Right Wing Watch's wrap on fundie How To Take Back America shriekfest

by: Pam Spaulding

Thu Oct 01, 2009 at 09:00:00 AM EDT

I don't know how Peter @ RWW could stomach listening to the bile generated out of the Mother Schlafly-sponsored How To Take Back America conference last week. It's notable that this year Phyllis co-hosted with the untethered-from-reality Janet Folger Porter.

Mike Huckabee was there, of course, as were fellow Republican tools Michele Bachmann (MN), Trent Franks (AZ), Steve King (IA), and Tom McClintock (CA). Here's Peter's rundown of the conference's themes -- they sound quite familiar, but the radical desperation level is meter-breaking.

• a continued merging of messaging and organizing among the Religious Right and "teabagger" right
• the fervent belief that America is at a tipping point between freedom and fascist power: President Obama and his congressional allies are on the verge of delivering America into Socialism, Communism, and/or Nazi-style tyranny, and that government is therefore to be feared and resisted
• optimism that the tea bag movement and anti-health-reform town halls are a sign that Americans are prepared to resist that tyranny
• extreme opposition to Democratic health care reform efforts, with some support for the congressional Republican alternative and some demands for a no-compromise approach that would involve ending all government involvement in health care, including Medicare
• recent attacks on ACORN are just part of a larger effort to target progressive community organizing groups and their religious supporters and "defund the left"
• hostility not only to same-sex marriage but also to any legal protections for LGBT Americans and same-sex couples
• a new push to use "abortion as black genocide" as a wedge between African Americans and pro-choice progressives built around a new "documentary" portraying abortion as 21st century genocide
• American exceptionalism - the belief that America's founding was divinely inspired and the nation has been uniquely blessed by God - is alive and well, though America is now living under a curse for having elected Barack Obama
• activists don't need a majority to take back America; if their minority or "remnant" is committed enough God will use them
• the apparent passing (or grabbing) of the torch from Phyllis Schlafly to Janet Folger Porter

Matt Barber was there with his pithy drivel:

Another speaker, anti-gay activist Matt Barber, strung together as many insults as he could in describing the president as "a secular humanist, a radical socialist moral relativist." He also referred to gay rights advocates "as bullies who get their way with propaganda and 'goose-stepping' intimidation of those who oppose equality. Bam Bam, that line's getting so old it's fossilizing. Did your BFF The Peter attend, or was he kept out of sight?

And about TEH GAYZ, well it's the usual hysteria, and they've completely discarded the old soft-sell meme that "we just want to protect marriage" -- it's full blast "no rights of any kind for LGBTs":

Of course, freedom to these conference-goers does not extend to LGBT Americans who want to live their lives free from discrimination or serve the nation in the armed forces. Several workshops focused on the dire threat to children and communities posed by the prospect (and reality) of gay couples getting married. And for this crowd, stopping marriage equality is not enough: they are out to prevent civil unions and domestic partnerships as well. They believe the Employment Anti-Discrimination Act is a grave threat to religious liberty. They believe that allowing gays to serve openly in the military would threaten national security. And please don't get them started on transgender people.

The Right Wing Watch wrap is well-worth the click over, because there are so many delicious tidbits of insanity from that conference I'd end up re-posting the entire thing. Peter has great analysis of the ascent of Porter to the Schlafly throne.

Related:
* Mother Schlafly wants YOU to choose the workshops for her wingnut conference