UPDATE: Welcome “Bluestem Prairie” readers (via Politics In MN)! Hey, I’m a big fan of Sally Jo – but her article linking to this piece was a huuuuuuuge, unsupportable reach, as I pointed out in this piece here.
Just saying.
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A couple bits of background here:
The American Left is banking its future on “demographics”. The theory is, as America becomes less white and as American women bring home more of the nation’s gross domestic product, it will inevitably vote more Democrat.
But if they didn’t?
Berg’s Eighth Law states “American liberalism’s reaction to one of “their”constituents – women, gays or people of color – running for office or otherwise identifying as a conservative is indistinguishable from sociopathic disorder“. I originally wrote the law in response to the left’s ongoing case of Bachmann Derangement Syndrome. It works a little something like this; liberals see women, minorities and gays as their electoral property. Indeed, in the upcoming presidential election they are just about the only sure bets that President Obama has. And when minorities and women see that there are other viable electoral options? Well, that’s a knife aimed at liberalism’s heart.
Because without mindless, robotic electoral obeisance from women, minorities and gays, the left’s “demographic” future and the Democrat party are both finished.
Which explains, in large part, why the American left are so utterly demented around female and minority conservatives.
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I once noted that if politicians like Norm Coleman or Tim Walz are like engineers – making sure everything they say and do is as perfectly calibrated as a bridge gusset plate before they put it in front of the public – then Michele Bachmann is like a jazz saxophone player, winging it and improvising and going with what sounds right. In the past it’s made her flub-prone – but she’s also a politician who wears her heart refreshingly on her sleeve.
It’d be fair to call Mary Franson a little Bachmann-like. While she’s been the target of an almost Bachmann-like frenzy of dementia from central Minnesota’s leftyblog community ever since she took office, the freshman conservative from Alexandria is most famous for the teapot-tempest that blew up last year about her video noting that welfare treats people “like animals”. While Franson fairly clearly meant that welfare treats people like livestock or pets, dependent on their owner or master the government, the optics weren’t polished to a fine enough sheen to prevent the left’s noise machine from braying “Franson calls welfare recipients animals”.
They were wrong, she was right – but in the war for the low-information voter that is the DFL’s campaign this year, the headline is all that matters.
Franson is running for re-election in the new House District 8B. Her re-election doesn’t seem to be in too much danger – 8B is conservative enough that her opponent, Bob Cuniff, doesn’t even talk about his teachers’ union endorsement.
That doesn’t stop them from trying to make hay, of course.
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Vikings punter, musician, alt-media poitical dabbler and media celeb Chris Kluwe has been an outspoken supporter of gay marriage. As such, he takes a little flak.
He tweeted about some of that flak he’s taken – including a fairly nasty, if stupid, little cartoon.
Aaron Ley is a DFL activist and leader of the “North Star Project”, a McPAC funneling money into central MN campaigns. He’s also the son of Carol Wenner, who was an unsuccessful candidate for the DFL bid to run against Franson, and is currently running for County Commission up there. He chimed in, responding to Kluwe:
The link (let’s forget the unfounded accusation – which is Ley’s style, but like Ley, it’s of no real consequence) is to a piece that points out that Franson, like most conservative Christians, shockingly, opposes same sex marriage. Like most social conservatives, Franson refers to the “traditional values” involved in the current definition of marriage.
That brought Kluwe back into the, er, “fray”:
“Basically, I was pointing out the fact that it is very hypocritical of her to ask for a return to traditional values, when traditional values say she should have been in the kitchen, and not in office,” Kluwe told City Pages yesterday. “Traditional values doesn’t just mean what you want it to mean. It can also mean some pretty bad stuff.”
Now, by Kluwe’s logic, support for the enumerated powers clause of the Tenth Amendment means you also have to support slavery – because values, apparently, are tied to mores at various points in time, not the idea of what’s right and what’s wrong.
Kluwe says he’s been talking to Minnesotans for Equality — a group opposing the constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage — about organizing a debate between him and Franson.
Yeah, I suspect Mary Franson’s busy on the campaign trail. Retail politics has a pretty crowded agenda this time of year, and debating media dilettantes doesn’t make the cut.
But hey! I’m a media dilettante! And I could scare up some free time!
So I’ll tell you what, Chris Kluwe – if you want a debate about the Marriage Amendment, let’s go! I’ll even spot you a couple of points. Read my writing on the subject if you don’t know what I mean.
