As I mentioned yesterday, every Tuesday Steve Deace has a discussion with Michael Peroutka, the 2004 Constitution Party candidate, on constitutional issues. While People of the American Way jumped on Peroutka's claim that local officials can disregard Roe v. Wade and arrest women for murder if they have an abortion, he made an even more chilling argument that PFAW didn't notice. During the first segment of Tuesday's show, Peroutka claimed that courts can't make law--only Congress can. And even then, any law that runs counter to the Bible or "natural law" is invalid, so local officials can ignore such laws with impunity.
I really hope I misunderstood what Peroutka was saying. I really do. If I heard right, by his logic local officials can reinstate Jim Crow because Brown v. Board of Education isn't law. And interracial marriages are illegal because Loving v. Virginia isn't law. And on, and on. But that didn't come as too big of a shock after I learned that Peroutka is a member of one of the more notorious white supremacist groups.
According to the Human Rights Campaign, Peroutka is a prominent member of the League of the South, which the Southern Poverty Law Center identifies as a Neo-Confederate hate group. The League of the South favors having the former Confederacy secede from the United States and form a white-dominated nation of its own. It openly calls white supremacy a concept that is "healthy and Biblical." Yeah, that worked really well last time. Its president, Michael Hill, says that blacks have never been civilized. And its Florida chapter president is a convicted neo-Nazi terrorist.
Peroutka has been a featured speaker at the last four League of the South conventions, and openly touted its 2004 endorsement of his presidential bid. Suddenly, his claims that "natural law" takes precedence over any law enacted by Congress take on a new and chilling significance. After all, segregationists claimed race-mixing of any sort ran counter to nature.
It's hard to believe Deace doesn't know about this, given how long he's given a mic to Peroutka. If he doesn't, it's pretty easy to find out--and for Deace not to do so is gross malpractice.
Now some people wonder why devote space to the rantings of a wingnut? Simple--he's been given a forum by one of the leading right-wing talk show hosts, one who could potentially step into the void when Rush Limbaugh finally gets silenced for good. We need to cut him down to size as soon as possible.