David Barton

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 7/5/2011 5:57 pm

David Barton Is Not A Historian

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 7/5/2011 12:03 pm

As we have noted before, actual historians tend to agree that David Barton is not a historian but rather a Religious Right activist who intentionally misrepresents history in order to promote his political agenda.

And with every presentation he delivers, Barton just reinforces that fact. 

For instance, Focus on the Family ran a two-day broadcast last week featuring one of Barton's presentation in which he made the following assertion:

You see, even in previous generations, we fully expected our military and our political leaders to be highly religious. You've probably seen lots of pictures of George Washington kneeling in prayer. And the reason you've seen so many of them is there's so much evidence to that. You have so many eyewitness testimonies of ... of people like General Henry Knox and people like General John Marshall and people like General Marquis de Lafayette. You've got the eyewitness testimony of all sorts of congressional leaders, Charles Thompson, etc. You've got the testimony of his own children, his own family, his own ministers.

There's so much out there and isn't it interest ... interesting that today George Washington has become one of our leading deist Founding Fathers? "Why, he didn't even believe in God. He wasn't religious." Now why that? Well, you find that, that has a great impact on public policy. You see you wouldn't really want it to appear that someone with the credibility of George Washington might actually endorse public religious expressions. So, what we do is make him into a nonreligious individual.

People probably have seen pictures of Washington praying, especially since Barton himself used it as the cover for his book "America's Godly Heritage":

But, as Professor John Fea explained, the incident featured in the painting probably never happened: 

There is one major problem with Potts's story of Washington praying at Valley Forge - it probably did not happen. While it is likely that Washington prayed while he was with the army at Valley Forge in the winter of 1777-1778, it is unlikely that the story reported by Potts, memorialized in paintings and read to millions of schoolchildren, is anything more than legend. It was first told in the seventeenth edition (1816) of Mason Lock Weem's Life of Washington. Weems claimed to have heard it directly from Potts, his "good old FRIEND." Potts may have owned the house where Washington stayed at Valley Forge, but his aunt Deborah Potts Hewes was living there alone at the time. Indeed, Potts was probably not even residing in Valley Forge during the encampment. And he was definitely not married.  It would be another twenty-five years before he wed Sarah, making a conversation with her in the wake of the supposed Washington prayer impossible. Another version of the story, which appeared in the diary of Reverend Nathaniel Randolph Snowden, claims that it was John Potts, Issac's brother, who heard Washington praying. These discrepancies, coupled with the fact that Weems was known for writing stories about Washington based upon scanty evidence, have led historians to discredit it.

In fact, Fea dedicated an entire chapter in his book "Was America Founded As a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction" to examining Washington's faith.  In it, Fea explained that, contrary to Barton's assertion, Washington's faith was very private and that often those close to him had no idea what his beliefs really were:

Lest one thing that this debate is a new one, it is worth noting that many of Washington's contemporaries also wondered whether he was a true believer. Reverend Timothy Dwight, the president of Yale College and one of the leaders of the evangelical revival known as the Second Great Awakening, felt confident that Washington was a Christian, but he was also aware that "doubts may and will exist" about the substance of his faith. Reverend Stanley Griswold, the pastor of the Congregational Church in New Milford, Connecticut knew that there were many who objected to the belief that Washington was a Christian. Thomas Jefferson was also fascinated by the question of Washington's religion. In 1800 he recorded in his private diary a bit of gossip surrounding this questions:

Dr. Rush tells me that he had it from Asa Green that when the clergy addressed Genl. Washington on his departure from the Government, it was observed in their consultation that he had never on any occasion said a word to the public which showed a belief in the Christian religion and they thought they should so pen their address as to force him at length to declare publicly whether he was a Christian or not. They did so.

However he observed the old fox was too cunning for them. He answered every article of their address particularly except that, which he passed over without notice. Rush observes he never did say a word on the subject in any of his public papers except in his valedictory letter to the Governors of the states when he resigned his commission in the army, wherein he speaks of "the benign influence of the Christian religion".

