Conservative "columnist" defends Michele Bachmann

Katherine Kersten should not be a colunmist for the Star Tribune. Her latest attempt at a reasoned argument has her defending Senator Michele Bachmann and insisting that segments of the GLBT community need to be more tolerant of Minnesota's Taliban-esque legislators.

Katherine is so dissappointed in the bloggers and activists in the GLBT community who have demonized, DEMONIZED Senator Bachmann. Katherine writes:

"The tactics employed by some of Bachman's opponents pose a real danger to our democratic process, which requires open and civil debate to thrive. In Bachmann's view, "the tendency to demonize opponents reduces our public discourse to the level of pie-throwing."

Demonization of the sort she has endured, she says, 'undercuts our ability to discuss issues intelligently. It encourages us to caricature opponents on a personal basis, instead of grappling with their ideas.'"

Hmmm. How about this one? In Senator Bachmann's own words:

"This is an earthquake issue. This will change our state forever because the immediate consequence if gay marriage goes through is that K-12 little children will be forced to learn that homosexuality is normal and natural and that perhaps they should try it. And this will take away the civil right of little children to be protected in their innocence. ...

This is a very serious matter because it's our children that are the prize for this community. They are specifically targetting our children. ...

But should we allow them to teach sinful ways to our children in the public schools? Should that be allowed? ..."

Who is demonizing whom? Senator Bachmann demonizes the GLBT community every time she introduces the Marriage Amendment, and every time she talks about it. Kersten is a hack.

Here's another bit from her 'column.'

"The Scandia incident exemplifies the double standard at work in our political process. Imagine how different the reaction would have been had a crowd of "fundamentalist Christians" blocked a gay activist's exit from a bathroom. We'd still be reading outraged headlines."

For background on what she's writing about, see DumpBachmann here. The difference, Katherine, is that fundamentalist Christians have been beating the shit out of GLBT people for a long time, both physically and psychologically, and there are more of them than us.

Senator Bachmann is only a victim of her own making. This written ass-kiss by Kersten is an attempt to paint Bachmann as a victim, and is further proof that the Star Tribune could not have picked a worse columnist.

Addendum: I'm not trying to say that the Star Tribune should not have picked a conservative columnist. I'm saying that the Star Tribune should not have picked Kersten. Tomorrow, I'll elaborate.