In my view, some of the people being considered for nomination as the Republican presidential candidate in 2012 are not just misguided but actually evil.
Michele Bachmann for example.
The Minnesota congresswoman (pictured above with her husband) claims to be deeply religious and boasts of raising 23 foster children, but her religion is bigotry and I pity those poor kids who had to live under her roof.
I make no excuses for the misdeeds of Catholic priests over the years, for example. But I think it is bigotry to declare that the Pope is the Anti-Christ. And the church that Bachmann and her husband attended until recently did just that.
Furthermore, I think her husband Marcus was bigoted when he described gay people as “barbarians” in need of “discipline.”
He is either a knave or a fool. Imagine taking tax money on the pretext of “curing” gays! Yet that’s just what his mental health clinic has been doing.
More examples of the Bachmanns’ bigotry come to light almost every day.
Today I learned that Michele Bachmann cited a government settlement to black farmers for blatant discrimination over the years as an example of “wasteful spending.”
Here’s an excerpt from the AP report:
The issue came up after Bachmann and Republican Rep. Steve King of Iowa toured flooded areas along the Missouri River. During a news conference, they fielded a question about whether farmers affected by the flooding also should be worried by proposed U.S. Department of Agriculture cuts.
The two responded by criticizing a 1999 settlement in what is known as the Pigford case, after the original plaintiff, North Carolina farmer Timothy Pigford. Late last year, President Barack Obama signed legislation authorizing a new, nearly $1.2 billion settlement for people who were denied payments in the earlier one because they missed deadlines for filing.
King has likened the Pigford settlement to “modern-day reparations” for African-Americans. He said Monday a large percentage of the settlement “was just paid out in fraudulent claims” and criticized the Obama administration’s plan to resolve separate lawsuits filed by Hispanic and female farmers.
“That’s another at least $1.3 billion,” King said “I’d like to apply that money to the people that are under water right now.”
Bachmann seconded King’s criticism, saying, “When money is diverted to inefficient projects, like the Pigford project, where there seems to be proof-positive of fraud, we can’t afford $2 billion in potentially fraudulent claims when that money can be used to benefit the people along the Mississippi River and the Missouri River.”
Do you doubt that her distaste for the Pigford settlement is motivated by antipathy toward African-Americans? I don’t.
Where is her outrage over the $40 billion the government gives oil companies annually as an incentive to drill in the United States?
Where is her objection to the billions in lost corporate taxes resulting from loopholes in the American tax code?
Why doesn’t she demand that Wall Street financiers pay the normal tax rate on their earnings instead of an absurdly low capital gains tax?
To me, Bachmann’s positions are a reflection of today’s Republican Party – racially and religiously bigoted, anti-minorities, in bed with the multinational corporations at the expense of the American people.
Not only the people but the environment, too.
A study just released by Greenpeace names 15 members of Congress who persistently block attempts at regulating pollution. Eleven of the 15 are Republicans.
Here is the list.
Representative Jason Altmire (D-PA), Representative Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Representative Eric Cantor (R-VA), Representative Jerry Costello (D-IL), Representative Mark Critz (D-PA), Representative Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO), Representative Doc Hastings (R-WA), Representative Bill Johnson (R-OH), Representative Jim Matheson (D-UT), Representative Tim Murphy (R-PA), Representative Steve Pearce (R-NM), Representative Mike Rogers (R-MI), Representative Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), Representative Fred Upton (R-MI), Representative Ed Whitfield (R-KY).
As I would expect, Michele Bachmann’s name is on the list.
