Mother Jones has an article about Allen Quist, the guy who gave Michele Bachmann her start in politics by bringing her on as a spokesman for the Maple River Education Coalition (MREC), which he and his wife founded in the late 90s. That was what launched Bachmann into Minnesota politics. Quist may be nuttier than Bachmann is.
As a Minnesota state representative in the 1980s, Quist staked out a position on his party’s far-right wing. At the time, the state’s GOP was undergoing a rightward shift from a party known for its mild-mannered moderates to one populated by family values firebrands. Quist was the tip of the spear.
During his time as a state representative, Quist slammed a gay counseling clinic at Mankato State University by comparing it to the Ku Klux Klan (both would be breeding grounds for evil—AIDS, in this case) and went undercover at an adult bookstore and a gay bathhouse in an effort to prove to a local newspaper reporter that they had become a “haven for anal intercourse.” (A decade later, Bachmann would bring groups of supporters onto the Capitol floor to pray over the desk of a gay colleague.)
Quist’s almost singular focus on sexuality didn’t go unnoticed. “At one point,” the St. Petersburg Times reported in 1994, “a Senate leader suggested he had an unhealthy preoccupation with sex, having devoted 30 hours to it in a single session.” …
In 1993, after returning to his corn and soybeans farm outside the small town of Norseland, Quist bucked his party by challenging the incumbent Republican governor, Arne Carlson, for the gubernatorial nomination. Quist stayed true to his roots. He called for mandatory AIDS testing as a prerequisite for obtaining a marriage license. And more than a decade before it emerged as a national issue, he campaigned against the advent of same-sex marriage in the Minnesota, running ads in which a priest marries two men, “Mike” and “Steve,” and pronounces them “man and man.”
In one memorable interview, Quist told a British reporter he believed women were “genetically predisposed” to be subservient to men, pointing to, among other things, the behavior of wild animals…
Quist went into semiretirement after the Profile was repealed, but he’s remained active in education circles, producing an online curriculum supplement for K-12 educators, designed to provide “accurate and exciting new information for teachers and other interested persons.”
One section asks this leading question: “Did dinosaurs and people live at the same time, and why do so many recently discovered ancient art works accurately picture dinosaurs?” The answer is a resounding “yes.” “The only reasonable explanation for the stegosaurus carved in stone on the wall of the Cambodian temple is that the artist had either seen a stegosaur or had seen other art works of a stegosaur,” Quist writes. “Either way, people and stegosaurs were living at the same time.”
Elsewhere, Quist provides scientific evidence for the existence of dragons, and suggests that the Book of Job be taught as a science lesson: “Today we know beyond a reasonable doubt—Job 41 is a picture-perfect description of SuperCroc.”
Bachmann is now helping Quist raise money for his campaign to join her in Congress.
12 comments
Skip to comment form ↓
jamessweet
May 18, 2012 at 11:49 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
He taught her everything she doesn’t know.
Katherine Lorraine, Chaton de la Mort
May 18, 2012 at 11:55 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Here’s the Stegosaurus carving mentioned in the article.
Ellie
May 18, 2012 at 12:32 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Super Croc was a fire breather? Who knew?
doktorzoom
May 18, 2012 at 12:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That can’t be a stegosaurus. Not only is the head too large, it doesn’t even have a Thagomizer.
lordshipmayhem
May 18, 2012 at 12:39 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Isn’t Michelle a Swiss citizen now? Does that mean she’s trying to drag Quist into the Swiss parliament?
Poor, poor Switzerland.
matty1
May 18, 2012 at 1:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
So he
and
Does this guy share a closet with Marcus?
Mr Ed
May 18, 2012 at 1:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Think he might have his time line a bit confused. The temple dates to about 12 or 13 centuries after Christ so not only did Christ ride a dinosaur but so did pope Gregory.
d cwilson
May 18, 2012 at 1:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I’m that’s what he told his wife.
matty1
May 18, 2012 at 2:51 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
On the other hand “preoccupation with sex, having devoted 30 hours to it in a single session.”
Now that’s stamina.
Hercules Grytpype-Thynne
May 18, 2012 at 3:26 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
If ever there were a case for the use of scare quotes, this use of the phrase “family values” would be it. Quist’s values are a far cry from those of any family I’d ever want to be part of.
helenaconstantine
May 18, 2012 at 6:17 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I don’t think he really wants Job used as the basis of a science lesson. Does he want the teacher to go through and take evry point on which Yahweh mocks Job’s ignorance and for which he claims to be responsible, and point out that each one is now fully explained by natural mechanisms?
Michael Heath
May 18, 2012 at 7:11 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Mother Jones does a disservice to its readers describing the new GOP as “family values firebrands”. The GOP is now demonstrably opposed to families, and not just families headed by same sex spoiuses, but also the children of conservative Christians and fundamentalists from religions other than Christianity. I understand that Mother Jones’ subscribers don’t need this spelled-out, but in the age of the Internet articles go viral beyond a publisher’s regular readers.