Washington AG Candidate Shows His Lunacy
Stephen Pidgeon is a candidate for the post of attorney general in Washington — a Republican, of course — who is making his anti-gay bigotry the centerpiece of his campaign. Appearing on the James Dobson radio show, he offered up this bizarre bit of “reasoning”:
What you have, Dr. Dobson, is you have the oligarchy impressing its will upon the people. This is a form of tyranny, if you will, that even Thomas Jefferson warned us about, saying that when the court imposes its will on the public it’s an oligarchy, it’s a form of totalitarianism, where a few select people believe that their will should be imposed on the rest of us. It’s unconstitutional and more importantly it violates the fundamental freedoms of what it means to be an American to have a couple of select judges tell an entire state, ‘you can’t determine for yourself whether or not you’re going to be righteous in the sight of God or not.’
No, Mr. Pidgeon. You are free to go right ahead and be “righteous in the sight of God” all you want. No one will stop you from doing so. But you don’t get to force other people to comply with your twisted and bigoted sense of “righteousness.” That’s not a difficult distinction to grasp, really. His argument applies perfectly well to any court action that prevents the majority from imposing their will on others. Imagine for a moment that there was a large enough majority in an area to vote for a law to deny people the right to read their Bible; Pidgeon would be the first in line to demand that the “oligarchy” (I don’t think he knows what that word means) of unelected judges immediately overturn the will of the people.
Unsurprisingly, Pidgeon is also a birther.
tomh:
June 7th, 2012 at 11:33 am
It’s an especially odd statement since the courts have had no part in the process in Washington state. First the legislature passed it now the people will vote on it.
brocasbrian:
June 7th, 2012 at 11:41 am
The role of the judiciary, among other things, is to protect the minority from the majority.
Marcus Ranum:
June 7th, 2012 at 11:55 am
That’s right! And all those nasty allied soldiers in WWII were opressing Hitler and the Nazis’ by taking away their right to political self-determination! Godwin!
throwaway:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:00 pm
If indeed the will of the many outweighs the will of the few, as he so desires, does that mean Pidgeon will support the majority of Americans who support gay marriage equality?
thisisaturingtest:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:22 pm
When it comes to civil rights, majority rule is nothing but slightly more polite mob rule. And that is what the rule of law, and the judiciary, are meant to prevent. It really is that simple. This guy has no business being an attorney, much less an Attorney General, if he can’t get that.
Trebuchet:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:26 pm
Please tell me this wingnut is the only Republican candidate!
Meanwhile, our current Republican AG who is running for governor is wasting money the state doesn’t have by suing the federal government to overturn “Obamacare”.
Trebuchet:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:42 pm
He’s not, of course, but at least this led me to Google up a good site telling me who IS running. Pidgeon, who will probably get only a small portion of the (R) vote, is unfortunately from my county. Bleah.
I might actually consider crossing the party line and voting for him in the primary, just for fun.
Chris from Europe:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:53 pm
By the title I thought you were writing about Rob McKenna.
tomh:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:57 pm
@ #4
And will he support the Washington law? The latest AP poll in Washington shows support for the marriage equality law at 54-33%, including a rather amazing 87% among Democrats.
tommykey:
June 7th, 2012 at 12:59 pm
Washington seems to have its share of religious wingnuts. Another one who comes to mind is a guy named Ron Boehme.
Trebuchet:
June 7th, 2012 at 1:26 pm
If you were to subtract King County, or even just Seattle, the whole political complexion of the state would change.
d cwilson:
June 7th, 2012 at 2:47 pm
So, we could conceivably have a situation where Washington voters approve of marriage equality in a referendum yet elects an AG would opposes it.
Wonder what would happen then.
vmanis1:
June 7th, 2012 at 6:42 pm
@d cwilson: If the voters approve marriage equality but the AG opposes it, his course of action is clear: he goes to the courts to get the referendum result set aside.
I wish I were joking.
tomh:
June 7th, 2012 at 6:53 pm
@ 13
There’s not a lot an AG can do to set aside a legally passed bill in the legislature. The referendum is merely accept or reject the passed law. If the referendum were set aside, the law would stand.
dan4:
June 7th, 2012 at 9:28 pm
@8: The title wouldn’t apply because McKenna IS the AG of Washington.
spamamander, hellmart survivor:
June 7th, 2012 at 11:07 pm
Wow, he’s actually from the wet side of the state, though not Seattle. Makes me feel at least a tiny bit better, though we have lovely asshats like Doc Hastings over here…
Rip Steakface:
June 8th, 2012 at 12:39 am
Hey now, Thurston County is pretty sane. We have an oddly large number of Mormons, which is disturbing, but we’re otherwise by and large a pretty sane county.
reddiaperbaby1942:
June 8th, 2012 at 1:19 am
“When the court imposes its will on the public it’s an oligarchy, it’s a form of totalitarianism, where a few select people believe that their will should be imposed on the rest of us.”
Well, the court, by a 5-4 vote, imposed its will on us in 2000, giving us G.W. Bush as President. I’ve often wondered what the last twelve years would have been like with Gore as President. There might have been no 9/11 (there had been serious warnings beforehand, ignored by the Republican Administration); American society might today be less acrimoniously divided; and certainly the US would have joined the community of western nations to work together to slow down climate change.
Ironically, with Gore in the White House for eight years, Obama might not have been elected President (or perhaps even run). So those on the far right who hate him so bitterly, and who see conspiracy everywhere, in a way brought it upon themselves.
greg1466:
June 8th, 2012 at 6:33 am
Is it just me, or does that phrase “You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means” come to mind almost every time a wingnut opens their mouth?
Gregory in Seattle:
June 8th, 2012 at 10:19 am
As a Washington resident, I thank you for posting this. The race for AG typically gets little attention, as it is rarely seen as a partisan office. This nutjob, however….
We have a “top two” primary system: the two candidates who get the most number of votes advance to the general election, regardless of party preference (technically, Washington no longer has partisan elections.) There are three candidates running for AG. I really hope that Pidgeon is the one who gets dumped in August.
Chris from Europe:
June 8th, 2012 at 3:41 pm
@dan4
Yes, right. McKenna is AG now and candidate for governor.
dan4:
June 9th, 2012 at 3:11 am
@17 “We have an oddly large number of Mormons, which is disturbing…”
Bigot.
tomh:
June 9th, 2012 at 12:17 pm
@22
I don’t know about bigot, but in the context of the marriage equality vote this November, a large number of Mormons is disturbing. They’re officially against it.
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