Sen Tom Cotton of Arkansas, pictured here with ‘eyes wide shut’ is best known for drafting a treasonous letter to Iran during a time when the President was in negotiations with that country, advising Iran that the President of the United States was not to be trusted. Naturally he is the go-to guy for commentary on the controversial Religious intolerance law, now in question in Indiana, and being bounced out of Arkansas.
Wolf Blitzer asked Cotton about the Arkansas version of the law, which was vetoed after the backlash in Indiana.
Cotton replied with the worn and trusty comment: “We believe in religious freedom in Indiana.” Blitzer countered,”everyone believes in religious freedom.”
Was Cotton’s remark a slam against Arkansas Gov Asa Hutchinson? Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, backed away from the bill gladly, after his son Seth – who has a good head on his shoulders, expressed his disapproval of the bill, which gave dad a great ‘out.’ I suspect that Seth got a raise in his allowance this week.
Cotton went on to cite a false equivalency, in the Religious Freedom Restoration Act that was signed into law by Bill Clinton in 1993. Cotton neglected to mention that it was a very different law, which did not apply to gay marriage (which was not legal yet) but assured the right of Native Americans to use peyote in religious ceremonies. Also important, the law only applied to government, and had nothing to do with private businesses. This is a point which often escapes advocates of the new, more restrictive bills.
Here is the kicker. Cotton said, “I think it’s important we have a sense of perspective about our priorities. In Iran they hang you for the crime of being gay. They’re currently imprisoning an American preacher for spreading the gospel of Jesus Christ in Iran.”
1. I gather that gays and lesbians should feel lucky.Any abuse and mistreatment is better than hanging! I say that fully realizing that hate crimes have been and are perpetrated upon gay and lesbian people in the U.S.Tom Cotton seems to think it’s nothing to whine about. Additionally, adulterers who are often stoned in other countries, thieves who pay with their lives or limbs, and even women who talk back to men – should feel privileged to live in this great country.
2. Cotton does think it’s a very big deal that the Iranians don’t recognize the special gift sent to them in the guise of a proselytizing preacher.
In other words, stop focusing on Indiana, Arkansas and start worrying about scary Iran, while we vote these laws in!
According to this bigoted Republican traitor, racism, intolerance and bigotry should be protected by the United States government as long as there are places in the world that are worse.
As you can well imagine gay activist, Dan Savage had a response to the Republican dim bulb from Arkansas.
Dan Savage appeared on MSNBC with Alex Wagner to address the so-called religious freedom laws.
When the comments by Tom Cotton came up about ‘perspective’ Savage noted that many LGBT Americans are working on those issues, but took some well deserved shots at Cotton and his ‘bigot blender brain.’
“The hypocrisy of people like Tom Cotton, who wants America to get credit for being better on gay issues but will point to how bad it is elsewhere to justify making it worse here, how do you rationalize that except through some bigot blender brain.”