Morons with Microphones

U.S. Representative Steve King (R-Iowa) speaking on a conservative radio talk show earlier this week:

If there’s a push for a socialist society where the foundations of individual rights and liberties are undermined and everybody is thrown together living collectively off one pot of resources earned by everyone, this is one of the goals they have to go to, same-sex marriage, because it has to plow through marriage in order to get to their goal. They want public affirmation, they want access to public funds and resources.

Let me get this straight: same-sex marriage leads to socialism? Ergo, because American liberals and others favor giving gays and lesbians equal access to the historical institution of marriage, they must want to turn the United States into a socialist nation?

I don’t remember the last time I heard anything quite so idiotic.

Former conservative writer Andrew Sullivan has more to say on this matter at the Atlantic Monthly Web site:

Socialist?

You realize that King must have no understanding of the word, or that the word has now become synonymous in Foxland with “anything that scares me.” How on earth is allowing 2 percent of people the right to marry the person they love a path to redistribution of wealth or government ownership of the means of production? Marriage is an institution that helps people be independent of the state. If one spouse gets sick, it is his or her spouse’s first responsibility to care for him or her. Without the spouse, the government would have to step in. Marriage encourages responsibility, long-term commitment, and leads to better health. All of that too helps people remain independent of the state. In fact every single argument that social conservatives make about marriage for straights--and rightly so--also applies to marriage for gays.

Republican’ts seem willing to mislead their constituents and tell any lie in order to regain power and keep the United States from embracing progressive change. Shameful.