Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Jeb Bush To Deliver Commencement Address at Anti-Gay Liberty University


As noted in the prior post, besides the albatross of his brother, Jebbie Bush has the additional problem that the Christofascists largely do not like him.  Since this deranged demographic holds undue sway in early GOP primaries, Jebbie seems to be doing all he can to prostitute himself to these extremists.  How else to explain Bush's decision to give the commencement address at Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, a true blight on not only the City of Lynchburg, Virginia, but the Commonwealth of Virginia as a whole.   The New Civil Rights Movement looks at Jebbie's self prostitution.  Here are highlights:
Liberty University was founded by Jerry Falwell, a televangelist who has been dubbed "the founder of the anti-gay industry." It was Falwell who delivered possibly the most hateful remarks about the September 11 terror attacks ever. "I really believe that the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle, the ACLU, People For the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America.

Falwell also claimed that "AIDS is not just God's punishment for homosexuals, it is God's punishment for the society that tolerates homosexuals."

Ted Cruz last month announced his run for the White House at Liberty University, and other famous anti-gay Republican politicians like Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, Mitt Romney, and Bobby Jindal have all spoken there.

So perhaps it's no surprise that former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will be delivering the commencement keynote address at Liberty University next month.

Bush has been framed, however wrongly, as more of a moderate than most of the announced or likely to announce Republican field. Speaking at Liberty may help him win over some of the anti-gay religious right.

The University is strongly linked to Liberty Counsel, an anti-gay hate group and legal firm that has tried (and lost) several same-sex marriage and LGBT civil rights cases. Liberty University's former Dean is Mat Staver, who is the head of Liberty Counsel. Right Wing Watch notes Staver "has repeatedly called for a 'revolution' to protest gay equality and warned that gay rights laws will increase violent crime, kill people, lead to 'forced homosexuality,' and eventually destroy America and western civilization."

Gov. Bush, who has yet to formally announce his candidacy, will deliver his remarks on the morning of May 9.
Speaking at Liberty is the ultimate proof that Bush will stoop extremely low to win over the Christofascist vote.  Hopefully, sane, rational Americans are watching ans shaking their heads in disgust.

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