TPM's Justin Elliott looks at the Nevada Republican's past party allegiance:
The far-right third party that Nevada GOP Senate candidate Sharron Angle called home in the 1990s supported abolishing "the debt money system" and ran a vitriolic anti-gay insert in state newspapers that portrays LGBT people -- or, as Angle's party called them, "sodomites" -- as child-molesting, HIV-carrying, Hell-bound freaks, according to documents obtained by TPM.As we reported earlier this month, Angle was a member of Nevada's Independent American Party, a Christian conservative-cum-libertarian third party, for at least six years while she was getting her feet wet in politics in the 1990s. Independent American Party members told us that Angle switched to be a Republican in 1997 out of political expediency as she was preparing to make a run for state-level office.
These aren't just "gaffes," as Jon Chait has pointed out, and so they're not akin to Harry Reid sticking his foot in his mouth from time to time (e.g., by referring to Obama as "light-skinned" and without a "Negro" dialect). "To the political journalist, a gaffe is any impolitic statement. But, of course, Sharron Angle hasn't committed "rhetorical screw-ups." She has made numerous expressions of a lunatic worldview." Indeed, as Chait put it elsewhere, "Angle's comments flow naturally from a right-wing ideology that regards taxation as theft and many commonly-accepted practices of government as the equivalent to Bolshevik expropriation of wealth, or at least unconstitutional." And from a right-wing ideology that embraces bigotry and hate.
Obviously, one is not necessarily required or expected to support every single one of one's party's views. You may not support the Democratic Party's position on X, but you may still be a Democrat who supports the party's positions on most other issues. But whereas the Democratic Party, and to a lesser extent the Republican Party, is an umbrella organization containing a number of different views, some of them at odds with each other (e.g., there are pro-choice Republicans), the IAP, the Nevada state affiliate of The Constitution Party, is a narrow, ideology-based party of the far right. It's hard to imagine anyone being a member but not supporting its key positions -- because such a party is all about those positions, positions that distinguish it from the two main (and mainstream) American parties.
It's one thing, after all, to be a Republican because you're generally conservative and because it just makes sense to support the generally conservative mainstream party. It's quite another to break from the two-party system and willfully embrace a right-wing extremist party. And that's what Sharron Angle did. She didn't commit a gaffe, she joined a party that reflected her craziness. She may not want to talk about her past, now that she's a big-time Republican in a prime-time Senate race, but she should absolutely be held to account for the views of her former party, for what she used to support and for what she may still support even after her expedient, convenient, and career-minded switch to the GOP.
This is the second installment of a new series over at my place. Should you be interested, Part 1 is here.
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in the media!! She's leading in the polls because he puts her down...just as Sue Lowden did!
Keep it up Harry.......Sharron doesn't care what you say about her. You are so unpopular that you are pathetic! You help her when you say she is crazy and right wing!! I remember your comment about the American people...you know the tourists? "You can literally smell the tourists that are coming to the capitol!" Sharron would never make a comment like this...in her life here on earth.
I know her personally. She is a retired teacher..Intelligent, grounded, steadfast, committed to helping Americans and seniors, warm, loving, a voice for Americans,,principled and a great friend.
He is on board for Sharron but Xenu is still in the tank for Harry.....and I really mean "In the tank" since Xenu is not by nature an oxygen breather and his skin must be constantly moistened by boric acid.
I remember the John Birch Society that most Republicans ran away from in the 60s....The GOP is today's JBS.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Narconon
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/06/10/sharron-angle-scientology_n_607690.html
Part 1) http://nemrits.com/gallery/pic/20100614155801
Part 2) http://nemrits.com/gallery/pic/20100615092406
"she should absolutely be held to account for the views of her former party, for what she used to support and for what she may still support". She's not crazy, she's dangerous...send her packing.
Two problems solved-we become energy independant and don't have to worry about the radioactive waste. Sharron is ok with us dumping everything there.
I hope we are stemming the tide.
The older I get, I think Hobbes was right about man in the state of nature, where life was "short brutish,nasty and mean. THAT's why we need a strong central government.
It is true. Why else would you then go on to defend it?
"a stationary band of thieves, that draw their tribute from taxation, and provide protection from outsiders is vastly superior to the alternative, roving bands of thieves that take what they can carry off, raping and pillaging along the way."
It is only superior if one is so bereft of imagination and morality and intelligence as to be unable to conceive of a land where crime is not allowed by stationary or mobile bands of thieves.
"The older I get, I think Hobbes was right about man in the state of nature, where life was "short brutish,nasty and mean. THAT's why we need a strong central government. "
Today often life is long, civilized, pleasant, and polite. Why would you want to have a strong central govt return us to the barbaric ways of the past?
totalitarian communism. It is a utopian ideology that ignores human nature. Libertarianism would quickly devolve into fudalism, with the strong and the crafty running roughshod over others.
"Sharron Angle is going to be a UNITED STATES Senator." should read
"Sharron Angle wants to be a UNITED STATES Senator."
Schools are indoctrination centers designed to manufacture useful idiots.
What other vital services do we need? War, of course we need war, how else can we efficiently murder those useful idiots for profit. Hmmm..what else? Oh yes, police to arrest the useful idiots who aren't quite useful enough...and spy agencies to keep tabs on those idiots.
From what I can see, Angle hates on old people for collecting Social Security but wants to love on prisoners with massages
I,honestly, don't get it! Maybe, you could help me out. What ideals of hers do you feel are worthy of my support? By the way, I am a liberal Christian who believes that people (all people including LGBT, elderly people, prisoners) should be our priority and should be treated with dignity and respect. If you disagree with that, we don't have a basis for any further discussion.