I know that Gouverneur Morris, who pretended to be in his secrets & believed himself to be so, has often told me that General Washington believed no more of that system than he himself did.

...

Many of Washington's contemporaries and people who knew him well had a lot to say about his religious faith. Bishop William White, the Episcopal bishop of Pennsylvania and Washington's pastor while he lived in Philadelphia during his years as president, said that he didn't know anything that would prove Washington believed in Christian revelation.

As Fea notes, some who knew Washington believed him to be a "truly devout man," while others said they knew nothing about his personal faith at all, leading Fea to conclude that Washington's "religious life was just too ambiguous."

But acknowledging any ambiguity would only undermine David Barton's entire professional enterprise, so he instead asserts that there is overwhelming eyewitness testimony to Washington's deep and public Christian faith ... which only goes to demonstrate, once again, that Barton has no interest in teaching, or even recognizing, history that does not promote his political agenda.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 6/29/2011 5:49 pm

Dr. Barton Recommends Getting Your Healthcare Advice Straight From The Bible

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 6/28/2011 4:06 pm

Last week, I stumbled upon a video on YouTube of a presentation David Barton made at a Citizens for Community Values banquet earlier this year and decided to watch it.  But by now, I have seen Barton's standard presentation so many times that I could almost recite it by heart and this one was no different from any of the dozens of other such presentations I have watched him deliver ... with one exception.

In this presentation, Barton made an aside to recommend a book called "None Of These Diseases" by S.I. McMillen, calling it "one of the best healthcare books you'll ever read."  So I decided to order a copy - not one of the updated and whitewashed versions being sold today, but the original 1963 version that read just as McMillen intended it - and, once I received it, it became obvious as why Barton would recommend it since it is basically a medical version of the sort of political propaganda that Barton peddles professionally. 

Most of the book is dedicated to explaining how all medical advances were first foretold in the Bible and declaring that people would be so much happier and healthier if they just followed the health advice set forth in Scripture ... and how it would protect them from schizophrenia:

The individual who has Christ in his heart and the Bible in his hand has splendid fortifications against man's greatest mental disturbance - schizophrenia. Why do I make that statement? It is medically recognized that schizophrenia is the result of anxiety stemming from an inability to meet the adjustments of adulthood. In highly predisposed individuals even a little anxiety can tip the scales. Furthermore, it is felt that any individual, if subjected to sufficient stress, could experience the schizophrenic reaction.

Naturally, anything that lessens anxiety is important in the prevention of schizophrenia. In reduction of anxiety, nothing is more important than spiritual conversion and Christian living. Anyone who ever truly repented his sins and asked God to forgive him can never forget the miraculous way in which his mind was immediately freed of "the guilt complex."

Elsewhere, McMillen states that promiscuity is the cause of arthritis and insanity and that it is not necessary for women to experience orgasm:

Many a young girl has dampened my desk with her tears. The shame, the disgrace, and the ostracism brand her, and the pain often lasts through many years. A great variety of resulting neurotic manifestations can produce any of the many psychosomatic diseases. The community does not know, but the physician knows, that breaking through God's fences around sex is the basic cause of Kathy's toxic goiter, or Helen's arthritis, or Suzanne's commitment to the insane asylum.

...

Some authorities state that less than half of married women have ever experienced sexual orgasm. However, the emotions they derive from the sexual act are beautiful and completely gratifying without the need for any physical climax. Their emotions are diffused throughout their bodies. To them the glowing embers of hardwood are just as satisfying as the quick bright flash of a little gunpowder.

Finally, McMillen recommended to a woman whose husband had punched her in the face that the key to a happy marriage was her submission:

Then, as Yvonne held an ice bag over her left eye and looked at me with the other, I gave her a little marriage counseling, somewhat belated to be sure. I ended my lecture with words something like these: "Yvonne, in every marriage, situations are bound to arise in which one of the partners must give in, out of consideration and love for the other partner. Don't feel sorry for yourself if you discover that you are the one who has to give in most of the time. I have strange but good news for you: when you give in to Mike, you are losing your life in the one and only way to find life and worthwhile happiness. The secret to happiness in married life depends on each partner making small sacrifices, readily and cheerfully."

