#ThatAwkwardMoment when Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott has a chance to denounce a pedophile, but thanks him for his endorsement instead
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) February 19, 2014
The news that Ted Nugent has endorsed Republican Greg Abbott for Governor of Texas comes as no great surprise. What, like he was going to endorse a Democrat and- even worse- a woman? No, the moral midget who once called Hillary Clinton a “worthless bitch” evidently hasn’t gotten the message that the new GOP is now female-friendly. Or something like that.
It’s like I care who Nugent endorses. Frankly, to use one of my father’s expressions, I wouldn’t piss on him if he was on fire. What Ted Nugent thinks or says is neither newsworthy nor of particular interest to me. I wouldn’t be crying the blues if he swallowed the business end of his AR-15. What does concern me is that the Republican nominee for Governor of Texas is openly embracing the endorsement of a certified wackjob. Ted Nugent is a crass, immoral pedophile and draft dodger who threatens the President with impunity and grossly insults anyone with the temerity to disagree with him. If Republicans are serious about reaching out beyond their traditionally Conservative White Christian base, they sure have a funny way of showing it.
What’s not so funny is that Greg Abbott, the Texas Attorney General who would climb any mountain and ford any river to protect Texas children from internet pornography, is willing to campaign with an avowed serial pedophile:
Greg Abbott’s campaign has become the symbol of what’s wrong with today’s Republican Party.
Republicans have allowed themselves to be bullied into submission by the loud, obnoxious, racist minority that is the Tea Party. In caving in to the demands of those for whom compromise, reason, and negotiation are acts of treason, the GOP has become the party of intolerance, inflexibility, and racism. They claim to be Conservative while having no knowledge of what classical Conservatism is. To wit: Conservatism isn’t refusing policy initiatives that might hand the President even the barest hint of victory. It’s not insisting that the President isn’t an American because his birth certificate is a forgery. Hawaiian officials have long since confirmed the authenticity of the President’s birth certificate, but evidently that isn’t enough to slake the fury of those who hate The Black Guy in the White House ©.
Why is it that so many have a problem with the circumstances of Barack Obama’s birth? The veracity of his birth certificate has been repeatedly confirmed, and yet so many still consider him “illegitimate” and “foreign born.” What no one on the Far Right seemed to have a problem with was that Sen. John McCain was born in the Panama Canal Zone. If the Constitution requires a President to be a “natural born” American, McCain was arguably ineligible to occupy the highest office in the land. Yet he ran in 2008 and NO ONE on the Right raised a note of protest. Ted Cruz was born in Canada, and yet many on the Right are trumpeting him as a legitimate President contender in 2016. Which leaves one to wonder if it’s that the President (GASP!! OMG!!) isn’t White.
What is it that could disqualify Barack Obama from being President and yet not pose a barrier to Cruz or McCain? I’ve tried to come up with an answer that doesn’t contain the word “race,” but I’ve found it impossible. One (African-American) man, born in the U.S., is an illegitimate President, while two (White) men born outside the U.S. are considered eligible? I’m open to other perspectives, but the more I think about it, the more I keep returning to racism. There’s simply no way around it.
It’s sad, really. Here we are in the 21st century, and there are still a significant number of Americans who can’t stomach the idea of a Black man in the White House. They’ll protest that they’re not racists, and that their opposition to the President isn’t about race. OK…tell me what your problem is- and no, you can’t use “The President is abusing the Constitution,” or “The President is a Socialist,” or any of the other highly emotional, completely unsupportable argument so common on the Far Right. I want facts.
I know. I’m going to be waiting awhile…a good, long while.
#throwbackthursday Before he became @GregAbbott_TX's new BFF, @TedNugent was a proud self-shitting pedophile #tbt http://t.co/KHe7LzJSb5
— The Daily Edge (@TheDailyEdge) February 20, 2014
Anyway, back to Ted Nugent…much as I despise virtually everything he stands for. If you’re a candidate for elected office, and you eagerly accept Nugent’s endorsement, what you’re telling those you’re trying to appeal to is that you’re OK with racism, misogyny, and homophobia. That would be a problem in most states, but we’re talking about the Lone Star State; most Texans would vote for a ham sandwich if it had an “R” behind its name and wasn’t female.
There’s a larger message evident in Abbott’s willingness to embrace Nugent and what he stands for. It’s that Abbott really doesn’t care about perceptions. He doesn’t care that Nugent is a pedophile who deliberately soiled himself in order to avoid serving in the military during the Vietnam War. No, the ONLY thing Abbott cares about is that Ted Nugent is a passionate defender of the 2nd Amendment. He knows that the best way to convince Texans to vote for him is to scare them into thinking that Wendy Davis and her fellow liberty- and freedom-hating Democrats want to take away their guns. If Abbott can convince Texans that their sacred 2nd Amendment will be threatened by Davis, he wins.
The strategy of the Abbott campaign is simple: divide and conquer combined with God and guns. Texans who want to hear an honest debate about the issues are going to be (once again) sorely disappointed. Reasoned, rational debate has little place in Texas politics, not when Republicans in the Lone Star State have long campaigned on the Holy Trinity: God, Guns, and Gays. That’s not a message designed to unite. It’s designed to divide, alienate, and instill fear of The Other. Republicans don’t win in Texas by addressing issues; they win by perpetuating the mythology that they’re godly defenders of all that’s Good and Holy. John Cornyn’s “Big John” ad was devoid of substance, but it succeeded because it fed into Texans’ collective love of their self-created mythology.
Greg Abbott may care deeply about issues that impact the lives of Texans…but you’d never know it by the tone and tenor of his campaign. It seems clear that he’s all and only about winning. If it takes hitting the campaign trail with a self-soiling serial pedophile, then that’s what he’ll do. Nugent meets the two criteria Greg Abbott can use to his advantage: he’s Conservative and a passionate defender of a sick, twisted version of the sacred and inviolable 2nd Amendment.
Congratulations, Texas. This is what you get when you can’t be bothered to pay attention.
