ACV Democratic News: The GOP Clown Car of Ideas

Hello America, I am Ronald Reagan a Republican Tea Party legend. I was caught supplying weapons to murderous regimes, TWICE! I caved to the demands of terrorist TWICE! I provided the funding to create the terrorist organization that would later become Al Qaeda. I supported the white racist regime apartheid in South Africa. 138 members of my administration were investigated, indicted or convicted of crimes. I made abortion legal in California. I granted amnesty to over 4 million illegal immigrants. I tripled the national debt in only 8 years. I robbed the Social Security fund to pay for my budget shortfalls. Reagan’s policies allowed hundreds of thousands of family farms to go out of business or declare bankruptcy. Thank you for voting Republican.

The Texas Republican Party platform 2012. They hate Homosexuality

We affirm that the practice of homosexuality tears at the fabric of society and contributes to the breakdown of the family unit. Homosexual behavior is contrary to the fundamental, unchanging truths that have been ordained by God, recognized by our country’s founders, and shared by the majority of Texans. Homosexuality must not be presented as an acceptable “alternative” lifestyle, in public policy, nor should “family” be redefined to include homosexual “couples.” We believe there should be no granting of special legal entitlements or creation of special status for homosexual behavior, regardless of state of origin. Additionally, we oppose any criminal or civil penalties against those who oppose homosexuality out of faith, conviction or belief in traditional values.

Family and Defense of Marriage

We support the definition of marriage as a God-ordained, legal and moral commitment only between a natural man and a natural woman, which is the foundational unit of a healthy society, and we oppose the assault on marriage by judicial activists. We call on the President and Congress to take immediate action to defend the sanctity of marriage. We are resolute that Congress exercise authority under the United States Constitution, and pass legislation withholding jurisdiction from the Federal Courts in cases involving family law, especially any changes in the definition of marriage. We further call on Congress to pass and the state legislatures to ratify a marriage amendment declaring that marriage in the United States shall consist of and be recognized only as the union of a natural man and a natural woman.

Neither the United States nor any state shall recognize or grant to any unmarried person the legal rights or status of a spouse. We oppose the recognition of and granting of benefits to people who represent themselves as domestic partners without being legally married. We advocate the repeal of laws that place an unfair tax burden on families. We call upon Congress to completely remove the marriage penalty in the tax code, whereby a married couple receives a smaller standard deduction than their unmarried counterparts living together. The primary family unit consists of those related by blood, heterosexual marriage, or adoption. The family is responsible for its own welfare, education, moral training, conduct, and property.

Mike Pence

If there’s one takeaway from Indiana Gov. Mike Pence’s “religious freedom restoration” debacle, it’s that Republicans ignore today’s cultural
environment at their peril.

Conservatives can continue to live in a bubble if they want to, but they should expect blowback, because outside that bubble is a far different reality.

Pence seems shocked by the widespread perception that his state’s new Religious Freedom Restoration Act invites businesses and individuals to discriminate against gay people on the grounds that serving them would, or might, infringe on the religious owners’ beliefs. But what other conclusion is there?

The law came shortly after the courts legalized gay marriage in Indiana last fall. It is more expansive than other state laws and a federal version passed 20 years ago. For example Indiana does not have civil rights protections in place for gay people. Several anti-gay activists were invited to watch Pence sign the bill. And Pence punted time after time after time on ABC’s “This Week” when asked if the new law permits discrimination against gays.

Maybe Pence simply decided to cross his fingers and hope for the best. Or maybe, cosseted in the Christian right echo chamber, he was oblivious to how all of this would be received in the wider world. Either way, his action, and its reflection on his party, is about as forward-looking as the revived Republican hostility to immigration reform. Forget about the future, it doesn’t even acknowledge the world as it exists today.

Most people – 87 percent in a Pew poll two years ago – personally know someone who is gay or lesbian. Most people – 63 percent in a Gallup poll last year – say same-sex couples should have the legal right to adopt a child. Most people – a record high of 59 percent in a new NBC-Wall Street Journal poll – say they favor same-sex marriage. In a new poll of millennials aged 18 to 35 by the Public Religion Research Institute, 73 percent support legal protections against discrimination in jobs, public accommodations and housing for gay and lesbian people. Former Mitt Romney pollster Alex Lundry said two years ago that 64 percent of evangelical millennials support same-sex marriage.

