On Poisoning Nancy Pelosi and Comparing Liberals to Nazis

by Michael Jones · 2009-08-06 19:48:00 UTC
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Wow, just when you think the state of the right-wing couldn't get any worse.  First we had Laurie Higgins with the Illinois Family Institute openly compare LGBT people to nazis, and urging her Christian followers to stand up to the threat of homosexuality as if it were on par with the threat of nazism. Her group, incidentially, will be holding an annual conference with special guest Mike Huckabee, who apparently is all too willing to endorse this kind of rhetoric.

Then we had Rush Limbaugh doing what Limbaugh does best: using his platform as lead spokesperson for the Republican Party to call Democrats names.  But this time it was in the form of manipulating Obama's logo, turning it into a swastika and accusing Obama of promoting a type of health care system that would be popular with the brutal Nazi regime.

Tasteless.  Disgusting.  Vile.  Pretty much everything we've expected from Rush Limbaugh and the GOP.

But the latest ridiculous exploit from the right might just take the cake.  And it comes in the form of Fox News's Glenn Beck, who in a not-so-funny sketch on his show joked about poisoning Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

No really.  A mainstream commentator on Fox News just joked about killing the Speaker of the House.  And yet again, the radical right wing in this country reaches a new low.

What does it say about the straits of a political party when some of their most active members are comparing LGBT people to Nazis, twisting the Obama logo and converting it into a Swastika, and threatening to poison the Speaker of the House?  To this blogger, it says that the right-wing in this country have become so devoid of ideas, they can only resort to these kinds of tactics in order to get attention.

Thankfully, at least in the case of Glenn Beck, some advertisers are starting to pay attention.  Already Proctor & Gamble, Lawyers.com, and Progressive Insurance have vowed to stop advertising on his program, a clear sign that Beck's hateful comments aren't playing well with everyone.  And here at change.org, we've been encouraging the Crowne Plaza hotel in Chicago to avoid hosting a Fall conference from the Illinois Family Institute, at least until they're lead spokespeople stop comparing LGBT people to nazis.

Republicans deserve better than this.  And while it's clear that these right-wing pundits won't stop their rather twisted words, it's great to see advertisers waking up.  Companies should seriously think twice about spending their marketing budgets on a program whose host threatens to poison the Speaker of the House.  Just like hotels should think twice about hosting conferences from organizations that rank LGBT people on par with nazis, who perpetrated the murder of more than six million people.

Michael Jones is a Change.org Editor. He has worked in the field of human rights communications for a decade, most recently for Harvard Law School.
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