After marriage equality ruling, conservative leader plays the victim card

Wow, who could’ve seen that coming, huh?

Steve Benen: The Heritage Foundation’s Jim DeMint published a daily essay this morning on marriage equality, which struck me as … what’s the word I’m looking for … hilarious.

The crux of the piece is that opponents of equal rights for all Americans “deserve to be treated with dignity" — the classic “be tolerant of my intolerance" sort of schtick. Consider this gem:

[The Supreme Court’s ruling on the Defense of Marriage Act] denies dignity to the millions of Americans and their elected officials who have voted to pass laws that tell the truth about marriage.

I’ve read that sentence several times, trying to make sense of it, but I’m at a bit of a loss. In fact, I’m not sure if DeMint even knows what “dignity" means, exactly. The former senator seems to be arguing that the nation has a choice: we can extend basic human decency to all Americans and eliminate the need for second-class citizenship or we can make proponents of discrimination feel good about themselves. We’re apparently supposed to endorse the latter.

Benen has more, but the point I want to make is that — no matter what the issue — Republicans are always the victims. DeMint has no legitimate argument to make, so he lays down the well-worn conservative victim card.

But DeMint’s op-ed isn’t meant to change anyone’s mind about marriage rights. What it’s meant to do is solidify the base who dearly cherish their own victimhood. Always outraged, always convinced that America is beset by enemies from within and without, always certain they’re the heroes in their little drama-queen narratives, the rightwing Tea Party base loves nothing more than to be told that they’re being disrespected/deprived of their rights/attacked by forces that only Republicans are capable of resisting.

Jim DeMint’s sad defense of institutional homophobia may be hilarious, but it’s also calculated to anger the Republican base with their imaginary status as perpetual victims.

Heritage Foundation’s downward trajectory

The last we heard from the rightwing Heritage Foundation, they were nursing a self-inflicted credibility wound after releasing a BS report on the cost of immigration reform — a report written in part by an anti-Latino racist. Now they’re back, this time with economist Selim Furth testifying before a Senate committee on the restorative wonders of austerity.

The problem wasn’t that the testimony was bullshit, the problem was that it was such obvious bullshit that it would never convince anyone in a million years. He cherrypicked numbers and left out others — in short, outright lying to support his case.

Steve Benen: …Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) pointed during the hearing that Furth’s claims about [Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development] numbers are largely the opposite of the figures from the OECD itself.

“I am concerned that your testimony to this committee has been meretricious,” Whitehouse told Furth. “I am contesting whether you have given us fair and accurate information.”

For a Senate Budget Committee hearing, that’s pretty tough language. Indeed, the senator was effectively accusing an economist from the nation’s preeminent conservative think tank of presenting deliberately misleading information on an important issue.

Which leads Paul Krugman to wonder if Heritage has finally just jumped the shark entirely:

One does wonder, by the way, whether Heritage may at this point be destroying its own usefulness. Its purpose was never to do real research; it was always a propaganda arm of the movement. But it was supposed to create a plausible illusion of intellectual rigor, good enough to take in gullible journalists.

But is there anyone not a committed right-winger who, at this point, believes anything coming out of Heritage? And in that case, what’s the Foundation for?

That’s a good question. Heritage is a bullshit factory; the propaganda shop for the far right in America. But is propaganda worth anything when it’s such obvious lies that no one could ever believe it? At this point, they’re pretty much just crazy-assed talk radio dressed up nicer. Limbuagh, Hannity, Beck, etc. don’t convince anyone, all they do is rile up the base and get them to the polls. But that base is becoming too small to make the difference and are mattering less and less every cycle. Talk radio is a steadily declining influence in American politics and Heritage is right behind it.

How about that visionary leadership from Heritage leader and former Sen. Jim DeMint, huh? Everything started to come apart over there after he signed on.

Say what you like about Jim DeMint, but he sure knows how to get a plane to the ground in a big hurry.

[photo via Wikimedia Commons]

Making the Impossible Impossibler

This is interesting. It turns out that Mitch McConnell can force a vote on healthcare reform repeal, but only by making what's already nearly impossible more impossible.

The Atlantic:

While the health care repeal that the House passed Wednesday has little chance of passage in the Senate, Republicans will probably succeed in eventually forcing a vote on the measure -- albeit with at least a 60-vote threshold.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., who controls the Senate floor schedule, has said he will not bring the repeal up. But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., pledged to force consideration of the bill.

[...]

Republican aides noted they can force a vote by offering the repeal as an amendment, or by using the Senate's Rule 14 process to bring the bill to the floor, then filing cloture on it. The easiest course for the GOP might be to try to force a vote on the repeal as an amendment to a bill that's likely to pass, such as an appropriations measure. Reid can block amendments to bills, but Republicans could then force a vote on a motion to suspend the rules to take up the amendment. They would need 67 votes to win such a vote. Any other course would require 60 votes. (The conservative Heritage Foundation has more onhow Republicans could arrange a vote).

Teabagger theater may get even more theatrical. Maybe now would be a nice time to give up on pipedreams and do something crazy -- like govern.

But we both know that's not going to happen.