Barton Lies Again, Says Obama Dropped The Ball On Child Pornography

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Tuesday, 6/14/2011 2:50 pm

David Barton never lets the facts get in the way of his promoting of right-wing view of history and political causes, no matter the issue. Today on his radio show WallBuilders Live with co-host Rick Green, the pseudo-historian claimed that under President Obama the Department of Justice stopped prosecuting cases of child pornography because the department has reduced its attention to obscenity. The de-emphasis on obscenity cases started well before the Obama Administration, as Religious Right groups even complained that the Bush Administration wasn’t prosecuting enough obscenity cases.

Barton told co-host Rick Green that the Justice Department has now “encouraged” licentiousness and that the department is turning a blind eye to people who “use underage kids on these movies.” But earlier this year the Associated Press reported that prosecutions for child pornography are rapidly increasing, and just since the beginning of this year the Justice Department announced convictions in at least 19 cases involving child pornography.

Barton: We’ve got laws against illegal pornography, and you can’t stop all pornography but even the liberals recognize that some pornography is over the top.

Green: I mean an easy one is child pornography.

Barton: Simple. And you’ve had this Administration in three years has not prosecuted a single what’s called ‘obscenity,’ which is hardcore pornography. Not a single case. Now what’s that tell all the pornographers and all the movie guys and all the internet guys what they can do?

Green: Do whatever you want now

Barton: Man, we can push the limits, we can get over the top, we can use underage kids on these movies, we can do snuff movies because they’re not prosecuting nothing. So what we got today is—

Green: They’ve basically given a license for licentiousness—

Barton: Exactly. They’ve encouraged it, and that’s what happened with the Justice Department.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Monday, 6/13/2011 5:16 pm
  • The San Antonio Express-News reports that "when it comes time to giving, [Governor Rick Perry] doesn't come close to the biblical guidance of tithing."

  • CNN gives Tony Perkins space to explain what the Religious Right wants in a Republican presidential nominee.

  • David Barton has endorsed Ted Cruz.

  • Gary Cass claims that Prop 8 would have passed by even more but that "Attorney General Jerry Brown intentionally described Proposition 8 on the ballot in a misleading way."

  • I am pretty sure that President Obama is going to refuse the offer to come together and pray with Wiley Drake.

  • Finally, Janet Porter warns you to beware that Lamb you are eating; it was probably "offered first to idols, in this case to the false god of Islam."

Barton: Founding Fathers Were Against Teaching Evolution; Revolution Was Fought To End Slavery

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Wednesday, 6/8/2011 2:19 pm

Pseudo-historian David Barton visited the Christian television program Celebration on the Daystar Television Network with host Joni Lamb on Monday to discuss his right-wing, pro-GOP view of American history.

Barton, who says that the Founding Fathers like Ben Franklin opposed Net Neutrality, claims he also knows the views of the Founding Fathers in the debate over whether schools should teach Creationism alongside evolution in public schools. Naturally, Barton says that the Founding Fathers “already had the entire debate on creation and evolution,” and sided with Creationism. Of course, Charles Darwin wrote On The Origin of Species in 1859 andThe Descent of Man in 1871 – but apparently the Founding Fathers knew about evolution science:

Barton continues to lash out at “deconstructionism” in the education system for distorting the truth about the Founding Fathers, arguing that the Founding Fathers did not support slavery or engage in the practice themselves. While Founding Fathers like George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and Patrick Henry were all slaveholders, Barton has created his own theory of the cause of the American Revolution: the Founding Fathers’ desire to reject the British Empire’s endorsement of slavery. “That’s why we said we want to separate from Britain, so we can end slavery,” Barton said:

He concluded his talk by saying “I want to see Christians take over the Democrat Party, I want to see Christians take over the Republican Party, I want to have a fight for who has the more Biblical candidate.” Barton, a proponent of Seven Mountains Dominionism, called on people “to move the most Godly candidate through” both parties:

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/31/2011 5:44 pm

Wallbuilders Trots Out Bush Administration Plagiarizer To Attack Obama

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 5/25/2011 3:11 pm

You really have to marvel at the Religious Right'a willingness to openly lie in order to attack President Obama.

