Joe Straus is speaker of the House in the Texas legislature. He is a moderate Republican from San Antonio. He is a friend of public schools. He happens to be Jewish.
Now his Tea Party opponent is challenging him because he doesn’t represent “Christian values” or even “Judaeo-Christian values.”
This is plain, old-fashioned bigotry.
Jeff Judson, a local tea party activist challenging Straus’ re-election, is sounding the same dog whistle himself, warning voters of “the disconnect between conservative, Christian voters and Joe Straus” in a rambling treatise titled “The Biblical Basis for Jeff Judson’s Candidacy for Texas House District 121 in the Republican Primary on Tuesday, March 1, 2016.”
Judson is known locally as an anti-streetcar crusader, not an actual crusader for Christ — until now.
“As Christians, we are citizens of two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Heaven and the political kingdom here on earth where we reside,” he began in the political ad. “We have obligations to both … As a Bible-believing Christian who attends Grace Northridge, an Evangelical church, I know that God created the institution of government to reward good and punish evil (Romans 13:1-4).”
Judson, the pious punisher, is casting Straus, a moderate Republican, in the role of evil.
“The Texas Senate passes God-honoring, conservative legislation which is often killed by Joe Straus, my opponent who is House Speaker,” he continued in the letter, before listing issues that Straus has tried to “stab … in the heart,” including “religious liberty” and “protecting life.”
“These are only a few examples of the disconnect between conservative, Christian voters and Joe Straus,” he continued. “If Christians do not speak out publicly about the moral and ethical issues facing a nation, who will?”
And then another Republican leader jumped into the fray, spewing his own bigotry:
On Sunday, the leader of Conservative Republicans of Texas sent an email blast announcing rallies in Houston to “take back our party.”
“Speaker Joe Straus and his RINO lieutenants, members of the Homosexual Political Movement (LGBT and Log Cabin Republicans), their corporate business donors and pro-Muslim sympathizers are organizing and spending millions of dollars to drive Christian conservatives and their values out of the Texas Republican Party,” he wrote. “I am not going to tell you that if this liberal, secular cabal has its way, then the will be the order of the day.”criminalization of Christianity will be the order of the day.”
I grew up in Texas. I am Jewish. I have strong Judaeo-Christian values. These expressions of hatred are not “Christian values.” They are the values of people who despise anyone who does not agree with them. It is a free country, and the bigots can say and believe what they want. But it would be tragic if the people of Joe Straus’s district allow these zealots to come to power and impose their views on everyone else.
I thank the Pastors for Texas Children for forwarding this disturbing article to me. They and their tireless leader, Pastor Charles Foster Johnson, remind me that there are many good people in Texas who don’t share the extremist views expressed by Joe Strauss’s political opponents.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
This sounds like a civil war within a sub group of the TX GOP. Joe Straus should leave the GOP and join the Democrats (not that the Ds are anything to rave about these days) or become an independent. The GOP has become an extreme far right wing insurrectionist crazy party hiding behind a false religiosity and putrid jingoism. Tom Delay would often deploy this faux holy rolling big tush hyper religiousness. I guess Texas is comfortable with bible waving jerks who verge into anti-semitism to achieve their political goals. Very sad.
I disagree, Joe. Even though Straus does not reflect my Left leaning views, he has every right as an American citizen and as a legislator, to follow his beliefs and not to be vilified by Anti-Semities. If Jews have to back away from their beliefs to conform to the majority, it is only a few steps from becoming lesser citizens, and then to wearing an arm band with a Star of David….and then, we in this generation saw, to be hauled on trains to gas chambers, while their Christian neighbors stripped their possessions. Ever vigilant…never again.
this is frightening!
This is one reason we can’t have nice things in this country.
JUST THE NUMBERS CONCERNING Kentucky GOVERNOR BEVIN’S PROPOSED BUDGET Tuesday night, Jan.26:
THE KTRS PENSION FUNDING HE PROPOSES IS BASED ONLY ON THE NO-LONGER VALID 55% funding level of KTRS, not the current 42% (or 37% in some circles) funding (both are disasters, according to Morningstar). Also, the money KTRS needs is more than a “budget request”, it is an Actuarially Required Contribution, that actuaries determine is the MINIMUM to keep the pension healthy, just as a Bond does not request to be paid 3% interest, it receives it. Like a bond or mortgage or credit card – if the payment is not made in full, the amount of shortfall accumulates with interest.
