# Stupid Republican idea of the day **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [March 26, 2009, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897 "2009-03-26T18:48:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 608
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12141 "2013-12-19T14:06:48Z")
> [@Trinopus](#): > > That takes me back… It was the late sixties or early seventies… Rowan and Martin’s Laugh-In was a hit. They were telling “gay” jokes, and were using the name “Bruce” to indicate a male homosexual. “So, Bruce walks into a bar and asks for a Seymour Temple…” > > Someone wrote them a letter, which they read aloud on the air. The letter was from a man asking if they might re-think this. > > “My son,” the letter-writer said, “is named Bruce.” > > Laugh-In gets credit: they stopped. Interesting, thanks. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Bruce in question turned out to be gay? ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12142 "2013-12-19T14:45:18Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Interesting, thanks. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Bruce in question turned out to be gay? [And what happens when he gets angry?](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bruce_Banner#Bruce_Banner) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 2:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12143 "2013-12-19T14:59:17Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Interesting, thanks. Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Bruce in question turned out to be gay? [Or is at least doing his best to sound like he is?](http://thethoughtexperiment.wordpress.com/2009/12/02/daily-batman-batmans-heart-is-not-in-this-gay-thing/) ---
**Author:** ![Steve\_MB](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/steve_mb/32/5339_2.png) [@Steve\_MB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Steve_MB)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12144 "2013-12-19T15:05:01Z")
Bill O’Reilly defends Meghan Kelly on the “Santa Is White” thing… [with a picture of a dark-skinned St. Nicholas](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/17/1263384/-O-Reilly-Rides-to-Megyn-Kelly-s-Rescue-with-Picture-of-a-Dark-Skinned-Santa). ---
**Author:** ![Mollie\_Magill](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mollie_magill/32/20882_2.png) [@Mollie\_Magill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mollie_Magill)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12145 "2013-12-19T15:47:27Z")
Can we drop the tangent, and agree to call them all dumbasses? ---
**Author:** ![bup](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/6bbea6/32.png) [@bup](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bup)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12146 "2013-12-19T16:12:49Z")
> [@Steve\_MB](#): > > Bill O’Reilly defends Meghan Kelly on the “Santa Is White” thing… [with a picture of a dark-skinned St. Nicholas](http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/12/17/1263384/-O-Reilly-Rides-to-Megyn-Kelly-s-Rescue-with-Picture-of-a-Dark-Skinned-Santa). As Jon Stewart noted, too, if you want to call Turkish “white,” you still have to defend why it’s OK to say St. Nicholas lives at the North Pole, has flying reindeer, and visits the house of every good child on Christmas Eve, but it’s _not OK to change his race_. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12147 "2013-12-19T16:19:33Z")
> [@Mollie\_Magill](#): > > Can we drop the tangent, and agree to call them all dumbasses? Sounds good to me. ---
**Author:** ![Buck\_Godot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/buck_godot/32/6573_2.png) [@Buck\_Godot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Buck_Godot)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12148 "2013-12-19T16:27:15Z")
> [@SpoilerVirgin](#): > > I don’t know why I bother, because people who want to use a slur and argue for it will always just do it anyway, but there is a campaign by the developmentally disabled, their friends, relatives and advocates, to eliminate the use of [the r-word](http://www.r-word.org/) as an insult. I’m sorry you are bothered by the “r-word” and want to banish its use as an insult, but I don’t give a damn whether your bothered or not! When describing a brain dead, uselsess, drooling neanderthal idiot, **Republican** is the perfect word to use and I’m not going to stop just because it offends your delicate sensibilities. Oh, different r-word? I must be in the wrong thread. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 4:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12149 "2013-12-19T16:35:34Z")
> [@Buck\_Godot](#): > > I’m sorry you are bothered by the “r-word” and want to banish its use as an insult, but I don’t give a damn whether your bothered or not! > > When describing a brain dead, uselsess, drooling neanderthal idiot, **Republican** is the perfect word to use and I’m not going to stop just because it offends your delicate sensibilities. > > Oh, different r-word? I must be in the wrong thread. LOL - I’ll have to steal this joke. ---