Have your people call my people. By the way, I am my people.
Speaking of your people? You might wanna have a word with some of the people on your side of this thing. Eepy-cray.
More on that later.
UPDATE: I edited a bit of sloppy writing that left at least one leftyblogger enough wiggle room to make a real doozy of a leap. That’ll teach me to write before I’ve had coffee.
If you get into the debate, no matter what point Kluwe makes, be sure to ask him why it would not apply to extending marriage to polyandry, polygamy, or incest as well.
Because its gross?
That’s one I’ve been dying to get an answer for.
“Standing to sign a contract” is “standing to sign a contract”.
One of the premium channels is currently running a show about polyamory with supposedly real polyamorous ‘pods’ and their normal day-to-day interactions among themselves as well as with their family members (outside the pod). I came across this show the other night and while what I saw of it (about 20 minutes) is as annoying as any “real” t-v show, the language these folks use in describing and defending their lifestyle is identical to that used by homosexuals. They talked about ‘coming out as poly’ to parents, siblings and friends. About being ‘disrespected’ by the closed minded types who can’t ‘deal’ with who/whom/how many people they love. From the short period I observed, there wasn’t any discussion of legal marriage but there was discussion of how the three people (2 women-1man) were wed to one another and they were debating whether or not to add a second man to the pod via a wedding.
I have to imagine a pro-gay marriage type wouldn’t want to have to justify legally recognizing this type of relatively obscure relationship, but then who would they be to ban this ‘marriage’ if they consider society banning a homosexual marriage (a practice that goes back thousands of years through many different societies) to be bigoted and ignorant?
It’s long past time for Chris Kluwe to simply shut up and punt.
Seflores: I saw something on some MTV special a LOOOOONG time ago about the subject. Honestly, if we redefine marriage to cover any two people regardless of gender, then why not any three people? Or more?
@Colonel_Flagg: He needs to have his corpulent ego punctured and deflated first.
Just so everyone knows, Mary Franson already has a political opponent in her district and Chris Kluwe is a resident of neither the district nor even the state. He simply has no dog in the fight and nothing to lose in this or any other debate. If the debate were to happen and he lost, what impact would that have on him? None whatsoever. He risks nothing.
Please, please quit saying that the amendment is about “banning gay marriage” when that is a flat out lie! If this amendment passes NOTHING CHANGES for gay couples! Any other statement or argument is accepting the false premise of the opposition. The ONLY reason to vote no is so that these activists can go into court and impose gay marriage on everybody, including the majority who are opposed to it.
There’s a local restaurant who’s food I love even if I don’t care for their politics. They’ve been lauding Kluwe for his courage for speaking up – as if the cultural powers that be wouldn’t and don’t already embrace him (in a purely platonic way, I’m sure). As a test, lets see what kind of reaction Matt Birk receives for his stand in favor of the amendment.
Whether you are hetero or not, we all have the same rights. Period.
Observation: When someone feels it necessary, in a public forum, to make certain their academic pedigrees are fully on display, they are shielding themselves from criticism before they open their mouths. Some of the most insecure people I have ever met are people like this Ley character who feel it necessary to plant their PhD flag in the ground before any discussion takes place.
Big, you beat me to the punch! I have seen the same thing. Interestingly enough, when my son was younger, he asked a friend of my wife, who has a Ph D, what that was. Without batting an eye, she replied “Phony Doctor.” Obviously, this woman doesn’t take herself to seriously.
Boss: I deal with a lot of academics in my work and when someone answers the phone and puts their “doctor” in front of their name, I know they are probably not open to learning something new – because they already know it all.
Dollars to donuts the PhD is in something rilly substantive like, oh… Art History, Grievance Studies, Critical Theory, or Education.
I’m a stay at home dad with a working wife and I believe in traditional marriage, so I guess I don’t fit Kluwe’s version of reality.
The only time I ever use the Ph.D. is on my business cards because of the cachet it still carries in the DSP biz for when I visit customers. Other than that, I’ve found it’s actually hurt me more for getting jobs than helped simply because folks didn’t believe I was interested in doing anything other than blue-sky research.
As far as I’m concerned, the “Herr Professor Doktor Nerdbert” is, and always will be, my father. I’m just the guy who stayed in engineering school too long for his own good.
Dude – you should see what they are doing to Mia Love out here in Utah…. http://www.ladieslogic.com/27-culture/media/893-agendas-at-work.html
Cindy