Like for many conservatives, the Supreme Court’s recent liberty-crushing rampage was an incredibly difficult pill for me to swallow. Having to listen to the continuous parade of mainstream media pundits trot out their prized leftist activists to tell us all how common interpretations held by the public and the courts had been completely wrong for more than 200 years was nauseating to say the least.
At some point between the feelings of crippling despair and absolute frustration, I decided I’d start a petition that would be sent to many of the Republican presidential nominees with the message that conservatives absolutely will not support candidates who are unwilling to stand up to this rogue, out-of-control Supreme Court.
With only a small amount of promotion, the petition quickly earned more than 500 likes on Facebook and gained more than 100 signatures from people all across the country who are also tired of having their rights reduced by five (or six) judges who think the Constitution means whatever they say it does, legal precedence be damned.
Liberals who happened to stumble upon the petition—or my comments about the reaction I had received because of it and other articles I had written on the subject—reacted with incredible vitriol. Below are just some of the comments I received:
“You’re a bigot, stand up and own your belief.”
“Are you a Birther too? And perhaps a Bircher as well? And you support gay rights? Ask your fellow teabagger religious nuts and they will tell you what to do about it! Perhaps they can recommend some gay-supporter conversion therapy program for you!”
“Kiss my hairy gay ass and you all better pray to your Jesus for forgiveness.”
“As a member of the Tea Party, you have no room to cry about “hate.” The entire philosophy of the Tea Party is hate — hate the gays, hate the blacks, hate the liberals. The Tea Party is just the manifestation of the white supremacist poison that has infested our country for 150 years. That’s what the Tea Party is all about. Hate. … SMDH.”
“I won’t call you names, but, and I’m not proud of this, I absolutely DO hate you if you’re a tea party member and think you have done enormous damage to the U.S.”
What’s truly incredible about this isn’t that there are nasty people online willing to say almost anything to silence the pro-liberty movement; it’s that I have actually been a long-time supporter of gay rights.
My position has always been that the government has no business being involved in marriage, an intensely personal commitment, but if the government is going to regulate marriage, it should allow homosexual couples to get married as well. However, this is an issue clearly covered by the 10th Amendment, so states should make these determinations on their own. No group of justices should ever force their own view of marriage on societies that believe differently.
Many of the comments displayed above were said even after it had been pointed out that my position actually favors gay rights, which serves as further proof that the Left is totally off its rocker. If you don’t walk in lock-step with the everyone-is-a-bigot-except-us movement within the liberal camp, you should just “kill yourself,” as one liberal commenter told me.
Let’s face it, there are many conservatives who also preach bigotry, hatred, and even violence. This isn’t only a “liberal” problem, but in all the years I’ve attended Tea Party events, written in some of the largest and most prominent conservative media outlets, and worked with staunch social conservatives, I’ve never once heard anyone verbally assault and wish death on a person for taking the view that gay couples should have rights. Never. I’m willing to bet that even if you disagree with my position, you don’t hate me for it, as so many on the Left apparently hate me for simply saying the Supreme Court’s power grab was unjust.
The massive divide between conservatives and liberals is growing deeper each and every day, and if my recent experiences with liberals is any indication at all, things are not going to get better soon.
If the nation is ever going to unify despite all of its differences, it has to be with respect for one another and with a goal that we shouldn’t be forcing others to live the way we want. Rather than legislating morality, on one side or the other, let’s legislate liberty and let local communities decide how they want to operate without the unnecessary and unconstitutional intrusions of the federal government and the Supreme Court.
Justin Haskins (NewRevere@1791.com) is a pro-liberty author, blogger, and the editor-in-chief of the New Revere Daily Press. You can follow him @TheNewRevere.
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