Alabama political "leaders" should "just say no" to social media.
Here’s the joke: “how many days since Alabama has been a laughingstock in the news? ZERO.” Unfortunately, the easy access of Alabama political leaders to social media and other outlets is really bad for the state’s image.
Last week, we had one story go national when State Rep. Alan Harper urged us all to avoid patronizing stores owned by non-Christians. About the best thing I can say about that is that he switched parties (Democratic to Republican) several years ago — so he’s their problem.
But this week brought a whole new crop of crazy.
First, it was Covington County District Attorney Walt Merrell, calling for Attorney General Loretta Lynch to be tried for treason.
Keep in mind that this guy is, presumably, a licensed attorney with at least a passing familiarity with the Constitution.
Let’s look at the irony here: Merrell is calling for Lynch to be tried for treason because of something she said during a speech at the same time he’s whining about his own “free speech” rights. It appears that he really means that he’s only interested in protecting speech that he agrees with.
Furthermore, he doesn’t even have Lynch’s quote right. As Media Matters reported, the right wing predictably went into full poutrage mode after the US Attorney General gave a speech to a group of Muslims who, not surprisingly, are worried about being targeted by unstable Fox News fans.
In her speech, Lynch said this:
“When we talk about the First amendment we [must] make it clear that actions predicated on violent talk are not American. They are not who we are, they are not what we do, and they will be prosecuted.”
“My message not just to the Muslim community but to all Americans is ‘We cannot give in to the fear that these backlashes are really based on,’” Lynch said.
It’s clear that Lynch isn’t threatening to prosecute anyone who criticizes Muslims or conflates Islam with violence. Ranting that a “Muslim shouldn’t be president” or “don’t buy from non-Christians,” or that Islam is our “nation’s enemy” is tacky (and a sure-fire vote-getter in some districts), but not illegal.
And then Alabama Governor Robert Bentley just had to jump on the anti-Muslim, anti-Obama bandwagon. He weighed in on President Obama’s Sunday night address to the nation with a statement that could have been written even before he heard the speech:
Although five days later, President Obama finally acknowledged last week’s attack in California as one of terror, which many of us already suspected. Beyond that, I was disappointed in the President’s lack of strategy, vision or resolve to strike, stop and stymy the evil forces that are bent on destroying our great nation.
Bentley’s statement is a strong criticism from a Governor whose party can’t balance the state budgets without borrowing money, can’t get their work done during a single regular session, can’t pass legislation without paying millions in unnecessary legal fees, and can’t keep top officials off the indictment list.
But hey… it gets him on the front pages.
I know a lot of DKos folks will chortle that Alabama deserves it — and some of us do. But keep in mind that we do have a sizable number of progressives who live here and are committed to fighting what seems to be a losing battle. And we’re working on something that has to be the worst volunteer job EVER.
Note…. some of this text has been cross-posted from LeftInAlabama.com. But the crazy has been at such a high pitch, I thought it merited a meta post here at DKos.
