It would be nearly impossible for any American with a brain to dispute that the GOP appeals to, and depends on, its racist, hyper-religious, and hate-inspired base to stay in power. Now, it is apparently official that the Republican National Committee is closely-aligned with an official hate group according reports the RNC is accepting an all-expenses paid trip to Israel despite rightful criticism from the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC) and an Israeli newspaper.
The hate group, the American Family Association (AFA), spews hateful bigotry as a matter of course and has come under intense criticism this week for sponsoring an all-expenses paid trip to Israel for about 60 RNC members while hate monger Bryan Fischer is its official spokesman. Fischer was “allegedly” relieved of that position, but he still maintains an important post as the voice of the hate group with a popular daily radio program and blog on the AFA website.
The primary issue surrounding Fischer’s alleged “dismissal” is his history of vile hate speech that inspired the SPLC to write a letter to all 168 members of the RNC urging them not to accompany a known anti-Semitic hate group (AFA) to the so-called Holy Land. However, it is not just Fischer who has a propensity for spreading hate toward anyone who is not a racist, homophobe, and anti-Semitic evangelical fanatic. SPLC president Richard Cohen made it a point to note that other AFA officials, including its current president Tim Wildmon, and its founder Don Wildmon, regularly “make statements reflecting the organization’s narrow-minded bigotry;” bigotry that represents the mindset of a preponderance of the Republicans’ voting base.
To cover its tracks and still maintain its close relationship with the Republican establishment, the highly-religious hate group claimed that Bryan Fischer was terminated as the AFA’s spokesperson; not out of sincere disgust, but “to give AFA a degree of plausible deniability while it continues to spew hateful rhetoric as part of its special relationship the Republican National Committee.” The SPLC named AFA a hate group due to its long track record of making false, anti-Semitic, and demonizing statements about the LGBT community including Fischer’s assertion that gay men were responsible for the Holocaust.
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In a letter to the AFA denouncing the phony “termination” of Fischer’s association with the AFA, SPLC President Cohen wrote that “it’s difficult to see the AFA’s disavowal as anything other than an effort to quell the negative press attention you’re receiving in connection with your sponsorship of an “all-expenses-paid trip to Israel for members of the Republican National Committee.” Cohen was even more pointed in criticizing the hate group’s motivation writing that, “The fact that the AFA is continuing to allow Mr. Fischer to host a daily radio show and blog on its website also makes us question the AFA’s sincerity. Sponsoring Mr. Fischer’s racism, anti-Semitism, and hatred of the Muslim and the LGBT communities in the name of ‘diversity’ says as much.”
SPLC President Cohen said, “Without ending Mr. Fischer’s talk show, without apologizing for the bigoted statements that he, Mr. Wildmon, and others associated with the AFA have made, and without making it crystal clear that the AFA will not tolerate any such statements in the future, the AFA’s 11th-hour disavowal of Mr. Fischer appears to serve only one purpose: it’s a shell game and a transparent one at that.”
It is also glaringly transparent that the Republican National Committee is closely aligned with the religious right hate group and it is not surprising Republicans have no issue with accepting an all-expenses paid trip to Israel from an organization affiliated with anti-Semitism. Speaking of Israel, they are not enamored with the idea of “evangelical political operatives planning a 9-day freebie trip for national Republican committee members on behalf of the conservative Christian hate group.” Particularly now that there is outrage among Israelis, including an avid pro-Netanyahu newspaper, for the prime minister’s “special relationship” with the Republicans in Congress and going behind President Obama’s back to address a joint session of Congress at the behest of Republicans who embrace the hate group.
A popular Israeli columnist, Dan Margalit, with the “strongly pro-Netanyahu” newspaper Hayon, criticized Netanyahu’s planned address to the Republican Congress and said, “I believe that this trip is grievous. I believe that this trip is cynical. I believe that this trip is not being taken for the sake of the interests of the state of Israel, rather for the needs of Benjamin Netanyahu and for the Likud election campaign.”
Margalit also said that Netanyahu conspiring with Republicans and going behind Barack Obama’s back was a move that was nothing short of “pasul,” Pasul means something abjectly unseemly, unfit, unacceptable, and defective. He also said that aligning closely with Republicans is causing a “rift with the Democratic Party which are very important to us. This is unacceptable behavior. Things like this must not be done.” It is highly likely that Israelis regard an anti-Semitic evangelical group funding the RNC’s all-expenses paid trip to Israel as “something abjectly unacceptable” as well according to an article in the Israeli newspaper “Haaretz.”
The Haaretz article cited just a sampling of some of Fischer’s hate mongering in connection with the “evangelical hate group AFA that is funding” all expenses for an impending visit from 60 members of the Republican National Committee. The trip is actually being funded by a subsidiary of the AFA, the American Renewal Project (ARP), which is actively recruiting 1,000 hardline Christian preachers to run for office in 2016. According to the Haaretz article, the ARP and AFA’s primary goal is “re-establishing a Christian culture in America” because they believe and claim that “America was founded by Christians for the glory of God and the Christian faith” with no room for other religions; something that certainly warmed the hearts of Israelis and American Jews.
One imagines that Benjamin Netanyahu believed that aligning with hateful Republicans would play well to the Israeli and American people alike, but he has made a serious error typical of men suffering hubris and over-inflated egos. Israelis are not stupid, or ignorant, like American conservatives and are aware of the American Family Association, and Bryan Fischer’s record of bigotry towards anyone who is not entrenched in evangelical extremism, racism, bigotry, and anti-Semitism. Of course Republicans are happy for the support, and the all-expenses paid 9-day trip to Israel from an evangelical hate group that shares and promotes their core bigoted bible-based beliefs. However, it is likely they will not get the warm welcome they expect because Israelis now understand their visit is completely funded by an anti-Semitic “Christians only” group whose only regard for Israel is provoking a substantial conflict in the Middle East to bring about the war of Armageddon and end of the world.
Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.
Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn’t look good.
Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.
