Republican Monsters Boo a Uniformed Soldier

Unless they intend to get wiped out in a Goldwater-style electoral beatdown, Republicans need to get a handle on the insanity currently expressing itself in the crowds of GOP debates.

The storylines coming out of Thursday night's debate should have been that Mitt Romney won, Rick Perry beclowned himself, and Jon Huntsman has the potential to be a force in this race. Instead, the talk of the town is how the GOP once again took the opportunity to prove it is a savage organization comprised of simply awful people. Last night, Republican morons in the crowd took time out of their busy schedule of race-baiting and protesting the government services they live off to boo — yes, boo — a soldier in uniform. Why were they booing the soldier? Because he's gay. Megyn Kelly, who was hosting the debate for Fox News, brought in a youtube clip for one of Rick Santorum's question. Santorum, who hates gay people about as much as he hates googling his own name, took the question from the clip. On the clip was a soldier, Stephen Hill, who is currently serving bravely in Iraq. He made mention that, up until Don't Ask Don't Tell was finally repealed this week, he had to "lie about who [he] was" in order to serve in the army. “Do you plan to circumvent the progress that has been made for gay and lesbian soldiers in the military?” Hill asked For that, Hill was lustily booed by the Republican scumbags in the audience. Santorum said he would reinstate DADT, which brought him a tremendous amount of applause from the bigoted crowd. One would think that, after watching a uniformed soldier attacked by "supporters", the nine presidential candidates on stage would take a stand against such bigotry and hatred. But no. That would involve this batch of Republican to be decent human beings, which they have proven themselves NOT to be. Let's hear from the resident expert on sexual politics, Andrew Sullivan. He said, while live-blogging the debate, "Santorum claims bizarrely that repealing DADT means permission for sexual activity for gays in the military. This is a lie. The same rules of sexual misconduct apply to gays and straights alike. And a gay servicemember is booed by this foul crowd. Santorum keeps saying "sex is not an issue." But that's the current policy! This has nothing to do with sex, as Santorum surely knows. And again, the crowd reveals itself as hateful - even when it comes to those serving their country in uniform.

This disgusting act of bigotry marks three debates now where the Republican crowds expressed disgusting views, and were not called out for it by the candidates. Several debates ago, savages in the crowd cheered when hearing about Rick Perry's record-setting death penalty numbers — even though those numbers include at least one provably innocent man. Then there was the health care debacle of the last debate, where the crowd called for the death of a hypothetical man who contracted a deadly disease and lacked health insurance. So far, as Sullivan put it, no one in the Republican Party has been willing to stand up and call these monsters out for their inhumane, cruel, 13th-century-barbaric behaviors and beliefs. If they intend to remain a viable party in the 21st century, they're going to have to start calling out these anti-American voices among their supporters. Because, believe me, progressives such as myself are more than happy to do it for them — at a political cost to the Republicans.