Defending his offensive remarks comparing gay people to alcoholics, Gov. Rick Perry on Monday dug himself an even deeper hole. He even tried to dismiss his rancid history of pandering to religious-righters by bashing the LGBT community.
CNBC’s “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernan told Perry how offensive his most recent remarks were:
“I have a really high bar for what I would take offense to, but that would exceed the bar for me on being an offensive comment. I don’t think gay marriage leads to cirrhosis of the liver or domestic violence or DWIs. I don’t understand how that’s similar.”
He went on to ask whether Perry thinks gay people can be “cured” of their homosexuality, as the new Texas Republican Party platform suggests. Perry said he didn’t know and would “leave that to the psychologists and the doctors.” Kernan didn’t let him get away with that cynical trick:
“Well, the psychologists, they’ve already weighed in. They’ve dismissed the idea that sexual orientation is a mental disorder.”
Kernan then gave Perry the chance to explain how his and the Republican Party’s unrelenting hostility to the LGBT community doesn’t turn off a growing number of voters. Perry’s response was breathtakingly hypocritical:
“I don’t necessarily condone that lifestyle. I don’t condemn it, either. We’re all children of god. And the fact is that people will decide where they want to live if Washington will respect the Tenth Amendment.”
Perry doesn’t condemn LGBT people? Seriously? Let’s review, again, Perry’s history of gay-bashing:
- In 2005, at a ceremonial signing of a ban on same-sex marriage in Texas, Perry suggested that gay military veterans returning home from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan should probably live somewhere other than the Lone Star State.
- In 2011 Perry criticized the Obama administration’s defense of the human rights of people who are imprisoned, brutalized and even murdered because they are gay, calling the administration’s policy “not in America’s interests” and “not worth a dime of taxpayers’ money.”
- Also in 2011 during his disastrous presidential campaign, Perry appeared in a television ad in which he criticized allowing gay people to serve openly in the military.
- In 2013 Perry compared opposing gay Boy Scouts to opposing slavery.
And don’t forget that Perry’s prayer extravaganza in Houston weeks before he announced his disastrous presidential campaign in 2011 featured a virtual “who’s who” of gay-bashers and assorted extremists.
Now he tries to cover up his hateful history. Good luck with that.
Rick Perry once again demonstrates he is the master of pandering to his base and shamelessly will attempt to worm out of his previous statements. I still want him to explain his statement that he wants “pro-life” Texas to show the world how much it values human life…yet he sleeps just fine every night Texas executes someone. So, Rick, ol’ buddy, you are only pro-unborn-life, not pro-already-born-life. Explain what’s the diff, dude.
I wonder if Rick Perry’s father commented “Oops” when informed that Perry’s mom was pregnant. If not he should have.
His trashing of everything LGBT is well documented and repugnant, let’s not forget that he didn’t know the name of his family’s ranch was offensive until somebody pointed it out. Also, in his way of thinking, anybody who did not subscribe to his narrow interpretation of the Christian Bible is a second class human being.
The “diff dude” is that people on death row are a special type of life that the Religious Right defines as “guilty life.”
It is okay to kill guilty life. It is fun to kill guilty life. They believe that the Bible gives them special permission to kill guilty life, so why not go ahead and have some fun. They are not tuned into “vengeance is mine saith the Lord.” They want to show Jesus that they are true believers by getting in their own little piece of the “vengeance action.”
Rick Perry is a moron if he believes the rest of the United States is always looking to Texas for answers to its problems. The eyes of the world ARE NOT upon Texas. Tennessee is a lot older and a lot more conservative than Texas. I have lived here for 61 years. In all of that time, I have NEVER seen or heard even one single person say, “We need to look to Texas for answers.” No offense intended, but nobody outside of Texas gives a flying schitt about what Texas thinks on the problems of the day—not even in the other red states (where I live) and certainly not in the blue ones.
Is Rick really that stupid?
The more that Rethuglicans like Perry confine their comments to their “base” or right wing talk radio, where audiences simply agree with whatever they say, the more out of touch they will become with the rest of America. I’m sure Perry is genuinely shocked when an interview host actually pushes him on a question. He’s not used to it.
“Head Figure Head” by Glen Maxey. You should read it.
It’s too bloody bad Governor “Oops” can’t dig himself a hole deep enough he can’t climb out; hopefully, he is in the process.
Rick Perry is the reason we have so much hate in this state. I was approached by a man in the parking lot of my local grocery store a week ago. The man asked if the truck I was driving was mine. I said yes it was and why did he want to know that. He proceeded to yell at me about how liberal cunts like myself were trying to change Texas into a liberal California, and he and the millions of other conservatives in this state would make dammed sure we were defeated. He was upset because I had a Texas Democrat and a Wendy Davis for Gov. bumper sticker on my truck. Needless to say, I’ve had enough of these people. I’m tired of getting flipped off and yelled at simply because I have a different opinion than they do. My husband took the bumper stickers off because he is afraid someone will hurt me because of them. This state has gone to hell in my opinion. I moved back here in 2011 after being out of state for 9 years, and it has become a horrible place to live. We are retired and moved back here to be near out children and grandchildren, but I am considering whether it is safe enough to live here any longer. These people with their open carry of guns and their nasty mouths are just to much anymore. No wonder the woman who stopped me one day to tell me she liked my bumper stickers also said she was to afraid to put anything on her car for fear something would happen to her car. These people are nothing but monsters.
Today Perry claimed he “stepped in it” and tried to clean his shoes, probably after getting kicked around by his advisors.
Perry’s problem is not that he “steps in things” or is articulate, rather, his philosophy (if you can call it that) and paltry education has imbued him with childish beliefs.
Perry believes that sexuality is a lifestyle choice, science is a faith, climate change is a socialist plot, God controls the weather and who knows how many ignorant opinions he treats as fact. Unfortunately, he lives in such a bubble that nobody will set him straight and I suspect he’s not receptive to it, either.
So, Perry will ALWAYS “step in it” because he simply doesn’t know any better. It’s one thing to be ignorant about a subject but surround yourself with experts, and it’s another (Perry) to be willfully ignorant and blissfully so.