**Author:** ![YogSothoth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/8edcca/32.png) [@YogSothoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/YogSothoth)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12150 "2013-12-19T17:46:52Z")
You’ve all heard about the Duck Dynasty star who was suspended by A&E from the show due to some vehement anti-gay slurs he used in a GQ interview? Well of course that brings out the usual suspects: Republicans who do not know how the Constitution works. Future leader of the [Stupid Party Bobby Jindal](http://nbcpolitics.nbcnews.com/_news/2013/12/19/21969918-louisiana-governor-defends-duck-dynasty-star?lite) expressed his dismay at the lack of First Amendment rights because a private TV channel decided to refuse to air a person that they think would harm their business interests. There’s a blurb in there about Sarah Palin doing the same, but we all knew her skull is filled with lemon jello so that’s not surprising. I feel that whenever something like this occurs, there must be some kind of Public Service Announcement clarifying what exactly the First Amendment is and how it applies. There are conservatives on this board who still don’t get that, I shudder to think what happens when they encounter an untied shoelace. “I don’t agree with quite a bit of stuff I read in magazine interviews or see on TV. In fact, come to think of it, I find a good bit of it offensive,” Jindal said. “But I also acknowledge that this is a free country and everyone is entitled to express their views. In fact, I remember when TV networks believed in the First Amendment. It is a messed up situation when Miley Cyrus gets a laugh, and Phil Robertson gets suspended.” Prominent Canadian clown Rafael (Ted) Cruz had this to say: "And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted on his Facebook page that Americans should be “deeply dismayed” about Robertson’s treatment. “Phil expressed his personal views and his own religious faith; for that, he was suspended from his job,” he said. “In a free society, anyone is free to disagree with him–but the mainstream media should not behave as the thought police censoring the views with which they disagree.” In a better, more fair universe, these two would be forced from their jobs and sent back to 8th grade social studies (and Sarah Palin would be euthanized for the good of mankind) where they learn that ONLY the government can violate your First Amendment rights. A private company such as A&E has NO obligation to run anything they don’t want to run. They are within their rights to suspend Duck Dynasty for whatever they say, however they say it, or whether the brass thinks their beards are too dirty. A&E can say they don’t want Christians, Muslims, or skateboarders on their shows and they have every right to do that. No rights are being violated here! Only when the government abuses its authority with arrests or similar behavior can a citizen even claim First Amendment violations. Fuck you Jindal and Cruz. Eat shit and fall off a tall building you lying, stupid, ignorant wastes of air. ---
**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12151 "2013-12-19T17:50:52Z")
Conservatives think it’s ok to fire someone from their job for being gay, but that it’s against “freedom of speech” to fire someone for saying hateful, bigoted, racist, homophobic things. They think taxation is wrong and the free market solves everything, but insist that people give conservatives money and they you hate freedom of speech if you refuse to go to their businesses. Fuck the hypocrites, I am so sick and tired of the constant bullshit that basically always boils down to “People who aren’t me deserve to suffer for my gain”. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12152 "2013-12-19T18:22:17Z")
It’s worth pointing out that Robertson wasn’t just fired because he said mean things about gay people. He also [implied that Jim Crow wasn’t so bad](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/12/18/duck_dynasty_s_phil_robertson_gets_suspended_for_anti_gay_tirade.html): > [@](#): > > I never, with my eyes, saw the mistreatment of any black person. Not once. Where we lived was all farmers. The blacks worked for the farmers. I hoed cotton with them. I’m with the blacks, because we’re white trash. We’re going across the field… They’re singing and happy. I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!.. Pre-entitlement, pre-welfare, you say: Were they happy? They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues. Somebody else pointed out on my Facebook page that A&E quietly reinstated _Dog the Bounty Hunter_ a few months after they suspended the show because he’d called his son’s girlfriend a nigger. ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12153 "2013-12-19T18:28:35Z")
“I never heard one of them, one black person, say, ‘I tell you what: These doggone white people’—not a word!” Because that could get you lynched? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12154 "2013-12-19T18:30:07Z")
> [@Karrius](#): > > Conservatives think it’s ok to fire someone from their job for being gay, but that it’s against “freedom of speech” to fire someone for saying hateful, bigoted, racist, homophobic things. > > They think taxation is wrong and the free market solves everything, but insist that people give conservatives money and they you hate freedom of speech if you refuse to go to their businesses. > > Fuck the hypocrites… Okay. But let’s not be hypocrites by saying that only conservatives can be hypocrites. (I’d say they’re hypocrites far more often than liberals, though). ---