Today on "Wallbuilders Live," David Barton and Rick Green brought on Tim Goeglein, the former assistant to George W. Bush, to discuss the totally bogus "Obama failed to issue an Easter proclamation" controversy. 

During the program, Goeglein repeatedly insisted that President Bush, unlike President Obama, routinely issued Easter proclamations:

Most Americans have a sense that it's a good thing that the White House and the President recognize the most important feats day in the Christian religion - the day of Jesus Christ's resurrection from the dead. And yet, my friend, unfortunately the White House this year was silent when it came to a presidential proclamation on that day.

Of course, President Bush as an Evangelical Christian, knew the centrality of putting out an Easter proclamation.

So why is it that the President and the Executive Branch would not just naturally put out a proclamation on the Easter holiday as every president of both parties has done in the contemporary era of the presidency?

So the answer to your question is it's not just an oversight, it's just not something that somehow someone dropped the ball. There has to be an internal decision that says, for whatever reason, this White House is not putting out a proclamation on the Easter holiday this year. Those tings are not coincidences; someone made that decision.

Let me just point out that, contrary to Goeglein's claims, President Bush never once issued an Easter proclamation.

I, for one, am shocked that an admitted plagiarizer like Goeglein would be so cavalier with the truth.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/24/2011 5:40 pm

Constitutional Historian Rebuts David Barton On The Daily Show

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Thursday, 5/19/2011 1:58 pm

University of Pennsylvania historian Richard Beeman was yesterday’s guest on The Daily Show with Jon Stewart following an appearance by pseudo-historian David Barton. Beeman, like other real historians, notes that Barton greatly embellishes the religious views of the Founding Fathers and misrepresented the Constitution.

“The Constitution is federally devoid of any mention of religion except for one provision which says there shall be no test for public office or any position of public trust, so the only mention of religion is keep religion out of our government,” Beeman says, and “the debate in the [constitutional] Convention is virtually devoid” of religious references. Barton, on the other hand, made this pathetic case that the Constitution incorporates the Bible.

Right Wing Watch looked into Barton’s many fabrications, falsehoods, obfuscations, revisionist history, as well as his total neglect of the Fourteenth Amendment’s incorporation of the First Amendment to the states and his warped view of constitutional jurisprudence while he was on The Daily Show.

During part II of the interview with Beeman, Stewart noted that while Barton told him that he was OK with Sharia law in the US, he would likely make the opposite case to his conservative supporters.

In fact, that is exactly what happened, as Barton dedicated an entire radio program to denying what he plainly told Stewart about Sharia.

Such dishonest actions reflect the fact that Barton is a political activist, not a historian -- he even was paid by the Republican National Committee to mobilize church groups to support President Bush’s reelection and Republican candidates. As Kyle notes, even his documentary on African American history is brazenly partisan.

As Beeman and other credentialed historians make clear, Barton is simply distorting history for his own political purposes.

David Barton's "Expertise" On African American History

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 5/19/2011 11:02 am

Jason Cherkis of The Huffington Posts reports that, according to tax records, David Barton considers himself an expert on Black history:

David Barton, the Republican establishment’s favorite amateur historian, claims in tax records reviewed by HuffPost to be something of an expert on African-American history.

In filings with the Internal Revenue Service, Barton’s nonprofit, Wallbuilder Presentations, Inc., justified its tax-exempt status by highlighting among its "accomplishments" a video project “of the moral heritage and political history of African Americans."

