Democracy Gone Astray

Democracy, being a human construct, needs to be thought of as directionality rather than an object. As such, to understand it requires not so much a description of existing structures and/or other related phenomena but a declaration of intentionality.
This blog aims at creating labeled lists of published infringements of such intentionality, of points in time where democracy strays from its intended directionality. In addition to outright infringements, this blog also collects important contemporary information and/or discussions that impact our socio-political landscape.

All the posts here were published in the electronic media – main-stream as well as fringe, and maintain links to the original texts.

[NOTE: Due to changes I haven't caught on time in the blogging software, all of the 'Original Article' links were nullified between September 11, 2012 and December 11, 2012. My apologies.]

Saturday, February 11, 2012

Michele Bachmann At CPAC: Former GOP Candidate Slams Prop 8 Ruling, Meets Chuck Woolery

Former presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann accused the 9th Circuit court of Appeals of “trying to undermine the will of the people” after its decision this week ruling the ban on marriage for gays and lesbians in California to be unconstitutional. And she predicts the case will go before the Supreme Court.

"The people of the state of California have the right to vote on the laws that they living under," she told HuffPost Gay Voices shortly after she gave a speech at the Conservative Political Action Conference in Washington on Thursday.

"They made a vote in 2008," she said. "That's when Barack Obama was running for president. And it's amazing, really, what a decisive outcome it was, so it's interesting, that now you find federal judges trying to undermine the will of the people. That's what federalism is about, and that’s why you'll see this case go to the Supreme Court."

Bachmann, while doing radio interviews on "radio row" at CPAC, met up with Chuck Woolery, the former TV game show host, most notably of the "Love Connection," and they shared a warm embrace as Bachmann giddily called out, "Chuck! Chuck!"

Woolery is promoting "Reset Congress," a project that he outlines on his web site, Save Us Chuck Woolery. He, too, slammed the Prop 8 ruling, and said gays don’t need civil rights. In fact, he believes African-Americans need no civil rights.

"Majority rules," he said, dismissing the idea that minorities need protections. "We were born with natural rights. We don't need civil rights. [African-Americans] don't need civil rights. They don't need them. They have inalienable rights granted by God in the Constitution. I mean, I'm discriminated against all the time. I don't care. It doesn't bother me. [I'm discriminated against] because I'm old. I'm too old to get a job as a game show host. They say, well, the guy's 71 and in five years he'll be 76. And I’m a one per center, and I'm absolutely discriminated against as a one per center."

Friday, day two at CPAC, strongly highlighted the conservative moral agenda, including attacks on marriage equality, amid the noticeable absence of the conservative gay group, GOProud, which had been banned this year. Before Rick Santorum's speech, a panel that included Focus on the Family’s Tom Minnery, who’d been accused during the Defense of Marriage Act repeal hearings of distorting studies, focused on what it perceived as the dangers of gay marriage. Jordon Sekulow, son of the crusading antigay attorney Jay Sekulow (who later spoke), attacked President Obama for allowing for gay marriage by supporting civil unions, which he said would lead to same-sex marriage.

Full interviews and full coverage of CPAC on Monday on "The Michelangelo Signorile Show" on SiriusXM OutQ 108, 2-6.

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