**Author:** ![TonySinclair](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/49beb7/32.png) [@TonySinclair](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TonySinclair)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12155 "2013-12-19T18:31:20Z")
> [@YogSosoth](#): > > Prominent Canadian clown Rafael (Ted) Cruz had this to say: > > "And Texas Sen. Ted Cruz posted on his Facebook page that Americans should be “deeply dismayed” about Robertson’s treatment. > > “Phil expressed his personal views and his own religious faith; for that, he was suspended from his job,” he said. “In a free society, anyone is free to disagree with him–but the mainstream media should not behave as the thought police censoring the views with which they disagree.” > > In a better, more fair universe, these two would be forced from their jobs and sent back to 8th grade social studies (and Sarah Palin would be euthanized for the good of mankind) where they learn that ONLY the government can violate your First Amendment rights. A private company such as A&E has NO obligation to run anything they don’t want to run. They are within their rights to suspend Duck Dynasty for whatever they say, however they say it, or whether the brass thinks their beards are too dirty. A&E can say they don’t want Christians, Muslims, or skateboarders on their shows and they have every right to do that. No rights are being violated here! Only when the government abuses its authority with arrests or similar behavior can a citizen even claim First Amendment violations. > > Fuck you Jindal and Cruz. Eat shit and fall off a tall building you lying, stupid, ignorant wastes of air. I agree that Jindal and Cruz are clowns, and that what A&E chooses to air is not a First Amendment issue, but you’ve fallen far short of connecting the dots. Cruz didn’t even mention the First Amendment in the article you cited, and Jindal at most drew an analogy to it, but didn’t claim that A&E violated it. Worse, A&E absolutely does NOT have every right to say they don’t want Christians, Muslims, or skateboarders on their shows. There’s a huge difference between suspending someone for what he says very publicly and prominently in an arranged GQ interview, and suspending someone simply for being a Christian or Muslim. Tell me, do you agree with the wacky right-wingers who would allow any boss to deny any type of health insurance coverage to his employees, based on his own opinions of what is right or moral? ---
**Author:** ![Fear\_Itself](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fear_itself/32/19637_2.png) [@Fear\_Itself](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fear_Itself)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12156 "2013-12-19T18:40:37Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Tell me, do you agree with the wacky right-wingers who would allow any boss to deny any type of health insurance coverage to his employees, based on his own opinions of what is right or moral? I do not agree if such insurance is required by law. Employer provided health insurance is a form of compensation, not a gift. As compensation, the employer has no more right to decide how the employee may use that compensation than telling employees how to spend their wages. ---
**Author:** ![Karrius](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/71c47a/32.png) [@Karrius](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Karrius)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12157 "2013-12-19T18:55:16Z")
> [@lance\_strongarm](#): > > Okay. But let’s not be hypocrites by saying that only conservatives can be hypocrites. (I’d say they’re hypocrites far more often than liberals, though). My wording did not say that at all, and if you think it did, you may need your eyeglasses adjusted. ---
**Author:** ![Typo\_Negative](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/typo_negative/32/484_2.png) [@Typo\_Negative](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Typo_Negative)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12158 "2013-12-19T19:02:20Z")
> [@TonySinclair](#): > > Worse, A&E absolutely does NOT have every right to say they don’t want Christians, Muslims, or skateboarders on their shows. There’s a huge difference between suspending someone for what he says very publicly and prominently in an arranged GQ interview, and suspending someone simply for being a Christian or Muslim. But they are within their rights to deny them airtime or their own shows because they don’t think their viewers will tune in or that their advertisors will pull their support. From a business perspective, they kinda have to. The action is OK depending on their reasoning for taking it. Or am I missing something? ---
**Author:** ![lance\_strongarm](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/87869e/32.png) [@lance\_strongarm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/lance_strongarm)\ **Post date:** [December 19, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12159 "2013-12-19T19:09:49Z")
> [@Karrius](#): > > My wording did not say that at all, and if you think it did, you may need your eyeglasses adjusted. Didn’t mean to say you were saying that - just adding to your post. ---
**Author:** ![Manduck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/manduck/32/256_2.png) [@Manduck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Manduck)\ **Post date:** [December 20, 2013, 3:59am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897/12160 "2013-12-20T03:59:21Z")
> [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](#): > > It’s worth pointing out that Robertson wasn’t just fired because he said mean things about gay people. He also [implied that Jim Crow wasn’t so bad](http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2013/12/18/duck_dynasty_s_phil_robertson_gets_suspended_for_anti_gay_tirade.html): > > > [@](#): > > > > … They were godly; they were happy; no one was singing the blues. Hm, where did the blues come from, again? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=607) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stupid-republican-idea-of-the-day/490897.md?page=609)