As luck would have it, we actually wrote an entire report about the very video that Barton produced a few years ago called "Setting the Record Straight: American History in Black & White" ...  and I am sure you will be surprised to learn that it was utterly and intentionally misleading:

Though the program is billed as an attempt to recognize “the forgotten heroes and untold stories from our rich African American political history,” it is, in reality, a 90-minute effort to portray the Democratic Party as responsible for every problem that has ever plagued the African American community in America and imply that the Republican Party is the antidote. Barton’s website proudly claims that he “is currently breaking ground in the African-American community with his presentations” based on this DVD.

Throughout the program, Barton presents a staggeringly slanted, openly partisan, and tellingly incomplete view of American history. Barton focuses on the Democratic Party’s historical support for slavery and Jim Crow, but completely ignores the transformation of American politics brought about by the civil rights movement. Barton, of course, never mentions that the rise of the modern Republican Party was built on a “southern strategy” of embracing and exploiting the resentments of racist southern Democrats who joined the Republican Party after Democratic President Lyndon Baines Johnson pushed and signed landmark civil rights and voting rights legislation.

We even took several clips from Barton's program and included them in the report, and so I decided to edit a few of them together just to give you a sense of what sort of propaganda Barton is peddling in the DVD as he tries to link today's Democratic Party to the Ku Klux Klan and asserts that Democrats supported slavery just as they support abortion today:

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 5/12/2011 5:55 pm

Newt Gingrich And The Dominionists

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Thursday, 5/12/2011 10:49 am

The Los Angeles Times reports that Newt Gingrich intends to make appealing to the Religious Right a key part of his presidential campaign ... and while that is not particularly surprising, the article did contain one piece of information of which we weren't aware - that David Barton sits on the board of Gingrich's "Renewing American Leadership" group:

[I]n recent years, the former speaker has made gains among evangelical leaders — the result of aggressively cultivating relationships with influential national figures and local pastors in key nominating states.

Gingrich, who was raised a Lutheran and became a Southern Baptist when he entered politics, converted two years ago to the Roman Catholic faith of his third wife, Callista — an experience that he said shaped his new focus on faith. Since then, he created a nonprofit organization aimed at religious conservatives, called Renewing American Leadership, or ReAL, appointing to the board evangelical leaders such as Jim Garlow of Skyline Church in La Mesa, Calif., and David Barton of the Texas-based WallBuilders.

And indeed he does:

That means that that two key ReAL board members - Barton and Chairman Jim Garlow - openly espouse Dominionist 7 Mountains theology ... as does Lou Engle who, as we noted yesterday, prayed over Gingrich just a few years back:

As we have noted before, the purpose of 7 Mountains theology is to create a "virtual theocracy" here on Earth ... and the people who are advocating for that sure do seem to love Newt Gingrich.

Historians Agree: David Barton Is No Historian

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Wednesday, 5/11/2011 2:02 pm

David Barton has been in the spotlight lately.  In recent weeks, he was featured in a New York Times profile, interviewed on "The Daily Show," and was even the focus on a long report we released chronicling his career of peddling right-wing pseudohistory for political gain.

The upside of Barton's recent high profile is that bona fide historians who, unlike Barton, actually have training and credentials, are starting to stand up to Barton's flagrant and intentional misuse of history.

For instance, yesterday Paul Harvey, a Professor of History at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs, wrote a piece for Religion Dispatches explaining that Barton is not in any sense a historian, but rather a propaganda artist who seeks to create the impression that there is some sort of "debate" over the issue of America's identity as a Christian nation that he can use to promote his right-wing political agenda:

Barton’s intent is not to produce “scholarship,” but to influence public policy. He simply is playing a different game than worrying about scholarly credibility, his protestations to the contrary notwithstanding. His game is to inundate public policy makers (including local and state education boards as well as Congress) with ideas packaged as products that will move policy.