For 2016 the KTRS ARC was $708 million but Beshear only came up with $299 million – so Beshear essentially borrowed or raided $409 million from KTRS in 2016.
For 2017 the KTRS ARC was $837 million but Governor Bevin has only come up with $622 million – essentially proposing to borrow or raid $215 million from KTRS in 2017.
FINALLY – there will be an independent -not in-house- audit of KTRS and we hope light will be shined on the SECRET alternative investments with high fees – a license to steal.
BEVIN has a real mess to clean up: we must keep up the pressure because JCTA/KEA just don’t understand the numbers, otherwise they would be taking up this issue in earnest and asking the courts to weigh in. The math is complicated, but the debt is simple.
Randy Wieck
Louisville, KY
Teacher, duPont Manual High
Unfortunately this is not new in Texas. Just a few years ago, the Texas legislature threw out its speaker, a Jew, because in their public arguments, only a Christian could be a true conservative.
Unfortunately, in today’s Republican party, this view is no longer an outlier. Cruz, Trump, Huckabee and Santorum have all stated similar beliefs explicitly, and many other of their Presidential candidates have eluded to the belief that this is a Christian country, and they do not believe in equal protection for other religious views.
________________________________
God help us if this is what it means to be a Christian country.
IMO Cruz is far more frightening than Trump who is a showman….while Cruz is a true believer. Did you see his interview in high school where he says he wants to take over the world? Though he was a teen then he has always seen himself as the Savior…with true Mein Kamp vigor…and his followers are the gun toting Tea Partiers like Bundy. Trump of course wants this same group of voters, so he panders to whacko Sarah Palin.
Trump’s daughter is now a converted Orthodox Jew and seems to be the only sane one in the group….maybe.
And this is the best the Republicans have to offer. Scary world.
But then there is Hillary who has reinvented herself saying “obamacare used to be called Hillarycare”….with that similarity being their cleaving to Monsanto, colluding with Big Pharma and insurance companies, and gobbling cash from Goldman Sachs.
Thank you Diane for speaking out on this issue.
Anti Semitism is rampant in Europe, and France, which had the largest population of Jewish citizens is prime in this…and the Jewish population is fleeing to Israel, the US, and other European nations. Le Pen is moving forward in elections and now has a large voice from her Right Wing Anti-Semitic viewpoint.
And in the US today, we are seeing a uprising and ugly undercurrent against the fantastically popular candidate, Bernie Sanders. It will take us all to fight back.
It’s arguable that a powerful, loud faction in the GOP is so extreme, the members of this cult have gone so far to the right that they have stumbled off a cliff into Dante’s Inferno and are now stuck in the Fourth, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Circles.
Thanks for the opening Lloyd!
4th-Greed, 5th-Anger, 6th-Heresy, 7th-Violence, 8th-Fraud and 9th-Treachery
Well I guess they’ve fallen farther than the GAGA*ers. Hard to believe!
*Going Along to Get Along (GAGA): Nefarious practice of most educators who implement the edudeformers agenda even though the educators know that those educational malpractices will cause harm to the students and defile the teaching and learning process. The members of the GAGA gang are destined to be greeted by the Karmic Gods of Retribution** upon their passing from this realm.
**Karmic Gods of Retribution: Those ethereal beings specifically evolved to construct the 21st level in Dante’s Hell. The 21st level signifies the combination of the 4th (greed), 8th (fraud) and 9th (treachery) levels into one mega level reserved especially for the edudeformers and those, who, knowing the negative consequences of the edudeformers agenda, willing implemented it so as to go along to get along. The Karmic Gods of Retribution also personally escort these poor souls, upon their physical death, to the 21st level unless they enlighten themselves, a la one D. Ravitch, to the evil and harm they have caused so many innocent children, and repent and fight against their former fellow deformers. There in the 21st level the edudeformers and GAGAers will lie down on a floor of smashed and broken ipads and ebooks curled in a fetal position alternately sucking their thumbs to the bones while listening to and chanting two words-Educational Excellence-repeatedly without pause for eternity.