The trend is similar on immigration. Even now, despite the GOP retreat from immigration reform and its lawsuit against President Barack Obama for imposing unilateral reform through executive actions, well over half the public supports a path to citizenship for many of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in the United States and three-quarters support Obama’s moves to protect millions from deportation.

The Republican Party knows all this, or at least some of its leaders did when they released an after-action report on why Romney lost the 2012
election. They saw that the GOP was on a collision course with history.

By contrast, Pence seemed to be arguing his case on ABC in a historical vacuum. It was as if the last 20 years had not happened – 20 years capped by rapid advances such as gay marriage and openly gay soldiers. It was as if 2014 had not happened – a year in which Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer, a conservative Republican, vetoed a similar “religious freedom” bill after an outcry from businesses, advocacy groups and politicians of both parties.

It was as if the last few months had not happened – months in which the same collection of interests expressed deep concerns about the prospective
Indiana law.

Unless you had a mind to compete in conservative dominated presidential primaries next year, and so far Pence is sitting out 2016, the timing could
not be worse. The NCAA college basketball finals are about to begin in Indianapolis, and high school seniors are trying to decide right now whether to attend Indiana colleges and universities – or not. No wonder Indiana University felt compelled to issue its own mini Bill of Rights. Longer term, Indiana is a manufacturing state in dire need of what one analyst called “ hipster brains,” the type drawn to creative, innovative, open-minded environments. The new law will send the opposite message unless and until Indiana repeals it, or passes a strong anti-discrimination law that protects lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender citizens.

The fundamental point here is this: Personal faith is a trump card in some instances, but it doesn’t trump equal treatment under the law.

Look, if you don’t support gay marriage, have the cake or flowers delivered by an employee who does. Accept the business – it’s the American way. And swallow your religious objections, which is also the American way. Ask any Quaker whose tax dollars financed a war, any Christian Scientist whose taxes support medical research, any atheist whose child is learning creationism in a public school. Ask any 1960s motel operator who believed God approved of segregation, but had to rent rooms to black people anyway. And ask Richard Bosson, a justice on the New Mexico Supreme Court that ruled a photographer had to document a gay wedding. Respect for those who don’t believe as we do, he wrote, is “ the price of citizenship.”

2016 Republican candidates support controversial Indiana law that makes discrimination legal.

The passage of a new “religious freedom” law in Indiana that effectively legalizes discrimination against gays and lesbians has created a national
outcry, but a number of likely Republican presidential candidates have come out in support of the controversial legislation.

Indiana Republican Gov. Mike Pence, who signed the state’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act into law last week, has said the bill is simply meant to
prevent the government from impinging on a person’s religious beliefs.

But critics across the nation have slammed the law as acting only as a means for businesses and the government to justify discriminating against
people on the basis of their sexual orientation by those who disagree on account of their own religious values.

Pence had done little to refute that interpretation: After being asked at least six times by “This Week” host George Stephanopoulos during an
interview Sunday if the law would make it legal for a merchant in Indiana to refuse service to gay customers, Pence refused to answer directly.

But the bigoted law has prompted sharp criticism of, and calls for boycotts of, the entire Hoosier State. The backlash has been so fierce, in fact,
that Pence, who has repeatedly said he was “proud” to sign the law, was forced to say Tuesday that he wanted the bill rewritten so it won't permit discrimination against gays and lesbians.

His reconsideration of the matter, however, doesn’t appear to have weakened the support for the law expressed by a growing number of likely 2016 Republican contenders.

Here is what some of them have said...

Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush: “The right thing”

"I think Gov. Pence has done the right thing," Bush said of the Indiana's Religious Freedom Act in a radio interview Monday night with conservative host Hugh Hewitt. “This is simply allowing people of faith space to be able to express their beliefs, to have, to be able to be people of conscience.

I just think once the facts are established, people aren’t going to see this as discriminatory at all."

Florida Sen. Marco Rubio: I’m okay with a wedding photographer refusing business to a gay couple.

"When you're asking someone who provides professional services to do something, or be punished by law, that violates their faith, you're violating that religious liberty that they have," Rubio said Monday on Fox News Channel. “No one here is saying it should be legal to deny someone service at a restaurant or at a hotel because of their sexual orientation. I think that’s a consensus view in America.”

“The flip side of it is,” he added, “should a photographer be punished for refusing to do a wedding that their faith teaches them is not one that is valid in the eyes of God?”

