Gord's Notebook : Partisan Fox News Ted Cruz, Tony Perkins, Defend Their Extremism at Values Voter Summit Bash Everybody Else

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Partisan Fox News Ted Cruz, Tony Perkins, Defend Their Extremism at Values Voter Summit Bash Everybody Else

So let's begin with the opening speech at the 2014 Values Voter Summit given by organizer and president of Family Research Council Tony Perkins .He says they must take America back from the liberals, progressives and secularists who are destroying America

Tony Perkins interview on Fox News

"RWW News : Huckabee Says Christians Must Vote Against Those Who Do Not Listen To 'God's Heart'" at ValuesVoter Summit 2014

And at this year's Summit Mark Levin proclaims the Religious Right et al are not radical but rather represent the political center and the real patriotic true blue Americans .

"RWW News: Mark Levin Tells The Religious Right They're The Real Centrists"

and as for Ted Cruz:

5 craziest things Ted Cruz just said at the Values Voters Summit

From unhinged attacks on birth control -- to calling on Congress to repeal something it didn't pass video c/o Salon.com, Sept. 26, 2014
(First the video)

“These are dangerous, extreme, radical times,” Ted Cruz told the crowd today at the Family Research Council’s Values Voters Summit. And in his demagogic stemwinder, Cruz proceeded to prove his own point, if not quite in the way he intended.

Here’s a look at five of the most outlandish ideas the senator proposed in his speech. Fight Hillary by having her debate some nuns!
Referring to a lawsuit filed against the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate by a group of nuns called the Little Sisters of the Poor, Cruz said Hillary Clinton should face off with the nuns in a debate over religious liberty.
“We ought to invite Hillary Clinton to spend a day debating the Little Sisters of the Poor,” Cruz suggested.
“As for me, I’ll stand with the nuns,” Cruz added. (But presumably not these nuns.)
Birth control = “abortion-inducting drugs”!
Just before proposing that Hillary debate the group, Cruz said, “Right now, the federal government is suing the Little Sisters of the Poor to try to force Catholic nuns to pay for abortion-inducing drugs.”

Actually, the Little Sisters of the Poor sued the government – and not because they were being made to pay for birth control, but because they didn’t accept the Obama administration’s compromise whereby religious organizations could opt out of the contraception mandate by signing a form – ensuring that the organizations wouldn’t pay for birth control themselves, although insurance providers would.

Most striking was Cruz’s repeated description of contraception as “abortion inducing.” Medical experts have debunked that persistent right-wing claim.

Abolish the IRS!
Drawing a standing ovation from the crowd, Cruz laid out a key plank of his game plan to Take Our Country Back™: “We abolish the IRS!”

But about those dangerous, extreme, radical libruls.
Congress should repeal things they haven’t passed!

Running down his laundry list of promises of what conservatives could do if they took control of the Senate, Cruz vowed, “We stand for life, we stand for marriage, we stand for Israel,” Cruz said of which message wins best.

And this: “We repeal Common Core!” Congress never passed the education standards, which have been implemented at the state level.

“We repeal every word of Obamacare!”
Because the 55th time is the charm.

also see at Salon.com article discussing the issue of Fox News as a network which pushes right wing /Republican/Christian Right propaganda:

“Straight-up propaganda”: Fox News, charlatans, conspiracy theorists and the religious fanatics endangering democracy ;All demagoguery all the time: Fox News and American politics' epidemic of craziness sept. 28, 2014, Salon.com by Joseph Heath

Excerpted from "Enlightenment 2.0: Restoring Sanity to Our Politics, Our Economy and Our Lives"

An epidemic of craziness seems to have swept over the American political landscape. This is of course a problem not just for Americans, but for people all around the world. It remains the case that most people think of the United States as the world’s leading democracy.
Although they may not choose to imitate many of the specific features of American democratic institutions, the prestige of democracy around the world is very much tied up with the performance of the American system. When this political system proves demonstrably incapable of keeping charlatans, conspiracy theorists, and religious fanatics out of political power, this is a huge blow to the prestige of democratic systems as a whole.

Republicans Rallying Behind 'Religious Liberty' AP| By By STEVE PEOPLES and KEN THOMAS Posted: 09/26/2014 via HuffingtonPost

WASHINGTON (AP) — Fighting to improve their brand, leading Republicans rallied behind religious liberty at a Friday gathering of evangelical conservatives, rebuking an unpopular President Barack Obama while skirting divisive social issues.

Speakers did not ignore abortion and gay marriage altogether on the opening day of the annual Values Voter Summit, but a slate of prospective presidential candidates focused on the persecution of Christians and their values at home and abroad — a message GOP officials hope will help unify a divided party and appeal to new voters ahead of November's midterm elections and the 2016 presidential contest.

"Oh, the vacuum of American leadership we see in the world," Texas Sen. Ted Cruz declared Friday in a Washington hotel ballroom packed with religious conservatives. "We need a president who will speak out for people of faith, prisoners of conscience."

Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul echoed the theme in a speech describing America as a nation in "spiritual crisis."
"Not a penny should go to any nation that persecutes or kills Christians," said Paul, who like Cruz is openly considering a 2016 presidential bid.

The speaking program included such potential 2016 candidates as former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal. Several possible Republican candidates — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush among them — did not attend.

The group has positions on social issues across the spectrum — from the libertarian-leaning Paul, who favors less emphasis on abortion and gay marriage, to Huckabee, a former Southern Baptist pastor whose conservative social values define his brand.

The event host, Family Research Council president Tony Perkins, said "a fundamental shift" is underway toward religious freedom among Republicans of all stripes.

"Without religious freedom, we lose the ability to even address those other issues," Perkins said of social issues.

Despite any rhetorical shift, he warned that evangelical voters will not forget priorities such as abortion and traditional marriage on Election Day: "It is not time to rethink our principles or shrink back from the conflict."