Via John Cole comes word that the American Family Association has gone off the deep end of anti-gay paranoia:
Residents of the small Arkansas town of Eureka Springs noticed the homosexual community was growing. But they felt no threat. They went about their business as usual. Then, one day, they woke up to discover that their beloved Eureka Springs, a community which was known far and wide as a center for Christian entertainment–had changed. The City Council had been taken over by a small group of homosexual activists.
The Eureka Springs they knew is gone. It is now a national hub for homosexuals. Eureka Springs is becoming the San Francisco of Arkansas. The story of how this happened is told in the new AFA DVD “They’re Coming To Your Town.”
One of the first actions of the homosexual controlled City Council was to offer a “registry” where homosexuals could register their unofficial “marriage.” City Council member Joyce Zeller said the city will now be promoted, not as a Christian resort, but a city “selling peace, relaxation, history and sex.”
This is exactly the kind of Oogedy-Boogedy nonsense that Kathleen Parker was talking about in her column yesterday and that I talked about yesterday here and here.
To people in the mushy middle of the American where elections are decided groups like the AFA are fast becoming the face of the Republican base, mostly because the rest of the GOP is letting it happen.
And while we’re talking about the Parker column, Kevin Drum makes an excellent point:
There will always be plenty of votes for a culturally conservative party. That’s not the problem. The problem is the venomous, spittle-flecked, hardcore cultural conservatism that’s become the public face of the evangelical wing of the GOP. It’s the wing that doesn’t just support more stringent immigration laws, but that turns the issue into a hate fest against La Raza, losing 3 million Latino votes in the process. It’s the wing that isn’t just a little skittish about gay marriage, but that turns homophobia into a virtual litmus test, losing 6 million young voters in the process. It’s the wing that isn’t just religious, but that treats belief as a precondition to righteousness, losing 2 million secular voters in the process. It’s the wing that isn’t just nostalgic for old traditions, but that fetishizes the heartland as the only real America, losing 7 million urban voters in the process. It’s the wing that goes into a legislative frenzy over Terry Schiavo but six months later can barely rouse itself into more than a yawn over the destruction of New Orleans.
(…)
A party that merely wants to move more slowly and more deliberately than liberals in the cultural sphere wouldn’t have lost all those votes. But the real-life GOP, a party whose primary association in much of the public mind is with revulsion toward gays, immigrants, urban elites, and the non-churchgoing, did. That’s oogedy-boogedy.
Exactly, and when you pander to people who seriously believe that “the gays” are coming to take over some small town in Arkansas you aren’t helping the cause.
Of course, if the people of Eureka Springs are truly worried, perhaps they can all buy some of those really tasteful AFA Christmas Ornaments.