Historical scholarship moves slowly and carefully, usually shunning the public arena; Barton’s proof-texting, by contrast, supplies ready-made (if sometimes made-up) quotations ready for use in the latest public policy debate, whether they involve school prayer, abortion, the wonders of supply-side economics, the Defense of Marriage Act, or the capital gains tax. ...

In short, perhaps the best way to understand Barton is as a historical product of Christian providentialist thinking, one with significant historical roots and usually with a publicly convincing spokesman. He is the latest in a long line of ideologically persuasive spokesmen for preserving American’s Protestant character ... The Christian Nation “debate” is not really an intellectual contest between legitimate contending viewpoints. Instead, it is a manufactured “controversy” akin to the global warming “debate.” On the one side are purveyors of a rich and complex view of the past, including most historians who have written and debated fiercely about the founding era. On the “other side” is a group of ideological entrepreneurs who have created an alternate intellectual universe based on a historical fundamentalism. In their drive to create a usable past, they show little respect for the past as a foreign country.

That point was echoed by Randall Stephens, an Associate Professor of History at Eastern Nazarene College, who has no time for Barton's "kindergarten" understanding of history or his "hyper-politicized work":

Barton does not recognized the idea that the past is like a foreign country. Instead Barton tends to flatten out time and space and make it almost seem as if the Founders are our contemporaries, motivated by the same concerns that motivate us now. Yet people in the past--whether we're talking about leaders of Bronze Age tribes or bewigged 18th century nabobs who tinkered on their mansions, read Montaigne in their spare time, or enjoyed arm-chair speculation about nature and providence--are not the same as us. This seems like a kindergarten point, but it's apparently lost on David Barton.

...

Nearly any trained historian worth his or her salt who takes a close look at Barton and his hyper-politicized work will see glaring gaps in what he writes and talks about. He dresses his founders in 21st-century garb. He's not interested in knowing much about the history of colonial America or the US in the early republic. Why? Because he's using history to craft a very specific, anti-statist, Christian nationalist, evangelical-victimization argument in the present. (Remember the many unconfirmed quotations Barton used in the 1990s? He did so because, first and foremost, he was trying to make a political point.)

In history circles this is what we call "bad history."

Finally, John Fea, author of "Was America Founded As a Christian Nation?: A Historical Introduction," and Associate Professor of American History at Messiah College, has been writing an ongoing series debunking Barton's appearance on "The Daily Show," along with a piece warning Christians not to fall for his propaganda:

Wallbuilders is a political organization that selectively uses history to promote a religious and ideological agenda. Barton believes that America's last, best hope is a return to its so-called Christian roots. In his most famous book, Original Intent, Barton argues that the removal of Christianity from the public square has resulted in a rise in birth rates for unwed girls, a spike in violent crime, more sexually transmitted diseases, lower SAT scores, and an increase in single parent households. And he has convinced thousands and thousands of Christians that he is right.

Barton claims to be a historian. He is not. He has just enough historical knowledge, and just enough charisma, to be very dangerous. During his appearance on The Daily Show, Barton impressed the faithful with his grasp of American history and his belief that Christians are being subtly persecuted in this country. But if you watch the show carefully, you will notice that Barton is a master at dodging controversial questions. He refuses to admit that sometimes history does not conform to our present-day political agendas.

...

Here is the bottom line: Christians should think twice before they rely on David Barton for their understanding of the American founding. Let's not confuse history with propaganda.

As Fea says, "the more popular Barton becomes, the more his views will be debunked by what I am imagining will be an ever-growing chorus of critics" ... but that task sure would be made easier if  Republican leaders like Newt Gingrich, Michele Bachmann, and Mike Huckabee would stop actively embracing and promoting Barton's pseudohistorical propaganda.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/10/2011 6:01 pm

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/10/2011 5:39 pm
  • NOM is launching a $500K ad campaign and $1 million election effort in New York.

  • Liberty Counsel was in court today fighting heath care reform.

  • It looks like charges against those arrested for protesting when President Obama spoke at Notre Dame have been dropped.

  • Want to get some writing advice from Rick Joyner? It'll only cost you a grand.

