What Do Conservatives Fear Most?

Eric Hoffer once said, "You can discover what your enemy fears most by observing the means he uses to frighten you."

Conservatives love nothing better these days than accusing liberals of being religious zealots about their issues.

Interesting.

Gingrich "surrounded by paganism" in Hampton Roads

Poor Newt Gingrich, first he's surrounded by "reverse racists," now it's "paganism." Right here in Virginia, no less! :) Check this out.

On Friday, Newt Gingrich, Mike Huckabee, and Oliver North visited Rock Church in Hampton Roads, Virginia to give a three-hour long lecture on “Rediscovering God in America.” The speakers warned the audience about the “continuing availability of abortion, the spread of gay rights, and attempts to remove religion from American public life and school history books.” The Virginia-Pilot reported that Gingrich argued that, while Christianity is the foundation of American citizenship, Americans are experiencing a period where they are being “surrounded by paganism”

Looking through the comments section at Think Progress, there are some good responses to this as you might expect. For instance.

*"OOOOooooOOoooOOOooooh!!!!! Pagans????? I'm askeered!!!!!!!"
*"The serial adulterer, the defender of rapists and the con artist who committed high treason are telling us why we're not Godly enough. I give up on ever trying to parody these clowns. They're always a step ahead."
*"Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha!!! A corrupt, unethical, immoral liar is surrounded by pagans?!? I know a lot of pagans who are of far better character than he, the convenient christian."
*"Pagans just want to have fun. Like girls. What's wrong with that?"
*"Oliver North, wow, I get a lump in my throat when I think of that fine Christian. His tireless efforts to support illegal operations in Nicaragua, including intentional allowance of drug-smuggling into the United States to fund those operations, just make me feel born-again when I think about them."
*"Beware the politician [s]pouting Godly things"
""I SOOOOO hope that the Newtster runs for president in 2012."

Finally, here's my comment: Please keep coming to Virginia, Newt-ster, please keep hanging out with right-wing felons like Oliver North, and please keep on talking about how super-qualified Latinas are "racists," how we're surrounded by "paganism," how Barack Obama (and Democrats in general) are "socialists," how all we need is more "trickle down" economics, etc. My only request: next time you're in Virginia, can you please say these things with Bob McDonnell (and Bill Bolling and Ken Kook-inelli) standing next to you, and can I get a photo of it? Thanks Newt Man! :)

P.S. The definition of paganism: 1) "One who is not a Christian, Muslim, or Jew, especially a worshiper of a polytheistic religion"; 2) "One who has no religion"; 3) "A non-Christian."

P.P.S. For more on Gingrich's, Huckabee's and North's visit to Hampton Roads, click here.

No Liberty at Liberty

This is pathetic but not surprising:

Liberty University has revoked its recognition of the campus Democratic Party club, saying “we are unable to lend support to a club whose parent organization stands against the moral principles held by” the university.

[...]

Jan Dervish, secretary of the club, and Maria Childress, its staff adviser, said they met with [Vice President of Student Affairs Mark] Hine after the revocation and asked for a further explanation.

“He said it wasn’t us. It was the national Democratic Party,” which the campus club’s constitution supports, Dervish said. The campus club also opposes abortion and supports the traditional view of marriage, Dervish said.

“His bottom line was, ‘You can’t be a Democrat and be a Christian and be a university representative,’” Childress said.

Hine denied saying that.

Meanwhile, I got an email from the McAuliffe campaign saying that Terry "will hold a conference call with Liberty University Democrats" this morning. The McAuliffe campaign email adds, "Liberty University Democrats have campaigned for McAuliffe across the Commonwealth in recent weeks, and were active advocates for Obama in the 2008 presidential election." I just got home so I missed the 10 am call, but I'll be interested to see what came out of it.

UPDATE: Terry just tweeted, "On a conf call with Liberty Univ students who had their Young Dems ch suspended. http://tinyurl.com/LU-Dems We’ve got 2 stand up for them."

UPDATE #2: Mike Signer has put out a statement.

The decision of the Liberty University administration to revoke the recognition of the students' Democratic organization is deeply troubling. It is even more problematic that the school has decided to continue to recognize the campus Republicans.

I'm proud to announce that my campaign has been in close contact with Brian Diaz, the president of the campus Democrats organization and has offered the full resources of my campaign and my staff to support Brian and his fellow students as they work to form a coalition with other area colleges to found the Lynchburg Young Democrats. Together, we can fight this clear violation of the American tradition of the freedom of speech and political organization.

UPDATE #3: See this excellent report by Drew at Dem Bones. Nice job!