Rep. Paul Broun, one of the wingnuttiest of the wingnuts in Congress, has already announced that he is running for the Senate seat held by the retiring Saxby Chambliss in Georgia. And he’s moving quickly to lay claim to the far right turf in that primary battle. In a fundraising letter, Broun said:
As a Member of the House of Representatives for the last few years, I have fought tooth-and-nail against President Obama’s agenda at every turn.
I was the first Member of Congress to call him a socialist who embraces Marxist-Leninist policies like government control of health care and redistribution of wealth….
On the Senate side, I’m a staunch ally of now retired Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina — and of course, Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky….
He also said that “being a Marine made me the man I am today.” How insulting to the Marines. Oh, and when he called Obama a socialist way back in 2008, he also compared him to Hitler. It’s the hipster wingnut; he was making crazy conspiracy theories about Obama before it was cool. Notice that no one who accuses him of being a socialist ever defines what that word means? It means government ownership of the means of production. It doesn’t mean “liberal.”
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anubisprime
February 17, 2013 at 10:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Should have started the letter off with…
Hello, my name is Kent Hovind…I mean Paul Broun… and I have a mental age of 7 yrs old…aren’t I a big boy?
John Pieret
February 17, 2013 at 10:52 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I was the first Member of Congress to call him a socialist who embraces Marxist-Leninist policies like government control of health care
By following the recommendations of that well-known commie outfit, the Heritage Foundation.
This has nothing to do with what President Obama’s actual policies are. As always, they hate Obama for being president while black.
raven
February 17, 2013 at 11:05 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Medicare is decades old and wildly popular among his fan base, old white christofascists.
You can bet they are rabid fans of Commie control of health care, when it is their Medicare.
If I was Broun’s opponent, I’d point out that he is coming to take away your Medicare. Next up is that other Commie program, social security, also wildly popular.
raven
February 17, 2013 at 11:12 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Broun comes across as a demagogue. I doubt he believes any of it or cares beyond getting elected.
He is just throwing out dog whistles for the lunatic fringes and hoping some of it will stick.
Marxist Leninist, commie, gay, educated, overly pigmented, scary black man, gun control, Moslem, terrorist, Kenyan, godless, atheist., evolution, Big Bang, baby killers, set theory, and so on.
I’d ask if you can be too stupiid, too extreme, and too shallow to be elected in Georgia. But why bother, he already has been elected.to the House. What would be amusing is having someone challenge him from his right. Brown is soft on Space Reptiles and a running dog for the Illuminati.
Modusoperandi
February 17, 2013 at 12:10 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Actually, he said it like “Bee-ing a Mah-ree-een made me the man I am too-daay!” and then laughed and tossed out a bunch of confetti from a bucket, which is insulting to Rip Taylor.
marcus
February 17, 2013 at 12:54 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
It will interesting to see how Rove’s “Crossroads” PAC is going to deal with this. (If at all.)
Nick Gotts (formerly KG)
February 17, 2013 at 1:08 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
No, it means collective ownership of the means of production. The collective may be the state, municipal authorities, workers’ cooperatives, or a mix. Historically, the vast majority of anarchists (i.e. opponents of all government) have been socialists.
mobius
February 17, 2013 at 3:00 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Not that Obama is much of a liberal.
dan4
February 17, 2013 at 3:04 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@4: Gee, Raven, when I say things like “I’m a proud atheist” or “we need gun control in this country,” or “The Big Bang theory is based on valid science,” I didn’t know I was throwing out “dog whistles”…but thanks for letting me know that’s the case, so I’ll stop (*rolls eyes*).
Ichthyic
February 17, 2013 at 4:02 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
don’t know what you’re on about, Dan, but Raven is exactly right, in that these are hotbutton issues that have been used by the hard right for decades to “stimulate” their well-groomed base to go out and vote.
Raven is saying that Broun doesn’t even care what issues he randomly tosses out, like he’s just selecting things from a list of hotbutton issues that voters in his district will typically get enraged about, and using them “like dogwhistles”.
seems pretty accurate to me.
Ichthyic
February 17, 2013 at 4:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
…tell you what, Dan…
If: “I’m a proud atheist, and we need to stop all this religious nonsense!” is EVER used as a political dogwhistle by someone running for state or federal office, to motivate a large voting block in any State in the US, then *maybe* you might have a point in there, somewhere.
democommie
February 17, 2013 at 5:03 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
I think that back when the “Big Tent GOP’ was first postulated the RNC was thinking, “religious revival, bringin’ back the backslid believers”. What they wound up with was a circus tent and a really big clowncar.
raven
February 17, 2013 at 5:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
You know now.
Being a christofascist means never having to think or know anything. And it is a package deal.
Broun recently called evolution, embryology, and the Big Bang lies straight from hell. He also sits on the House science and technology committee.