Yes Duane Gagaers are ignorant, the others are malicious, one has potential, the other should roast.
Red State on line/internet has a malignant cartoon that is anti-semitism aimed at Bernie Sanders. I told one friend yesterday and hesitate to tell even one more friend. But if anyone here knows what I can do about it I will respond. I know one time I was in a graduate seminar and a distinguished professor (Eliot Eisner) was speaking and from a south boston principal the quote was : “you didn’t study enough thomas Aquinas”… I was horrified that this anti-semitism came out aimed at the professor but I didn’t say anything. Furthermore, Aquinas had nothing to do with the concepts of art that Eisner was bringing to the group. Today I wish I had spoken up. When I look at this one of the ugliest of attacks on Bernie Sanders I think to myself will I make it worse by calling attention to it? Will it go un-noticed? Has it not spread into a general audience (will it remain on the Red State site) and if it spreads I will have a response at that time? The one friend agreed with me but he didn’t offer any suggestion what to do. If I point it out to others it might only increase the amount/number of views …. I am open to suggestion. I did email J Braude on the PBS station /cable/NECN when a remark was made about Bernie that can be interpreted as anti-semitic but this so called “cartoon” is as ugly as anything you would see in the Hitler era… and even worse because it is now the 21st century.
I leave it to your conscience and good sense to do what you think is right, but I am partial to this Jim Hightower piece of advice:
“If you don’t speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?”
Your call—and given the way that online comments can be misunderstood, I mean that sincerely and without any snark or sarcasm.
😎
yes, I fully understand what you are saying and I don’t see any sarcasm or snark in your response; it is very kind and considerate. I know on FB there are places to report (I’ve done it twice)… on an independent site like Fordham /Petrilli I called them out with comments when they wrote two years ago “students in christian countries get higher test scores)… I even was brave enough to write a comment at National review (1 time) … not sure what my best response is here… So, what I did do is write to J. Braude who is on Boston/cable etc and reminded him that women were making statements about Bernie Sanders that could be interpreted as “dog whistles” because I think J. Braude at least reads the comments (even if there is no response)…. Want to think what is most effective and not call attention to “cockroaches” only to make more people staring at them and doing nothing…. my dilemma …
“If you don’t speak out now when it matters, when would it matter for you to speak out?” Your call—and given the way that online comments can be misunderstood, I mean that sincerely and without any snark or sarcasm.
jeanhaverhill@aol.com
Once we open up the floodgates and accept any of the heinous “-isms” anti-semitism or any other religious -ism, racism, sexism or ageism, we are one step closer to the Third Reich and an embarrassment to the Constitution.
Elliot Eisner called out the top administration at Stanford University for their failure to treat majors in fine art as worthy of scholarships. The call-out was fashioned as a letter with policy points well-suited to the institution and how it preferred to speak to colleagues. As I recall, he circulated that letter across the administrative units and reported on that move in other venues.
He is remembered for many reasons, one them being fearless in speaking up…after giving thought to an issue.
Agree with Krazy TA
“Your call—and given the way that online comments can be misunderstood, I mean that sincerely and without any snark or sarcasm.”
Agree especially after being stung by online comments. Easy to feed the beast when it needs to be starved.
thanks; after reading the recent comments I sent Feedback to CNN because Erick Erickson writes in several places… he appears on CNN… I don’t think one email is that helpful/useful but will continue.
I didn’t grow up in Texas but Missouri in the Catholic system (K-12) in St. Louis. I am a Free Thinker. I have strong human values that do not include deities or other mythical beliefs. I have no need to profess “Judeo-Christian” values.
I live in Texas and Joe Straus district. Jeff Judson is a lifelong employee of special interests (Texas Public Policy Foundation, Heartland Institute) who is on the privatization/charter bus. He actually came to my house while block-walking. He talked about all the things he was against. Then he was asked by my wife what he was for. His tongue was tied.