  • Finally, Glenn Beck and David Barton are paling around Israel and I am sure Barton is explaining to everyone how it was founded as a Christian nation.

Gallagher: "People Are Afraid To Say What They Really Think About Marriage"

Submitted by Kyle Mantyla on Tuesday, 5/10/2011 1:29 pm

Back in March, Maggie Gallagher wrote a column attacking the idea that marriage equality could be a way to foster economic growth for states and today she was the guest on "Wallbuilders Live" to discuss it.

To kick things off, hosts David Barton and Rick Green mocked the idea, calling it "wacko on steroids" while Barton, of all people, demanded that we be "logical" about this before asserting that the Disney corporation lost money year after year when it supported gay rights and, once it reversed course, became profitable:

Barton: So everything is about economics now and suddenly you get this really ... I don't know what say ...

Green: Wacko is the only way ...

Barton: No, I am looking for something stronger than wacko - wacko on steroids - I mean there are some terms that come to mind, but you've got this proposal that says 'hey, we've got economic problems and here's part of the economic development solution and that's promoting gay marriage.' Wait a minute, run that by me again?

Green: I don't even know how to respond to that.

Barton: States are proposing this ... It doesn't pass the smell test. It sure doesn't pass the logic test. And I hate to say this, but let's be logical for a minute. Let's just look at what works.

Why don't they think about asking Disney how well promoting gay stuff helped their economics. You remember Disney, when they were being boycotted for doing all the gay stuff people stopped going there, they didn't want to be a part of that. And so while every other entertainment venue in the country was making money, Disney went fifteen out of sixteen quarters, as I recall, losing money. Finally got rid of [Michael] Esiner, got the whole philosophy turned around and now they're making money again.

Then Green interviewed Gallagher, who claimed that marriage equality advocates are so accustomed to "getting a pass" from the media that they can now just make absurd and embarrassing arguments before going on to assert that she does not believe national polls showing that a majority of Americans support marriage equality, saying instead that people are just being intimidated into saying they support it:

Gallagher: It's just an absurd argument for someone to make. Gay marriage advocates are just getting so used to getting a pass in the mainstream media from any kind of rational scrutiny, it's just embarrassing to go out in public and make a claim like this. I don't really understand how they think they can get away with it.

...

So I don't believe those polls. One of the things that's happening is that people are afraid to say what they really think about marriage, which is kind of extraordinary. That's power of a kind, but they are not persuading people; they are trying to shut down this debate.

Right Wing Round-Up

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 5/9/2011 6:05 pm
  • Benen: Targeting The Very Existence Of Public Schools.
  • NPR: Is The End Nigh? We'll Know Soon Enough.
  • Advocate: "Kill the Gays" Bill Nears Vote.
  • TPM: Tea Party Leader: We'll Take The Debt Ceiling Hike If You Put Gay Troops Back In The Closet.

Right Wing Leftovers

Submitted by Brian Tashman on Monday, 5/9/2011 5:58 pm
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David Barton Posts Archive

