Gay marriage is now the law in America — and a lot of right wingers are very angry.
Any talk of right-wing trolling must, of course, begin with Justice Antonin Scalia — who in his dissent called the decision a “judicial Putsch.” The German word “putsch” means a violent overthrow of the government — and is often associated in the popular consciousness with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party’s failed “Beer Hall Putsch” attempt of 1923.
There is even a presidential candidate, Mike Huckabee (R-AR), who posted a statement that may remind readers of vows by an earlier generation of anti-civil rights reactionaries — calling upon people to refuse to accept this ruling by the Supreme Court:
The Supreme Court has spoken with a very divided voice on something only the Supreme Being can do—redefine marriage. I will not acquiesce to an imperial court any more than our Founders acquiesced to an imperial British monarch. We must resist and reject judicial tyranny, not retreat.
This ruling is not about marriage equality, it’s about marriage redefinition. This irrational, unconstitutional rejection of the expressed will of the people in over 30 states will prove to be one of the court’s most disastrous decisions, and they have had many. The only outcome worse than this flawed, failed decision would be for the President and Congress, two co-equal branches of government, to surrender in the face of this out-of-control act of unconstitutional, judicial tyranny.
Though oddly enough, Huckabee never actually says what should be done to “resist and reject” the decision.
Another GOP presidential candidate, Bobby Jindal, had an apparently half-joking idea of his own: Get rid of the Supreme Court — and nobody can change marriage, either!
“Marriage between a man and a woman was established by God, and no earthly court can alter that,” Jindal said in a statement, the Baton Rouge Advocate reports.
The paper reports that Jindal also said in a speech Friday in Iowa: “The Supreme Court is completely out of control, making laws on their own, and has become a public-opinion poll instead of a judicial body. If we want to save some money, let’s just get rid of the court.”
The professional religious-right movement is also crying out in anger.
Evangelist Franklin Graham appeared in an online interview for Fox News to warn that America is in serious danger of facing the wrath of God.
“Our nation has a spiritual problem. And we need God’s forgiveness; we need to repent of our sins, and turn from our sins,” said Graham. “Because I do believe that God’s judgment will come on this nation. When we read in the Scripture, we see how God judged Israel, time and time again, when they would turn their back on Him and begin to worship other gods — foreign gods — and God would bring judgment on Israel. And I believe God could bring judgment on America.”
But the man who really upped the ante was Bryan Fischer, talk-radio host for the anti-gay hate group, the American Family Association. He penned an essay that goes from one apocalyptic statement to another — starting with an invocation of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001.
From a moral standpoint, 6/26 has become our 9/11.
On this day, June 26, 2015, five justices of the Supreme Court became moral jihadists who blasted the twin pillars of truth and righteousness into rubble. They did this by imposing sodomy-based marriage on the United States through an act of judicial tyranny.
We the people have ceased to be our own rulers and are now serfs on a plantation run by cultural elites wearing black robes who use their gavels like the slaveholders of old used whips, to lash uppity social conservatives into abject submission.
June 26, 2015, is a date which will live in infamy.
It is a day on which behavior which is an abomination in the eyes of a holy God was normalized, promoted, celebrated and imposed on a nation built on the foundation of the Judeo-Christian tradition. On this day, the United States become Sodom and Gomorrah.
On June 26, 2015, I saw Satan dancing with delight. For this is the day the music died in the United States of America.
And Fischer just keeps going from there — and going, and going, and going.
But to his credit (or not), Fischer actually does propose a way forward for opponents of marriage equality — defiance by government officials, also a familiar tactic from past generations: “So the great need of the hour is for a principled and courageous governor to uphold his oath of office by issuing an order that no same-sex marriage licenses will be issued in his state.”
Rush Limbaugh had to weigh in, too, from his perch on the talk-radio circuit.
I think in the case of this gay marriage decision today, the answer to this sadly is not going to be found in politics or policy, because the problems — the truth — go way beyond that. I think we’re dealing with a culture that is under assault, and is deteriorating rapidly. And the truth is all this transcends the Constitution. I think there is a spiritual war going on, where truth is no longer truth — there is no objective truth. Everything is relative now — particularly morally.
Note: Rush Limbaugh is currently on his fourth marriage — though every single one of them has been with a woman.
And Fox News legal analyst Arthur Aidala apparently reached back to question all the other past landmark civil rights rulings from the Supreme Court, like Loving v. Virginia, which struck down laws against interracial marriage — and even doubted whether the Supreme Court should’ve acted in the school desegregation case of Brown v. Board of Education.
