Apparently, he doesn't like gays. So when Salt Lake City decides that it wants to pass an anti-discrimination law aimed at protecting the LGBT community, this makes Buttars angry. He wants to shut this down, even though he does not even live in Salt Lake City. Here is the oh-so predictable Buttars comment on this:
They want to say they're being hurt more than someone else, I guess. If anybody had a right to special protection it would be Mormons; they've been persecuted but not as bad as the American Indian. But they're not pounding on the newspaper's door. Or the Jewish people; the Jewish people have lots of people hate them. I love them. But you know that's true.Let's break this down and see if we can make any sense of it. "They want to say they're being hurt more than someone else, I guess." This whole deal was started by factual reports of incidences of discrimination in the city. I'm not saying the LGBT community is like blacks facing down fire hoses in Alabama in the 1960's, but they actually are being hurt more than the general population for just being gay.
"If anybody had a right to special protection it would be Mormons." This is coming from a Utah legislator. I'm pretty sure that Mormons are doing just fine in Utah. For that matter, in the country as a whole. As a Mormon I am comfortable stating that I don't need any special protection. Now, if I was in Missouri or Illinois in the 1830's and 1840's, over 150 years ago, I might be asking for some protection. But Utah in the 2000's? I'm good, thanks.
"They've been persecuted but not as bad as the American Indian." The American Indian? What is even going on here? Where did that come from? I'm a little rattled.
"But they're not pounding on the newspaper's door." It's because the Mormons own the newspaper. If they pounded on the door it would be from the inside. Mormons went through their persecution decades and decades ago. Just because people don't trust our religion doesn't mean we are being persecuted. No one is denying us housing or hospital visitation or end-of-life decisionmaking. And I still don't know what American Indians have to do with anything.
"Or the Jewish people; the Jewish people have lots of people hate them." Now he's just rambling. Does he honestly not understand the difference between hate and discrimination? Is he just throwing out any group that might raise some emotion to distract from the fact that he is completely ill-equipped for the task of being a legislator? My money is on yes.
"I love them." Thanks for clearing that one up for us. We were all looking around trying to figure out why you hate Jews. Why does he need to let us know explicitly that he loves them? Is he self-conscious about his relationship with Jewish people? And I hope he realizes he's talking about a group of actual human beings, not just some amorphous philosophical idea that I kind of feel like it is trendy for some far-right conservatives to adopt now that Pres. Obama is taking a hard stand against Jewish settlements in the West Bank. But again, why even bring Jews into the conversation?
"But you know that's true." What? That you love Jewish people? That a lot of people hate Jews? That people persecute Mormons, but not as much as American Indians? That Mormons need protection more than gays? What is going here? How did this man get even a modicum of power and authority in this state?
You know who really needs protection, though? Belgians.
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Belgians and Lichtensteiners.
And I really, really wish Buttars would just go away. Talk on the street was that he had started a whisper campaign against his last opponent as being a "closeted-gay" *gasp!*
Makes me want to move back to Utah and run against him, but then again his constituents deserve far better than anything I'd have to offer. There should be a place somewhere with Michelle Bachmann and this guy behind a glass wall, with speakers so you can hear what they're saying, and people walking by admiring the crazies behind the glass. I'd really like to hear what he has to say about "Obamacare"...
I'm not even a liberal, and I find Buttars distasteful. :)
"Just because people don't trust our religion doesn't mean we are being persecuted. No one is denying us housing or hospital visitation or end-of-life decisionmaking."
Seems they are denying us the presidency, based on polls during Mitt Romney's campaign that suggested that a substantial minority of U.S. citizens would not vote for a Mormon *regardless* of his or her political views. I hardly have a persecution complex, but the numbers don't lie...
I guess this might be semantics, but I wouldn't consider that persecution. I think of persecution as containing an element of intimidation or something more than just distrust or dislike. I also think that if someone very charismatic and more in step with mainstream American politics (in other words, someone not like Mitt Romney) were to be a viable candidate it might change some people's thinking.
But, yes, Buttars is distasteful, no matter what your political leanings are, for all but a very tiny subgroup that seems to reside completely in the southern end of the Salt Lake Valley.
People not wanting to vote for Mitt had nothing to do with his religion! There are more contradictory polls around anymore than you can shake a stick at (i.e. Jake keeps quoting polls that seem to show that the president has a strong approval rating when there are a thousand others that show that rating as dismal, at best). No one wanted to vote for Mitt because he was a miserable governor! At least he had government experience, unlike the president, but he was so bad at it that it was a joke to even nominate him.
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