Weeding out the nutballs

The Atlantic's They Won’t Know What Hit Them profiles an interesting solution to our nations fundie driven anti-gay politicians - knock them out of politics at the local level. It works too.

When they are rising stars like Danny Carroll, the Republican speaker pro tempore of Iowa’s House of Representatives, and the loss is unexpected, the urge to blame unseen forces can be even stronger—and in Carroll’s case, it would have the additional distinction of being justified. Carroll was among the dozens of targets of a group of rich gay philanthropists who quietly joined forces last year, under the leadership of a reclusive Colorado technology mogul, to counter the tide of antigay politics in America that has generated, among other things, a succession of state ballot initiatives banning gay marriage.

Tim Gill's likes to punish the wicked.

Together, Gill and Trimpa decided to eschew national races in favor of state and local ones, which could be influenced in large batches and for much less money. Most antigay measures, they discovered, originate in state legislatures. Operating at that level gave them a chance to “punish the wicked,” as Gill puts it—to snuff out rising politicians who were building their careers on antigay policies, before they could achieve national influence. Their chief cautionary example of such a villain is Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, who once compared homosexuality to “man on dog” sex (and was finally defeated last year, at a cost of more than $20 million)

I like the idea. The strategy appeals to me as an Atheist. If we could weed out the Christianist politicians before they hit the national stage - oh wait, it's the same people and the same principle. OK Tim, where do I send my checks?

Technorati tags: politics, Gay Rights, Tim Gill