Won’t someone please think of the bigots, homophobes, and racists?
As I wrote about last week, Michigan’s most (in)famous bigot, Dave Agema, has turned to grifting for cash. He held an “RNC update” in Grand Rapids that cost $50 to attend. According to MLive reporting “upwards of 50 people” showed up.
The most interesting thing about Agema’s fundraiser wasn’t that he pocketed “upwards” of $2,500 for spewing hatred to his following of true believers. It was that his event turned into a giant pity party for bigots like himself. Agema whined about how political correctness has tried to silence the bigotry and intolerance of small-minded extremists like him and his fellow bigots need to “turn up the volume” on their hate speech.
At a fundraiser rife with talk of righteousness and the intolerance of political correctness, Republican National Committeeman Dave Agema this morning asked supporters to raise the volume on their “conservative voice” that has riled several high-ranking GOP leaders. […]“There is a movement to silence the conservative voice in the GOP,” Agema said. “Your voices must be heard. Principles matter. When we deviate from our principles, we’re going to lose this country.
“(As a U.S. Air Force pilot) I was prepared to die to defend our Constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, and my opinion is we have domestic enemies at this present time. We’re starting to become what I used to fight against. […]
“This is going on through the United States. You’ve got a small minority of people who are basically shutting down freedom of speech because they speak the loudest, they holler the loudest,” Agema told MLive after the breakfast. “The easiest thing for me to do is just say, ‘I don’t need the hassle,’ because it doesn’t pay a dime. But all the support I have says, ‘Don’t give up, Dave. We put you in there for a reason. You’re supporting the grassroots and we want that voice heard at the RNC.’
For people like Agema, “conservative values” is simply code for intolerance, bigotry, racism, and misogyny. The pushback he’s receiving isn’t just from a tiny minority of people yelling the loudest. It’s coming from Democrats and Republicans. Liberals and conservatives. It’s literally coming at him from all sides and his response is to call these people “domestic enemies” that the military should hunt down. We should all feel sorry for the bigots, according to Agema; the poor, besieged, put-upon bigots. Now is the time for all bigots to come to the aid of their country and save it from those who practice love, tolerance, acceptance, and unity. It’s division, animosity, and hatred of “the other” that makes our country strong in Agema’s disgusting and perverted worldview.
Maraget Cho once said something that seems entirely apropos and ironically unironic in this context: “I’m just becoming so intolerant of intolerance!”
Word.
One more thing: according to the article, Agema thinks one of most important issues in America right now is “a foundational American philosophy that ‘our rights come from God and it’s the government’s job to protect those rights.'”
For someone who is a leader of a group of self-described patriots that nearly worship the Constitution and the Founding Fathers of our country, Agema’s desire to have America become a theocracy, run by religious zealots that conform to his view of the world is nothing short of un-American.
And THAT is as ironic as it is disturbing.