Rubio is the densest and dumbest of the candidates
but don't worry, he stands No chance.

Texas Sen. Ted Cruz: “Courageous”

"Gov. Pence is holding the line to protect religious liberty in the Hoosier State,” Cruz said in a statement. “Indiana is giving voice to millions of
courageous conservatives across this country who are deeply concerned about the ongoing attacks upon our personal liberties. I’m proud to stand with (Indiana Gov. Mike Pence), and I urge Americans to do the same.”

Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker: “The right … to exercise religion”

"As a matter of principle, Gov. Walker believes in broad religious freedom and the right for Americans to exercise their religion and act on their conscience," a spokesperson for the Wisconsin Republican told The Hill.

Owned and Directed by the Koch brothers.

Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal: “Religious liberty is indeed under attack”

“I support the Religious Freedom and Restoration Act because I support religious liberty as granted to us in our Constitution,” Jindal told Breitbart

News. “The fact that there are some who think this law in Indiana, which merely makes it clear that local governments must respect our religious

liberty, is controversial clearly shows that religious liberty is indeed under attack.”

Jindal will comment on anything to get his name in play.

Dr. Ben Carson: “Absolutely vital”

“It is absolutely vital that we do all we can to allow Americans to practice their religious ways, while simultaneously ensuring that no one’s beliefs infringe upon those of others,” Carson told Breitbart News. “We should also serve as champions of freedom of religion throughout the world.”

Zero Chance, Completely wasting his time.

Indiana Gov. Mike Pence backtracks on ‘religious freedom’ law, demands language be added to prohibit discrimination.

Facing growing national outrage, Indiana Gov. Mike Pence backtracked on his staunch defense on his controversial "religious freedom" law Tuesday, saying he wants the bill rewritten so it won't permit discrimination against gays and lesbians.

"After much reflection and consultation with the general assembly, I've come to the conclusion that it would be helpful to move legislation this week that makes it clear that businesses do not have the right to deny services to anyone," the Hoosier State Republican said, adding that he wants new language added to the existing bill.

"Nobody should be harassed or mistreated because of who they love or what they believe in," Pence said. "I don't believe for a minute that it was the intention of the general assembly to create a license to discriminate against gays, lesbians or anyone else in this state and it certainly wasn't my intent."

Pence, nonetheless, maintained that he was still "proud" to have signed the original bill and blamed its unsavory reputation across the nation on "confusion, misunderstanding and mischaracterization" by the media.

"This law was about religious liberty," Pence said. "Not about discrimination."

The law, as it was written, he added, "does not give anyone a license to discriminate" and "does not give anyone the right to deny services to anyone in this state."

"But," he added, "I can appreciate the perception that it has, and now we need to confront it."

Dozens of businesses and prominent industry leaders, as well as hundreds of demonstrators in the state, have protested the Religious Freedom Restoration Act since Pence signed it into law last week, claiming it served only as a means for businesses and the government justify discriminating against people on the basis of their sexual orientation by those who disagree on account of their own religious values.

Pence has previously, and repeatedly, denied that the law was about "about discrimination," saying instead that it was "about empowering people to confront government overreach."

Its intent, Pence has said, was to prevent the government from impinging on a person's religious beliefs.

But during a contentious interview Sunday on ABC's "This Week," in which host George Stephanopoulos asked Pence at least six times if the law would make it legal for a merchant in Indiana to refuse service to gay customers, the embattled governor refused to answer directly.

"Look, the issue here is still, is tolerance a two-way street or not?" he said. "We're not going to change the law."

Pence also said during the interview that he wouldn't be willing to add sexual orientation to the list of characteristics against which discrimination is illegal in the state.

Since Pence signed the law last Thursday, he, as well as the entire state of Indiana, have been roundly blasted by businesses and organizations around the nation, as well as on social media with the hashtag "#BoycottIndiana."

The Indianapolis-based NCAA released a statement saying it was concerned that the law would hurt the athletes and visitors in town for the Final Four games of its men's basketball tournament, while consumer review service Angie's List has said it will suspend a planned expansion in Indianapolis because of the new law.

Business bigwigs and politicians have also weighed in with stinging criticism.

Apple CEO Tim Cook called the legislation "dangerous" in a sharply worded op-ed in The Washington Post, while the governor of Connecticut and the mayor of Seattle both signed bans on publicly funded travel to the Hoosier State in protest of the bill.