Washblog

The press release goes on to talk about the CP platform's Family plank.  Here are some excerpts, with my bulleted comments in boldface:

No government may legitimately authorize or define marriage or family relations, as affirmed by the 10th amendment, delegating to the people as our founders understood the family as necessary to the general welfare.

I'm not sure that sentence really makes any sense, but I'm wondering why the CP is participating in the government regulation of family relations when they feel the government isn't authorized to be so engaged.

The law of our Creator defines marriage as the union between one man and one woman.

Really?  I thought the law of the Creator also defined marriage as between a man and his wives; a man and his wife/wives plus concubines; the brother of a man and his wife if the man dies before reproducing, etc...?

The marriage covenant is the foundation of the family, and the family is fundamental in the maintenance of a stable, healthy and prosperous social order.

Agreed! Strong domestic partnerships create more families to even further strengthen the social order.

We stand against so-called "sexual orientation" and "hate crime" statutes that attempt to legitimize inappropriate sexual behavior and to stifle public resistance to its expression.

In other words, they want to be able to define "appropriate" and freely crucify those they find inappropriate.  Subtle.

Finally, we oppose any legal recognition of homosexual unions.

I'm sure Gary & Larry also oppose any sort of legal relationship recognition for homos, but they will NEVER say so directly because they fear alienating the 66% of Washington voters who do support civil marriage or domestic partnerships for same-sex couples.  D'oh!  Don't you just hate it when the parents embarrass you like that?

Wow, that's some serious theocratic wingnuttery Constitution Party's got going there.  Nothing spells FAILURE for Gary & Larry like having to accept the help of people so extreme that they'll scare away regular folk.

Or am I being unfair?  I mean, just because I don't agree with the CP's philosophy doesn't mean that Gary & Larry's new parents aren't popular.  I mean, they are popular, aren't they boys?  I mean, CP-WA's online forum often elicits up to 1 comment per topic, with about 50 people viewing each topic (right-click image to enlarge).  And no one has even bothered to rate any of the topics or post anything new since mid-April.  Oh.  Maybe they're not so popular after all.

Well but, they ran some candidates in the '08 elections -- they must be big!  For example, there's Arlene Peck who ran for Lt. Governor

I acknowledge that our rights come from God and are not dispensed by government. The proper function of government is to safeguard those rights, not regulate them...All decisions made while in office will be based on [the Washington State and US Constitutions] and Biblically prescribed moral values designed to protect the fabric of our society

Arlene came in dead last in the primaries.  Gosh, Not Big.  Let's try again with Randall Yearout, who ran for 5th Congressional Disctrict.  

When the territories organized into states with their own constitutions and laws, they became sovereigns, and outside the "exclusive legislative authority" of the US government. As your Congressman, my main goal will be to begin a restoration of the liberty and freedom that has been steadily eroded by the misapplication of federal authority into the affairs of the people of the union states.

To put it kindly, Mr. Yearout did not do well in the primaries.  More Not Big.  Not Popular, Not Big.

Well maybe we just need to see them in a more relaxed mode, when they're conversing amongst themselves.  For example here is an excerpt from the April, 2009 newsletter from the CP in Gary Randall's state of Oregon:

Disgusted with the GOP
March 19, 2009
By James Farmer, CPO Jackson County Vice Chairman

For once I agree with James Snyder ("Voters are disgusted with GOP," March 7).  

The sleazy, immoral, reprehensible homosexual escapades of two prominent GOP members of Congress were addressed.  Therefore, how can Christians and certain deluded churches continue to suck up with blind allegiance to a political cartel (no, the Democrats aren't any better either!) which has been dishonest and compromising to the core?

What about the pro-homosexual Log Cabin Republicans? Their upcoming April convention with a gathering of homosexual activists in Washington, D.C., further alludes to Republican sellout and compromise. I could continue on!

Note to voters: The Constitution Party doesn't have a homosexual club, like the "Log Cabin Republicans." Nor will we compromise our values as do the Republicans to keep the Republican Party strong.

The Constitution Party may fight for ballot access, be excluded and denied from election debates, get little media coverage and, often, never win seats. Nonetheless, our consciences are clear. We embrace biblical principles and like John Adams believe that "duty is ours, and the results belong to God."

So much for "love the sinner".  But wait, didn't Robert Peck, former party chairman, say something about loving the homos when talking about the pending LGBT anti-discrimination bill in 2006?

CONSTITUTION PARTY OPPOSES GRANTING RIGHTS ON BASIS OF SEXUAL ORIENTATION

The Constitution Party of Washington has come out in opposition to a bill currently pending in Olympia dealing with "gay rights".  The party's chairman, Robert Peck, pointed out that the bill would use "Police Power" under the state human rights commission to compel employers, landlords and others to hire, rent to and otherwise engage in business with persons on the basis of their identifying themselves with, and willfully engaging in, various "deviant sexual acts."...

"This is not about hating homosexuals," Peck said, "this is about protecting society from moral degradation. God loves the homosexual and so do we, but that doesn't change the fact that such acts are unnatural, unhealthy, immoral and if tolerated, will eat away at the foundations of our society."

The party believes it is the government's duty to use the force of law to protect society from degrading influences, which it believes homosexuality and other so called alternative lifestyles to be.

Oh I see, God loves the homosexual so that Mr. Peck doesn't have to.  Mr. Peck is then free to call homos deviant, unnatural, unheathy, immoral people (?) whose degrading influence undermine the very foundations of society.  Thanks God and Mr. Peck.  Given what he said there, I guess I shouldn't have been surprised by his party's 2005 statement on domestic partnerships

Domestic partnerships are a way of destroying the Natural Family. The Natural Family is understood to be father, mother, children and sometimes extended family, a legal entity brought about by God-ordained marriage and the God-ordained method of reproduction or by adoption. It is the basic building block of any successful society. Civilizations that have built upon other foundations or allowed alternative lifestyles to pervade them, such as Rome or Greece, no longer exist as world powers.

The pope may argue the point about Rome not being a world power, but I won't get mired in details.  Only a theocratic bigot would spout off like that.  Now, I'm not at all surprised to hear proponents of Referendum 71 say such things, but thus far the Randall-Stickneys have tried to hold back outright vitriol.  Members of the local Constitution Party apparently don't feel such a need.  They seem to be more on the Fred Phelps-Westboro Baptist Church plane.  My prediction is that they will embarrass the Randall-Stickneys, who understand that you have to couch your bigotry in loving terms to be acceptable.

Now it's just a wild guess, but after reading the words of party members, something tells me that the 50 people comprising the Constitution Party of Washington State were already on board with the Randall-Stickneys.  It's just that these most fringiest of the fringe have packaged themselves into a "party" in order to look bigger and more popular than they really are.  As we have seen, however, they are neither big nor popular.  What they are is batshit crazy theocratic wingnuts that will scare the bejeezus out of the average voter.  I hope Gary and Larry get each and every member of their new Constitution Party family out there with a petition and a clipboard.  I can hear the babies crying already.

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Cross-posted at Pam's House Blend.