The annual “conservative-palooza” commonly known as CPAC, or the Conservative Political Action Conference, will be co-sponsored in 2010 by an unlikely group called “GOProud” – a group of gay and lesbian Republicans.
If that sounds like strange bedfellows, it’s not really. In many ways, GOProud is an ideological fit for the CPAC crowd – if they can get past the whole gay thing. GOProud was formed by a group of gay Republicans, like Christopher Barron, who found the traditional gay Republican group, the Log Cabin Republicans, to be far too liberal for their tastes:
“Essentially, there’s no voice for gay Republicans or gay conservatives in particular in D.C. right now. Log Cabin has been completely and totally absent here in D.C. for months and months,” Barron (a former Log Cabin political director) said. ”It has simply moved way too far from the left and is basically indistinguishable from any other gay left organization.”
If conservative Christian members of CPAC have their way, Barron and his group will have no voice in their new chosen home either:
Liberty University Chancellor Jerry Falwell, Jr., and Liberty Counsel founder and chairman Mat Staver have sent a letter to American Conservative Union chairman David Keene, warning him they will boycott CPAC 2010 if the homosexual activist group GOProud is allowed to remain as a co-sponsor of the February event.
Why on earth would conservatives shun other conservatives simply because they are gay?
Gary Glenn, president of the American Family Association of Michigan, was one of the first social conservative leaders to sign the letter. He believes CPAC’s embrace of GOProud is symptomatic of a broader problem — what he calls the “dumbing down of the pro-family stand in the public policy arena.”
If “dumbing down” is something that concerns Glenn, why isn’t he, Falwell and their cohorts protesting against another co-sponsor of next year’s event: The John Birch Society.
Calling the Birchers “the fringe of the fringe” on the right, Rachel Maddow used part of her show last week to recount some of the society’s proud conservative history, including calling President Dwight D. Eisenhower, “a dedicated, conscious agent of the communist conspiracy.”
The John Birch Society also contended that fluoride being added to drinking water was a communist mind control plot and they contended that the secret conspiracy to destroy America encompassed everything from that darn fluoride to the League of Women Voters and the Civil Rights Act.
The John Birch Society was, in fact, so opposed to civil rights that they responded to the Supreme Court’s Brown versus Board of Education decision to desegregate schools with billboards calling for the impeachment of the Supreme Court‘s chief justice.
The John Birch Society campaigned way back against the United Nations as again, part of the big communist conspiracy. They’re still actually keeping the anti-U.N. campaign going.
Also, on the current John Birch Society agenda, opposing “Invictus.” Yes, the new movie about Nelson Mandela and the 1995 South African rugby team. They’re opposing that because, quote, “Mandela is nothing more than a communist-terrorist thug.”
So, let’s review, conservative Christians demand that CPAC ditch the group that wants equality for a group of human beings – American taxpaying citizens – commonly known as gays and lesbians in marriage, housing, employment and the military – but has no problem with a group that opposes fluoride in the water, school integration, the United Nations, and Nelson Mandela.
We report, you decide.
