should consider living somewhere other than Texas. He also refused to disavow a suggestion by a preacher with whom he was sharing a podium that God might have sent Hurricane Katrina to “purify” New Orleans because of its supposed toleration of homosexuality. Gov. Perry was angling for the votes of the folks the preacher was addressing at the event.

There are plenty of other examples. Shamefully, in 2009 we still see Texas politicians describing fellow human beings in the most vile and venomous ways. And then they cast votes against legislation intended to protect those people from acts of violence based on hatred for who they are.

11 thoughts on “Hoping Hate Will Win Votes in Texas?”

  1. The most remarkable thing is that the homophobic attack line du jour is against Kevin Jennings. It’s a way of saying that gays are out to recruit and abuse children.

    At the same time. Texans have the REAL threat to their children of David Barton “indoctrinating” them to be ignorant. As a country, when contrasted to the 30 largest industrialized nations, our kids are in the lowest quarter in science and math. The trick to improving this is actually pretty simple. Make children critical thinkers and they will do better in the sciences. Superstition posing as history not only makes kids dumb but damages their ability to reason and resolve problems.

    So which presents the greater danger to kids? Teh Gay or Barton?

    Texans can take pride in one thing though. Oklahoma’s kids are more ignorant. 65% cannot tell you who the first President of the US was.

  2. Now, I’m half expecting for Gohmert to be caught in a compromising position and be forced to come out of the closet.

    Isn’t that what we have come to expect these he “doth protest too much” Evangelical Wingnuts to do? My apologies to Shakespear.

  4. Forgive me please for seeming stupid, but I didn’t quite get that part about morality, freedom, and economic stability? Okay. If I am forced (loss of freedom) to hire a gay person (morality) to stock shelves at my grocery store, my customers will no longer shop there (economic stability) because a gay person has touched the pickle jars? Is there some sort of calculus here that makes sense, or is this just stupid stuff? It sounds like stupid stuff to me.

  5. Aw!!! I get it. This is not about homosexuality, morality, freedom, or economic stability. This is about catching a bad case of the cooties. I thought we left cooties behind in 1963—like maybe they had a vaccine or something?

  6. And once again, these A-hole yahoos feel they’re just too good to be expected to provide some evidence to support their claims. Is there a logical reason why I should believe this idiot when he refuses to show me some evidence? That would be totally foolish of me to do. It came to the point a long time ago that whenever someone makes an moronic statement, I’m inclined to believe that whatever is the opposite of their position is the truth. And they are so arrogant as to think we’re so stupid that we don’t know this about them.

    And yeah, it’s always the ones who protest the most who turn out to be gay themselves. And/or child molesters.

    Charles, that’s exactly what I was thinking: cooties. I was going to post something about cooties – but you beat me to it. 🙂

  7. In PHarvey’s vein … The issues he’s addressing are most likely his personal issues. So, when he gets caught in the barn with a young, dead goat …

  8. Border Collie, in his defense, the goat wasn’t all the way-dead when Goober-I-I mean Gomer left it. In fact, it was still whimpering in a corner when Goatboy, I-I mean Gilligan, pulled up his pants.

  9. If you feel strongly about this, please take action!

    Here is a tip from this Gohmert watcher: He is very sensitive to direct criticism from people writing letters to the editor. Recently he has responded with a letters of his own or a special column in the Longview News Journal. If you feel strongly about his gay-baiting I would recommend you write immediately to either the Longview News Journal (news-journal.com) or the Tyler Morning Telegraph (tylerpaper.com). It’s easy to get printed in these papers and he *will* see your letter.

    Incidentally, I was enjoying the various marching bands at the Tyler Rose Parade this past weekend on TV when Gohmert rolled up. He was standing erect in a vintage Army Jeep (he was a J.A.G. at one point and plays this up whenever possible) with his arm slung over the machine gun mounted on the vehicle. When he got within earshot of the two “news-anchors” covering the event he shouted, “I need to use this in Washington”.

    Finally, for those of you who have not noticed Gohmert before this hate-filled outburst, you may have seen a stupid looking guy with a hand drawn sign around his neck stating “what bill?” during the President’s health care address to Congress. That was Louie. Just as nutty as Joe Wilson, only without the guts.