Yeah he is bad news and is playing the social conservative card in this primary. His motives are typical right wing economics.
university punishing students for supporting workers on campus ” when students saw that cafeteria workers were struggling for a living wage and affordable healthcare, they knew they had to act. They held a rally to show support for the workers, and took their demands to management.
But now university administrators are holding formal disciplinary proceedings against the students, calling their faithful protest “disorderly conduct.” They could be placed on academic probation or even suspended from the school.
Administrators will decide the students fate on Thursday ….. stand with students who are living out the best values……
Tell Loyola University: Don’t Punish Students Who Stood Up for Workers’ Rights
Wow.
I would hope that we would stick with the topic of Anti-Semitism here for many reasons, prime among them that the most popular Democratic candidate right now is Bernie Sanders. who is being vilified for his religion as well as being charged with being a Marxist. It is this pairing that is so like Goerring and the Third Reich…no matter who says it, Repubs or Dems.
He is being slurred by Democrats as well are Republicans. And yes, Democrats can also be Anti-Semites. (in conversation yesterday with my Dem neighbor he told me to “Jew down” the car dealers, I almost fainted as I raised my eyebrows, and he immediately apologized for that disgusting outburst.)
So…to redirect this topic to others of irrational and biased issues such as “punishing students” and “anti-feminism” only serves to denigrate the issue of how the Third Reich rose to power and used that power to kill over 6 Million Jews and millions of others. And this horror is now growing again, and beginning to be recapitulated in various European countries on various levels.
If Americans see or hear or read Anti-Semitic remarks it behooves each of us to speak out loudly against this. I cannot understand how anyone who supports Bernie Sanders would not do this.
Thanks Jane for pointing out that egregious Anti-Semitic cartoon…and I would hope we would all write about it to the editors.
““Jew down” the car dealers, I almost fainted as I raised my eyebrows, and he immediately apologized for that disgusting outburst.)
” so good that you bring this out in the open… I heard this in my early childhood but not frequently. I think only one time I heard the word “kike–Iwas very young and had no reference for what the adults were saying…. But we are in the 21st century now and it is not appropriate; it is distasteful and harmful. One time I was at a meeting round table and the conversation was not on work over a luncheon –about 5 school superintendents at the table. A well respected superintendent said “my friend just married a jewish woman but she is white”… I was able to speak up in front of the group (all males) and I was not admonished — in fact there was silence. They took it to heart. One time after a professional meeting I asked a superintendent “please don’t tell that joke any more” and he said, “if it bothers you, Jean, I won’t tell it”… but he was rare. Most of the males would say “we have to learn to laugh at ourselves ” or some other put down. But I did notice when I would “poke” at one of the male superintendents over coffee he would say “shut up , Jeanie”…. if I got too close to the heart of the issue. It seemed that every one of their conferences would start out with a “joke” about Albanians or something and these were all people with 2 or 3 degrees but little education.
I’m pleased you got the apology…. I found that to be rare … (most of these males are deceased — I am close to 80) but these attitudes persist.
Ellen: as far as I can tell the editor is Eric Ericson (notorious for his views)… so my comments should be directed to other places in the media where his name shows up… I will do that. And you are right this kind of behavior/attitude does cross party lines.
“Judson, the pious punisher..” That’s gold right there.
I long for the day when religion is removed altogether from the public domain. I am so tired of our politicians being required to pass some kind of religious litmus test. I however have no problems with anyone’s religion until it impacts me in a negative way.
Karl Rove really did a job on these Evangelicals. The intent was never for them to have a seat at the table. Rove just wanted them to think they would get a seat and hence the Republican party would get their votes. It’s called blow back Karl. Now they demand a seat at the table.
Judson
Son of Judas?
Son of Lucifer.
Unfortunately we are becoming two countries with two sets of values. One set of values will lead us to intolerance, hatred and eventually war. The other set of values could lead to an inclusive society that cares for all. If the haters win, I fear very soon there won’t be a United States.