It Doesn’t Bother Him Politically
by digby
More dispatches from the GOP Freakshow:
MJ Rosenberg over at TPM Cafe makes note of religious conservative Dennis Prager’s strong moral stand on Larry King last night. It’s quite inspiring:
KING: … Does the Foley matter bother you?
PRAGER: The matter bothers me but not politically. A congressman is given a page to nurture and take care of and not to try to have an affair with, with same-sex or opposite sex, so that bothers me. There’s no question about it and a great deal in fact but, it doesn’t bother me politically.
KING: Why?
PRAGER: Because it will have no repercussion in my opinion. Even “The New York Times” I’m sure through [sic] its great chagrin had on the front page that conservative, religious conservatives, the people most likely to be offended by such a sexual scandal, are not at all turning away from the Republicans. It was a front page article.
KING: Why aren’t they offended?
PRAGER: Oh, they are offended but they’re not going to — they’re not going to stop voting Republican as a result. That was what the article was about. They’re going to still go to the polls and they should because what is the alternative, a party that doesn’t share any of their values.
So, as much as any conservative might say, “Well, it’s not been a conservative enough administration,” when you look at the alternative, you end up voting Republican.
First of all, since when is a congressman “given a page to nurture and take care of?” This isn’t feudal Europe and these Republican perverts sure as hell aren’t knights in shining armor.
Second, are we supposed to be impressed that even though the Republicans steal billions of tax dollars, cover up for sexual deviants and demand the right to torture, moral Americans will vote for them anyway because they couldn’t possibly be as bad as liberals? That’s what’s known as moral clarity among religious conservatives like Prager.
Considering that, perhaps some of you will be surprised to learn that Prager is an “ethicist” who said back in 1999:
Five years ago, I became a Republican for one reason — aside from the religious renaissance, the Republican party was the only force in America that could stop Democrats and liberals from further eroding America’s fundamental values. I still believe that undoing and preventing liberal damage is the most noble and honest Republican agenda.
He has always had some rather unusual ideas about sexuality, some of which he shared with the congress when he testified in 1996 against same-sex marriage:
I don’t feel threatened by same-sex marriage…I perceive a different danger. It is the danger that is regarding human sexuality, which is a non-issue here. I interviewed a professor of psychiatry at UCLA before coming here to check whether my research on this was valid, and he said, and I quote, Professor Steven Marmer (ph), UCLA Medical School: “Human nature is largely bisexual. In the 18,000 word paper I wrote on homosexuality three years ago, I discovered something that I never knew. Judeo-Christian civilization is unique in human history in saying that sexuality should be exclusively channeled to the opposite sex and in monogamous marriage.” I repeat, it is unique.
Homosexuality, bisexuality have been normative throughout human history. Judeo-Christian civilization alone said, channel the polymorphous sexual urge that the human nature has into marriage with someone of the opposite sex. If we wish to dismantle that, it is not Representative Frank, a political gesture in a Republican Congress. [HEARING OF THE HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEESUBJECT: SAME-SEX MARRIAGES CHAIRED BY: CHARLES T. CANADY (R-FL) MAY 15, 1996]
Impressive argument, isn’t it? He thinks that religion and traditional marriage are the only things saving humans from their natural bisexual state. (Why that state would be bad, he doesn’t explain, but it’s clear the thought terrifies him.) I’d say that’s very revealing coming from a strict religious conservative like him, don’t you?
How many of these weirdos are using the excuse of religion and “values” to force the law to keep them from acting on their deepest desires? We need to figure it out because their psychological problems are starting to become problems for all of us.
By the way, Prager holds seminars on many subjects including “male sexuality.”
No subject is more perplexing than male sexuality. Dennis unravels the mysteries of the male mind with startling clarity and insight. Every man who wants to better understand his nature and every woman who wants to fully appreciate the opposite sex should listen to this tape course.
That ought to be a real eye-opener.
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