Staver: Barton's Book is Required Reading for all Liberty University Law Students
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Monday 08/20/2012, 2:06pm
As the controversy over David Barton's shoddy scholarship has roiled for the last several weeks, Mat Staver, dean of the Liberty University Law School, has been one of Barton's most ardent defenders, declaring that he "would put [his] money on David Barton any day" and even proclaiming that he'd be willing to put Barton up "against any historian and would have no question who would win in a debate." So it was no surprise that Staver was the guest on "WallBuilders Live" today where he spent most of the time attacking one of Barton's main critic Warren... MORE >
Todd Akin Wasn't 'Misspeaking' but Speaking for a Movement
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Monday 08/20/2012, 11:45am
Missouri Republican senate candidate and congressman Todd Akin is trying to run away from his claims that “legitimate rape” rarely leads to pregnancy, insisting that he “misspoke” while making “off-the-cuff remarks,” even though they were in an interview with a local reporter. Akin made a similar half-apology following his claim that “at the heart of liberalism really is the hatred for God,” with his spokesman arguing that his claim during a radio interview were “off-the-cuff.” Akin is a beloved figure of the Religious Right, and... MORE >
Glenn Beck's Hard-Hitting Interview With David Barton
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Friday 08/17/2012, 11:02am
As we noted yesterday, Glenn Beck is doing his best to address the current controversy over David Barton's shoddy scholarship by pretending to be searching for the truth while simultaneously doing all he can defend his close friend's reputation. Thus, Beck' The Blaze ran a long piece that purported to independently examine the claims made by Barton along with the criticism of those claims and which found that, in every instance, the claims made by Barton were inaccurate, at best. But The Blaze simply could not bring itself to actually acknowledge Barton's untruths and instead bent over... MORE >
The David Barton-Rick Green Pity Party Drags On
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 08/16/2012, 4:08pm
David Barton and Rick Green continued their crusade to salvage Barton's tattered reputation by quickly putting together a two-part program on "WallBuilders Live" dedicated mostly to once again attacking Warren Throckmorton has unchristian and untrustworthy - which they know because, among other things, he uses information from Right Wing Watch. But mostly they just wanted everyone to know that the mounting criticism of Barton's shoddy scholarship is really an effort to "disenfranchise Christians": Barton: So this really is an attack, not at us per se; this is an attack... MORE >
What Happens When Glenn Beck's 'The Blaze' Tries to Fact-Check David Barton?
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Thursday 08/16/2012, 11:39am
For the last several weeks, The Blaze has been one of the few media outlets dedicating in-depth coverage to the controversy surrounding David Barton's shoddy scholarship.  Given that The Blaze was founded by Barton's BFF Glenn Beck, it is no surprise that most of the coverage of Barton and his work has been, shall we say, rather flattering and one-sided, like when The Blaze ran a piece taking a look at the criticisms that Barton's work has received only to follow it up with a piece and a Skype interview where Barton was allowed to respond unchallenged. In light of the recent... MORE >
David Barton Can't Avoid Growing Criticism of his Pseudo-History
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Wednesday 08/15/2012, 1:00pm
David Barton usually dismisses the daily Right Wing Watch blog posts and two reports on his sham history and litany of patently false and absurd assertions by calling us “radical left social guys” who don’t like America. Barton, who is not a historian and does not submit his work to peer review, says that academics who criticize his “scholarship” are simply elitists who are jealous of his popularity. But as Barton’s unraveling continues, he has now lashed out at his critics by attacking one of his critic’s religious beliefs and insisting that an... MORE >
Another Conservative Denounces David Barton's 'Prevarications' while Rick Green Compares Criticism of Barton to the Holocaust
SUBMITTED BY: Brian Tashman, Tuesday 08/14/2012, 5:10pm
As Kyle pointed out, David Barton is trying to salvage his collapsing support by yet again attacking the religious and political views of his critics, joining American Family Association’s Bryan Fischer today in smearing Warren Throckmorton as a tool of the left. Unfortunately for Barton, more and more conservatives are denouncing his right-wing pseudo-history on the heels of a scathing NPR report and the news that Thomas Nelson has yanked his latest book, “The Jefferson Lies,” from publication. Now, the former dean of Regent University’s Robertson School of Government... MORE >
Barton and Fischer Defend 'The Jefferson Lies' by Attacking Warren Throckmorton
SUBMITTED BY: Kyle Mantyla, Tuesday 08/14/2012, 4:09pm
When David Barton penned his first defense of his book "The Jefferson Lies," he asserted that his critics were motivated by "hostility toward me and my personal religious beliefs" and therefore could never point to anything that he got wrong and instead simply attack him for his faith and the worldview that he promotes.  That is obviously nonsense, but today Barton appeared Bryan Fischer's radio program to discuss the developments that led to his book being pulled from print where the two men spent a good deal of the discussion personally attacking Warren Throckmorton... MORE >