February 4, 2014
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Not all that long ago, the establishment wing of the Republican
Party had the power to demand obedience from its Christian Right flank,
but thanks to Internet fundraising and changes to campaign finance laws,
the 2014 elections could be a case of the tail wagging the dog.
The
GOP establishment has always had a monopoly on money, thanks to its
unfettered access to the Wall Street donor class. As a result of this
power differential, the Christian Right, while energized and mobilized,
would be forced to sit when told to sit by the party’s big wigs. But
those days are history.
Today, the Christian Right is armed with
networks and pipelines of unprecedented levels of campaign financing.
Its consortium of donor channels includes the Club for Growth, Senate
Conservatives Fund, FreedomWorks, and a cadre of hyper-religious
organizations such as the Christian Coalition, Christian Broadcasting
Network, American Values, and the Family Research Council.
The
Christian Right can now raise enough cash to compete and win in
Republican primaries against Chamber of Commerce-sponsored establishment
candidates. According to the Federal Electoral Commission, Tea Party
and social conservative groups raised nearly three times as much as GOP
establishment groups in 2013.
The Christian Right is not only an
existential threat to the future of the Republican Party, it’s also an
existential threat to our secular democracy, for it wishes to transform
America into a tyrannical theocracy governed by biblical law. With the
warring Republican factions preparing to square off in a series of
Senate and House primaries, here are the Christian Right’s most favored
candidates for the 2014 election cycle.
1. Matt Bevin: Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate in Kentucky
Matt
Bevin, a self-employed businessman, is contesting the GOP primary for
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell’s seat. Bevin, who describes his
life as being “built on a bedrock of strong Christian values,” is now
leading McConnell by 4 according to the most recent Rasmussen Report
poll.
Right-wing blogger and Fox News contributor Erick Erickson
says Democrats are “squealing like a stuffed pig” because of polling
data that shows Bevin leading Democrat Allison Grimes, while McConnell
only draws out a statistical tie. “If the GOP does not gain the Senate
in 2014, it will probably be because they lose Kentucky. They only lose
Kentucky if Mitch McConnell is the Republican nominee,” says Erickson.
Like
all those on the far right, Bevin, who is a Southern Baptist, is
obsessed with controlling all matters related to sex and abortion.
Earlier this month, on the 41st anniversary of
Roe v. Wade,
Bevin penned an op-ed that read, “The fight for the unborn could not be
any more important. Since that dark day in 1973, America has seen more
than 55 million babies killed under the guise of 'choice….Being pro-life
is more than simply a slogan to us. It is a belief that every life,
born and unborn, is so precious to our Creator, that it compels us to
action.”
In case you missed it the first time, he’s leading McConnell and the Democrats by a handy margin.
2. Pam Barlow: Republican Candidate for U.S. Congress in Texas Congressional District 10
Pam
Barlow is a Tea Party-endorsed candidate contesting a U.S.
congressional seat held by establishment incumbent Mac Thornberry.
Barlow
is a veterinarian, retired US Army Lieutenant Colonel and small
business owner in Bowie, TX. She describes herself as an “unashamed
Republican Tea Party Christian Conservative with a loud voice and some
rock-solid core values.” You know, values such as opposing women’s
reproductive rights, marriage equality, raising the minimum wage and
immigration reform.
When it comes to tackling the
nation’s most complex fiscal issues as they relate to taxes, spending
and federal budgets, she’s got that covered, because in her words, “As a
small business owner, I know how to save money— in fact, I can pinch a
penny until Abe has a migraine.”
Barlow believes her
qualifications as a veterinarian place her in good stead when it comes
to dealing with WMDs. “Many folks are unaware that what we call 'weapons
of mass destruction' are, in fact, modified zoonotic animal diseases
and pesticides. Veterinarians understand the diagnosis and treatment of
these things, and the means available to protect the public,” she wrote
on her blog site.
3. State Sen. Lee Bright: Republican candidate for U.S. Senate in South Carolina
In
South Carolina, state Sen. Lee Bright is challenging veteran Sen.
Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) for his senate seat. It's difficult to find
someone further on the loony fringe than this Club for Growth-endorsed
candidate.
A member of the Southeastern Baptist Theological
Seminary’s Board of Visitors, Bright has been a sponsor of the “Life
Begins at Conception Act” for the past three years. In April 2013,
Bright introduced a bill that would end all abortions in South Carolina.
He has also sponsored bills that would criminalize the Affordable Care
Act and bills that would exempt South Carolina from federal gun laws.
Bright
has also called FEMA a "scam,” and has promised “to get rid of the
IRS.” After seeing a video of IRS agents training with AR-15 rifles,
Bright said, “They’re doing assault-weapon training, the Brown Shirts
are next because that’s the enforcement for Obamacare. If you don’t have
an IRS, you don’t have Obamacare. That’s the mechanism that’s
controlling our lives for far too long.”
It gets worse. Bright
believes federal income tax is something “designed by Nazi Germany,” and
in a series of speeches to pro-faithful gatherings has promoted the
idea of reigniting the Civil War. “If at first you don’t secede, try
again” is one of his favorite applause lines. “If the 10th Amendment
won’t protect the Second, we might have to use the Second to protect the
10th,” is another.
4. Chris McDaniel: Republican Candidate for the U.S. Senate in Mississippi
Mississippi state senator and Tea Party candidate Chris McDaniel is mounting a primary challenge to Sen. Thad Cochran (R-MS).
McDaniel
is a distant cousin to President John Kennedy, but that’s where any
similarities with the pro-civil rights leader begins and ends, for
McDaniel is a neo-Confederate who has delivered speeches to the local
chapter of the Sons of Confederate Veterans.
In January,
Mother Jones surfaced
comments McDaniel made about his unhappiness with the lack of Muslim
villains in Hollywood films. McDaniel said, “They’ll go out of their way
to find some Russian white guy that’s just nuts, and he’s the
terrorist, which I’ve never seen that. But the Muslims, they’ve just
disappeared from Hollywood’s radar.”
He blames rising gun violence
on a "hip-hop" culture that "values rap and destruction of community
values more than it does poetry."
5. Paul Broun: Republican Candidate for U.S. Senate Seat in Georgia
Paul
Broun is contesting the Republican nomination to contest for the U.S.
Senate seat made vacant by the retirement of Republican Sen. Saxby
Chambliss.
In a speech given at Liberty Baptist Church sportsman’s
banquet, Broun said, “All that stuff I was taught about evolution and
embryology and the Big Bang Theory, all that is lies straight from the
pit of Hell.” Broun believes the world is no more than 9,000 years old
and was created in six literal days.
In May 2009, Broun proposed
failed legislation that would have proclaimed 2010 "The Year Of The
Bible,” and he also introduced a bill to ban pornography at all U.S.
military installations. That same year, Broun proclaimed climate change
to be a “hoax.” He said, "Scientists all over this world say that the
idea of human-induced global climate change is one of the greatest
hoaxes perpetrated out of the scientific community. It is a hoax. There
is no scientific consensus."
In reality, there is almost unanimous scientific consensus that climate change is real and is caused by human activity.
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