We need a national organization that spends money on federal elections to pass new workplace protections for traditional believers.
If you want to know why religious believers need new political organizations, look no further than the good news that Erick Erickson, editor of RedState.com, is wading into the fray to try to pass a religious freedom bill S.B. 129 in Georgia, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
I’ll be recording phone calls targeting Republican members of the legislature pointing out they voted for a tax increase, but haven’t voted to protect the religious liberty of their constituents. I’ve already recorded two versions targeting Blue Ridge and Ellijay referencing the calls and emails I’m getting that Speaker Ralston’s office is hanging up on Christians. But there’ll be others as well.
I’ve also done one for Beth Beskin’s district, both Bubber Epps and Allen Peake here in Middle Georgia, and Wendell Willard in Sandy Springs. I’ll be spending a good bit of today recording others, particularly focused in the Middle Georgia and Atlanta metro area, where I have a regular media presence. I know Peake and Epps both support S.B. 129, but I was asked to do one for every Republican in the State House who voted for the transportation tax increase. So I am. I don’t think they’ll send them all out, but they’ve got me recording one for all of them.
But meanwhile, big business is carrying water for the LGBT interests who want the bill squelched, The Atlanta Journal-Constitution also reports:
We’ve been pointed to this comment from Mark Rinder, executive vice president and CFO of Safeguard Self Storage, posted on the Facebook page of attorney Jeff Cleghorn:
I was at dinner last night in Buckhead with some colleagues of mine at Safeguard and ran into Richard Anderson, CEO of Delta and Glen Hauenstein (SVP of Revenue Management at Delta). We chatted about the election re: infrastructure bonds and then I thanked him for his strong rejection last year of the Religious Freedom bill and asked him why the business community was so silent about it this year. He told me that he had just come from Governor Deal’s office where he made a strong argument to persuade him to have the House table the measure. We shall see.
Crony capitalism works like this—what favor can you curry from the powers that be by getting involved in a bill that has no real impact on your business?
The great lesson social conservatives need to learn from our losses in the gay marriage fight—and there are many of them—is that we aren’t a politically organized minority group yet. But we had better become one. You aren’t a politically organized unless and until you have organizations that can affect elections directly, by summoning foot soldiers for the ground game and money for the air war. We do not yet have a single social conservative group that operates in this space, except the Susan B. Anthony List on abortion. I do not know that S.B. 129 is a particularly effective bill. I know the difficulty passing it in a state like Georgia is a sign of our times. We need effective, thrifty, disciplined political organizations which will help local groups message, but which will fight primarily federally.
Maggie Gallagher is editor of ThePulse2016.com.
8 comments
Maggie, why do you call this crony capitalism? What evidence have you to offer?
You describe this as “a bill that has no real impact on your business,” but firms are sensitive to the need to attract the best talent, even when that talent is gay. Laws that are motivated by a desire to discriminate against gay people certainly undercut that need.
But you know this. It’s been said again and again by CEOs all over the nation. Why do you ignore this?
That’s a lot of questions. I hope you’ll take the time to answer.
Absolutely Maggy! i am right there with you. I for once would refuse to service you on religious grounds:
1. you had a child out of wedlock, that is an abomination and i would not want to be associated with that.
2. You married a man outside of your faith, thus unequally yoked. That is forbidden.
3. You are a woman, and the bible prohibits a woman to have power over a man. I would say you are not welcomed until you kick that man out of your house and marry the father of your child. Then you can send him to my establishment to get what you need.
A socially conservative political organization that sends “foot soldiers” and spends money to affect elections? You mean, like the National Organization for Marriage?
Disingenuous much, Maggie?
DeanCameron That’s how people like Maggie Gallagher pull down their fat salaries.
So, once again, the people who already have all the Rights, want to form a Group so they can take Rights away from others?
That’s a good idea.
No, Maggie, we do not need this.
Respectfully, there <i>already is</i> a national organization for religious liberties.
It’s called the American Civil Liberties Union, and it’s been proudly protecting rights guaranteed under the U.S. Constitution since 1920.
Sounds like what NORL would be pleading for is undue advantage for those motivated solely by parochial interests, and special privileges only for sects that are 99 & 44/100% pure.
“You aren’t a politically organized unless and until you have
organizations that can affect elections directly, by summoning foot
soldiers for the ground game and money for the air war.”
And especially the money.
You forgot the part about driving wedges between various real minority groups — or was that supposed to be secret — again?
The whole “religious freedom” BS is just that — it’s nothing more than an attempt to grant certain favored classes of “Christians” — whose rights to religious freedom are not under assault — the “right” to impose their sectarian beliefs on everyone else. It’s pretty transparent.
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