Finding God in a Dog

By now we've all seen this moron:

A Republican congressional candidate in Chicago believes God controls the weather and that tornadoes, autism and dementia are his punishments for the gay rights movement and abortions.

...

"God is angry. We are provoking him with abortions and same-sex marriage and civil unions," she added, blaming natural disasters like tornadoes and diseases including autism and dementia on recent advances in the LGBT movement. "Same-sex activity is going to increase AIDS. If it's in our military it will weaken our military. We need to respect God."

The moron in question is Susanne Atanus (MBA, MPA, Northwestern grad), and she is indeed a Republican candidate for Congress. Really, though, that's not saying much, since she's still just running for the Republican nomination. In fact, she made her remarks during a debate against the other Republican candidate, a socially moderate veteran from my old neighborhood named David Earl Williams III. The winner will go on to lose to the incumbent, enormously popular Democrat Jan Schakowsky, by at least two-to-one.

Nonetheless, Atanus's remarks are a huge deal. Part of it is that she's a superstitious idiot and a religious bigot, although progressives would probably forgive that if Atanus were a new-ager talking about vaccines causing autism. Most of it is that abortion, birth control, and gay rights, as cultural issues, are huge winners for liberals and huge losers for conservatives. I know plenty of "pro-life" zealots who will disagree with me that abortion is a losing issue for them, but the defeats of Senate candidates Mourdock and Akin make my point for me. Ditto for birth control. Furthermore, the nation has changed its mind on gay rights, particularly on gay marriage, which has gone from a winner for conservatives to a winner for liberals in just the last decade. Every time a Republican candidate opens their mouth on these issues, they risk ramming their foot into it. When that happens, it's not just the candidate that suffers, but the entire Republican brand.

Republicans know that their brand suffers when candidates fumble on abortion, birth control, gay rights, and many other cultural issues. This is why they're trying to educate their candidates to tread lightly around those issues. For them, Atanus is a worst case scenario. She has already demonstrated that she's recklessly dim-witted when it comes to cultural issues. The media attention will only grow as she says more dumb things as a candidate. The primary election isn't until March 18th, which gives her almost two months to cause more damage. And if she wins the primary, then what?

It shouldn't surprise anyone, therefore, that the Illinois GOP wants her to quit. Personally, I hope she stays on.

Somehow, I missed this bit of complete brilliance from Garfunkel and Oates.



(If the embedded player doesn't work, try this)

Quoting the man himself:

I will name the time and the place, per your offer, as soon as possible. Looking forward to it, NOMnuts.

On the one hand, Dan Savage knows next to nothing about Christianity. On the other hand, Brian Brown is a homophobic idiot who also, IMO, knows plenty about the fascist, nationalist brand of Christianity, a bare minimum about the Bible, and nothing about much else. The whole fight is bound to be about as enlightening as a professional wrestling match.

However, I do see some potential for good here, if GWAR jumps on stage during the debate and kills both of them. How about it, guys?