In which Illinois Rep. Ron Sandack, a Republican, gets booed for supporting marriage equality but sticks to his convictions anyway. That’s how it’s done. (via Buzzfeed)
Yes, I am about to suggest that you do something that rail against often. But to adhere to purity ignores the reality of how politics work as they are right now: money moves campaigns.
This Northern Chicagoland district isn’t a gay haven as far as I know. I don’t know how representative this mob that Sandack is confronting in this video is of his district, but they do seem comfortable enough to spew anti-gay bigotry in the daylight. The best way to support someone holding office taking an unpopular position that you agree with, particularly if they are a member of the anti-gay Republican party, is to contribute to his re-election. Yep, you need to put your money where your mouth is.
Atta boy messages from far outside of the district don’t win elections yet.
What did your momma just say, Jeb?
U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) and other members of Congress are sponsoring an event to celebrate the 224th anniversary of the inauguration of Washington. The event is called "Washington: A Man of Prayer."
That works only if you don’t know anything about history. The evidence simply doesn’t back up the Religious Right’s claims about our first president. Consider this material, drawn from Brooke Allen’s book Moral Minority: Our Skeptical Founding Fathers:
- “[Washington] paid little attention to the Sabbath or any other outward manifestation of religiosity. We have various eyewitness accounts of life at Mount Vernon which do not much feature religious observance.”
- Ona Judge Staines, who had been a slave at Mount Vernon, did not report a lot of religious activity there: “The stories of Washington’s piety and prayers, so far as she ever saw or heard while she was his slave, have no foundation. Card-playing and wine-drinking were the business at his parties, and he had more of such company Sundays than on any other day.”
- As president, Washington attended religious services regularly but more or less stopped once he was out of office. During the last three years of his life, he attended services a grand total of three times.
- Washington’s aversion to communion is well known. When he did attend services, he would routinely leave services before communion was offered.
- On his deathbed, Allen writes, Washington spurned suggestions that he receive a visit from a clergyman. Allen writes, “Washington requested no such supernatural aid in his final hours, though he was well aware he was dying. His last act on earth, in fact, was to take his own pulse, the consummate Enlightenment gesture….”
But what about that famous painting of Washington praying in the snow at Valley Forge? The painting in question was created by an artist named Arnold Friberg in 1976 to celebrate the Bicentennial.It’s based on a story about Washington being seen deep in prayer at Valley Forge that comes from one man, Isaac Potts, who is not considered reliable. In 1918, the Valley Forge Park Commission refused to erect a marker on the spot where Washington allegedly prayed because they considered the story a legend.
But Washington added “So help me, God” to the presidential oath of office! He must have been deeply devout, right?
Once again, there is no evidence that Washington ever did this. We at Americans United got so tired of hearing this story that a few years ago we asked Philander D. Chase, senior editor of the Papers of George Washington at the University of Virginia, to weigh in on the matter.
Here is what Chase said: “[N]either we at the Washington Papers nor any other historians, to our knowledge, have been able to find any eyewitness accounts saying that Washington added the words `So help me God’ to the presidential oath at his first inauguration (or at his second inauguration, for that matter). “
Chase added, “I and some other historians think that, given Washington’s notably strong commitment to adhering as closely as possible to the Constitution, it is unlikely that he would have taken it upon himself to add the words `So help me God’ to the presidential oath.”
The people who live here made this possible:
Marco Rubio wasn’t thirsty in his rebuttal to the SOTU - Imgur
Mitch McConnell, whiner
This is what happens when you worry about mega-millionaires rolling over on top of you and attacks from your right flank instead of listening to your constituents
TODAY’S REPUBLICANS ARE AMERICA’S ENEMY WITHIN
Republicans ARE practicing seditious DEMAGOGUERY and anti-democracy OBSTRUCTIONISM intended to destabilize our economy for purposes of political exploitation.
Republicans AREN’T making a sincere effort to STOP the bleeding THEIR incompetent leadership and failed policies created. Instead, they’re using inflammatory lies and accusations as a smokescreen to conceal their subversive agenda, which is to cause President Obama and America to fail so they can blame Democrats for the consequences of THEIR calamitous mismanagement.
Republicans ARE preposterously professing that THEIR disgraceful political WHORING had no thing to do with the banking, real estate, stock market and employment catastrophes that resulted.
Republicans ARE trying to hamstring “government” to prevent Democrats from repairing the damage caused during a Republican presidency that was irresponsibly enabled by Republican Senators and Representatives.
Republicans ARE offering ridiculous arguments meant solely to disrupt and prevent government “effectiveness”. They’d rather divide America and create political gridlock than endure the political consequences of “effective” governance.
Republicans AREN’T the LOYAL OPPOSITION; they ARE the ENEMY WITHIN whose mercenary priorities have eroded their moral and ethical standards to the point that duplicity and betrayal have become their preferred modus operandi.
It’s one thing to advocate their conservative beliefs; it’s another thing entirely to willfully sabotage America’s government because a successful Democratic presidency would not be vulnerable to the greed, fears and hatreds that have produced and sustained the despicable Republican anti-government corporatism and anti-Christian faux theocracies that are poisoning and crippling American society.
You get no points for being narcissistic and mean.
