It’s a real crazy assortment of personalities dotting the Republican political landscape and it is not easy to say one is crazier than another, but Rep. Trent Franks, who once called Obama, “an enemy of humanity,” stands above all others.
Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ) spoke in September 2009 at the How To Take Back America Conference (other speakers included luminaries like Gov. Mike Huckabee, “Joe the Plumber,” U.S. Reps. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., Steve King, R-Iowa, Tom McClintock, R-Calif., Dr. Tom Price, R-Ga., and Three-Star Gen. Jerry Boykin – who was one of those who proclaimed that George W. Bush was not elected but chosen by God to be president).
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Mr. Franks, not to be outdone in degree of bombast, called President Obama an “enemy of humanity.”
We might say “Wow” to this but if you stop to think about it, as far as Republican rhetoric goes, it was not all that out of the ordinary. Michele Bachmann, after all, wanted members of Congress investigated for being anti-American and accused President Obama of falling into that category. And we have Lt. Colonel Terrence Lakin under court-martial for saying he didn’t have to obey his commander-in-chief’s orders because he’s not legally president.
Lakin really doesn’t want to go to Afghanistan, I guess, and perhaps forgot that it was President Bush, a Republican, who sent our forces there in 2001.
But let’s get down to brass tacks: Bachmann later claimed her words were an “urban legend” but Mr. Franks didn’t say the words didn’t come out of his mouth. Instead, he claimed they were misinterpreted. His spokesman later claimed that what he meant was that Obama, because of his abortion views, was an enemy of “unborn humanity.”
I’m guessing though that we heard him right the first time if we are to trust his latest hysterical outburst. Yes, you probably have this one figured out already. “President Obama is the greatest threat to the United States Constitution — and one the nation’s worst enemies.”
According to Mr. Franks, our enemy is within our own borders, not outside. I think most of us on the left would agree, and I think Mr. Franks is walking evidence of that. As he puts it, “It’s always the water on the inside of the ship that’s sinks it,” he says. “And Barack Obama, I have to tell you, is water on the inside of the ship of America.”
Mr. Franks, who introduced (and lost) a 1992 constitutional amendment to ban abortions in Arizona, later served as a consultant on Pat Buchanan’s presidential campaign and as president of Liberty Petroleum Corporation. He is also opposed to same sex marriage and is a global warming skeptic. All in all, an unsurprising resume for a modern Republican. Unsurprisingly, the National Journal ranked him among the “most conservative” members of the U.S. House of Representatives in 2009.
Oh, and he’s an Islamophobe too and doesn’t believe Muslims should have any role in the American political process.
And last but not least, he believes that blacks were better off as slaves than they are today: “Far more of the African American community is being devastated by the policies of today than were being devastated by the policies of slavery.”
Really, Mr. Franks?
It’s hard to know what to say sometimes. It’s hard to understand how people can rally around such conservative radicalism and offer a sage nod of agreement.
It’s enough to strip sagacity of all meaning.
Sadly, Mr. Franks is all too typical of today’s Republican politicians, being against almost anything you care to name, including our president.
Naturally, he isn’t behind the Kagan nomination to the Supreme Court. It’s hard to understand how a Jewish woman can threatened GOP’s coveted Judeo-Christian worldview, but Mr. Franks find it within himself to utter this gem: “I don’t know if there’s anything happening in America that is more dangerous to the foundation of the republic than appointments by Barack Obama to the bench,” he laments.
It’s a real crazy assortment of personalities dotting the Republican political landscape and it is not easy to say one is crazier than another. They seem to want to outdo each other with regards to the extremity of their rhetoric. I suppose all we can do is sit back and take notes and make certain everyone is aware – as Harry Reid’s campaign has done in Nevada – of all the crazy talk so that when time comes to vote in November, everybody is quite clear on who has outted themselves as unfit to hold public office in a modern liberal democracy.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