I’m not sure what Broun has against embryology. I doubt he has the slightest idea what it even is.
Ichthyic
February 17, 2013 at 5:29 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
nope.
what they were thinking was that Leo Strauss was on to something, and they needed to start implementing those ideas for their own benefit.
Look back to the people involved with Nixon’s “southern strategy”.
it was born of much more maliciousness and greed than ignorance and religious belief.
ttch
February 17, 2013 at 5:36 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@raven: Broun knows what embryology is. He’s an M.D.
He was also a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. He’s been married four times.
Modusoperandi
February 17, 2013 at 6:05 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
raven “I’m not sure what Broun has against embryology.”
Start at Haeckel.
And everyone knows that the Man plants his seed, or “homunculus”, in the garden of the woman’s ladyparts, where after the Sanctity of Holy Marriage™ it grows from a tiny person to a regular-sized one.
ttch “He was also a co-sponsor of the Federal Marriage Amendment. He’s been married four times.”
So? If anything, that makes him a Genuine Patriot®. That’s four marriages he protected from the gayhomos.
raven
February 17, 2013 at 6:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That makes it worse, not better.
He probably meant stem cells but trying to guess what goes on in the murky swamp of his brain isn’t worthwhile.
Hypocrisy is one of the three main sacraments of fundies.
Desjarlais is an MD too. Even after his hypocrisy came out, he was still reelected. I guess you can be as slimey as you want as long as you hate the right groups.
dan4
February 17, 2013 at 6:13 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@4:”…overly pigmented…”
Huh? When has Broun said anything containing the words “overly pigmented?”
Ichthyic
February 17, 2013 at 6:20 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
dan, that response was very like the watermelon seed I just tried to squish between my finger and thumb.
@raven:
don’t forget Michael Egnor, who was sub-head of the neurology department at Stonybrook. Stonybrook, which is also home to Douglas Futuyma. No way are these people that ignorant; they are just lying. at the grass-roots level, it’s fair to assume broad ignorance, but the people driving this shit from the top are lying.
for those unaware, just look up the names to see how grand the irony is that both of these people are at Stonybrook.
democommie
February 17, 2013 at 6:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@14:
Sorry, by “religious revival, bringin’ back the backslid believers”
I meant, KKKlan Rally.
Now, that, IS a dogwhistle.
dan4
February 17, 2013 at 6:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@19: “That response” wasn’t directed at you.
martinc
February 17, 2013 at 7:21 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Icthyic @ 14:
Nixon? Hmmm, when I see some of the morons thrown up by southern politics, sometimes I think the best “southern strategy” might have been Sherman’s.
Ichthyic
February 17, 2013 at 7:30 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
heh.
@dan, 21. I know this. doesn’t mean I can’t comment on your response anyway.
inquisitiveraven
February 17, 2013 at 8:06 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Umm, the point of a “dogwhistle” in this context is that the target audience knows what the user is saying, but the user is hoping that no one outside the target audience gets it, rather like a physical dog whistle that dogs can hear but humans can’t.
@Dan4: Speaking of dogwhistles, no, I expect that Broun never explicitly said anything about Obama being “overly pigmented”; that’s the intended takeaway for anyone hearing “Muslim,” “terrorist,” or “Kenyan” (assuming he’s been spouting the birther crap which I don’t know that he has been).
dan4
February 17, 2013 at 8:28 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
@23: “…doesn’t mean I can’t comment on your response anyway.”
Well, yes, but it doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it.
tomh
February 17, 2013 at 9:53 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
dan4 wrote:
Well, yes, but it doesn’t mean you SHOULD do it.
Good thing we have you here to tell us who SHOULD comment on what. I’ll comment on yours, though no doubt I SHOULDN’T. For some reason you seem to want to misconstrue what has been said, probably to conform with your own slanted views.
sezme
February 17, 2013 at 10:38 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Perfect. Just perfect. The quintessential example of a dog whistle. He never said “overly pigmented” for sure but traitor, Kenyan, other, non-American,etc., etc. will do just nicely, thankyouverymuch.
savagemutt
February 18, 2013 at 10:20 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
Dan4 is also very good at telling us what is and isn’t funny. Apparently, Modusoperandi isn’t. I’m in a recovery program for people who once thought he was hilarious. Now I only slightly chuckle at him. Eventually I’ll be able to frown sternly at his “jokes” and denounce him in blog comments.
tomp
February 18, 2013 at 10:39 am (UTC -4) Link to this comment
That is a very simplified and inaccurate version of what socialism means. And no, Obama is not a socialist. I think Rockefeller would have considered him too right wing to be a member of his Republican club.
Doug Little
February 18, 2013 at 1:41 pm (UTC -4) Link to this comment
We need public floggings for any politician that uses socialist incorrectly.