Bryan Fischer, GOP Kingmaker, part 2

I asked the question, Is Bryan Fischer the New GOP Kingmaker?, in a January 19 post. Apparently, in Iowa, socially conservative GOP candidates believe they must pass through Fischer’s radio show on their way to a GOP victory. As I proposed here and here, this is lunacy and will come back to haunt the candidate that manages to prevail and win the nomination. In a more direct and entertaining manner, George Will advanced essentially the same argument, with Gingrich and Huckabee in focus. 
The left will hammer this home every chance they can. Case in point, this article from Mother Jones.

For GOP presidential hopefuls, its become necessary to court the crazy. Earlier today, Tim Murphy told you about Newt Gingrich’s remarks at an American Family Association forum in Iowa, where the former House Speaker—and likely Republican presidential contestant—lavished praise on Islamophobe conspiracy theorist David Barton.
But wait, there’s more: The Iowa Independent reports that Gingrich, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee are scheduled to appear on Bryan Fischer’s radio show today. Fischer, the AFA’s issues director, has long been a leading basher of Muslims and gays and lesbians. He has said that inbreeding causes Muslims to be stupid and violent; he has equated gay sex with domestic terrorism; and he has claimed that Hitler and his stormtroopers were gay. Yesterday on his blog, Fischer wrote that the First Amendment’s guarantee of freedom of religion does not apply to Islam:

Islam has no fundamental First Amendment claims, for the simple reason that it was not written to protect the religion of Islam. Islam is entitled only to the religious liberty we extend to it out of courtesy. While there certainly ought to be a presumption of religious liberty for non-Christian religious traditions in America, the Founders were not writing a suicide pact when they wrote the First Amendment.

Our government has no obligation to allow a treasonous ideology to receive special protections in America, but this is exactly what the Democrats are trying to do right now with Islam.

I addressed Fischer’s out-of-context quotes from Justice Joseph Story last week. Fischer cited the 19th century legal scholar to support his views of the First Amendment. However, considering Story’s views in the context of his massive commentary on the constitution revealed that there is no religious test for involvement in government and no intent of the framers to limit religious freedom to Christian denominations.
The MoJo writer forgot another group Fischer’s has had in his supremacist view – Native Americans. Maybe the GOP hopefuls think that Fischer is safe because he attacks Muslims and gays – two groups not high on the GOP constituent list. But Native Americans?
Circling back to Fischer’s comments about the First Amendment, Fischer would have to carry his thinking further and say that religious freedom does not apply to Jews, Buddhists, Latter Day Saints, etc. His reading of the First Amendment is dangerously flawed. John McCain initially courted the religious right through John Hagee during his election run in 2008 which failed miserably due to Hagee’s public statements on Catholics and more. Fischer is building up a treasure trove of such statements on a variety of groups which make Hagee look like a moderate.

4 thoughts on “Bryan Fischer, GOP Kingmaker, part 2”

  1. You expect this kinda warped mentality of Fischer’s to be spewed from a pulpit, where you have several hundred apparatchiks nodding their heads and concuring with a hearty, “Amen.”, not on the airwaves. I think it’s high time that the FCC looks into this radio show of his.
    As for the GOP nominees….courting a hate group?? Whatever they’re smoking, I want some.

  2. You expect this kinda warped mentality of Fischer’s to be spewed from a pulpit, where you have several hundred apparatchiks nodding their heads and concuring with a hearty, “Amen.”, not on the airwaves. I think it’s high time that the FCC looks into this radio show of his.
    As for the GOP nominees….courting a hate group?? Whatever they’re smoking, I want some.

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