Bachmann signs "values" pledge to oppose same-sex marriage, Sharia law, pornography
Social conservative presidential candidate Michele Bachmann ups the ante in Iowa by signing a "values" pledge that other Republican presidential candidates may not support
Socially-conservative GOP presidential candidate Rep. Michele Bachmann of Minnesota has become the first candidate to sign a conservative Christian group's pledge to oppose same-sex marriage and uphold "core values."
Bachmann's commitment to the pledge ups the ante in Iowa, where the other Republican candidates may now be pressed harder to prove their social conservative credentials. The support of groups like Family Leader, which created the pledge, could be significant in the state, where 60 percent of the Republican electorate in 2008 identified as "born-again Christian."
The candidates are being asked to say whether they'll sign the pledge by Aug. 1, and Bob Vander Plaats, the influential conservative who heads Family Leader, says he won't endorse any presidential candidate that does not sign it. Vander Plaats said Thursday he expects the responses to be made public ahead of the Ames Straw Poll on Aug. 13, the Des Moines Register reports.
The pledge, entitled "The Marriage Vow -- A Declaration of Dependence Upon Marriage and Family," consists of 14 points, including "earnest, bona fide legal advocacy" for the Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law defining marriage as between one man and one woman. The pledge is also a commitment to personal fidelity to one's spouse, and to the protection of women and children from "types of coercion or stolen innocence" such as pornography. It also includes a rejection of "Sharia Islam," which it describes as an "anti-woman" form of "totalitarian control."
In addition, candidates are asked to recognize that "robust childrearing and reproduction is beneficial to U.S. demographic, economic, strategic and actuarial health and security." The pledge describes homosexuality as a choice and not genetic -- an issue Bachmann dodged on CBS' "Face the Nation."
A spokesman for Bachmann said the congresswoman signed the pledge because she "has a strong marriage and faith," the Register reports. Opposition to same-sex marriage has played a large part in Bachmann's political career, though she has been relatively quiet on the issue since starting her presidential campaign.
The pledge could prove embarrasing other candidates, including former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has been married three times and admitted to an extramarital affair.
The preamble to the pledge states, "We acknowledge and regret the widespread hypocrisy of many who defend marriage yet turn a blind eye toward the epidemic of infidelity and the anemic condition of marriages in their own communities."
Michele Bachmann on the campaign trail
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A victory in November he may just begin to seal
In Iowa the first leg of the campaign race
There's a sense of importance way out of place
Why should a tiny state, mostly rural and mostly white
When the country is rainbowing under expanding urban lights
Be the tail that wags the party dog
Causing real issues to be lost in the caucus fog
Here Bachmann now leads slightly but has taken the Pledge
Sadly, Reds will follow putting them on a narrowing ledge
It is about the Obamacare, energy and the loss of jobs
And a growing debt our children's future to rob
This nation is a grave moment in its history, a true watershed
The feds should not be involved in who is a couple in bed
Why Bachmann wants to divert time to determine what is porn
When every effort needs to be getting our economy reborn
This Red muse once again feels a sense of gloom
A fear that the Religious Right is bringing the party to its doom
If you are indeed a real person not, as I strongly suspect, a comic stereotype trawling (quite successfully, I may add) for bait, then the fact identify yourself as a chaste,unwed, overweight,fifty-eight year old, probably leaves you untrammelled by the moral vexations a more socially blessed individual may encounter.
As for Mrs Bachmann's Husband, I have fairly advanced, if not faultless, gaydar and my darling Grandmother would undoubtedly have said, had I brought home a suitor of Mr Bachmann's ilk; "Oh no, dear, you'll find no lasting happiness there." So fair play to Michele Bachmann for not letting that put her off.
catmomtx You are wrong about the pledge. The majority DO agree with it! I am one of them!
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JV since you claim to speak for the GOP I'm going to give you a few of the provisions outlined in this Pledge. It claims that a Black child was better off being born a SLAVE in a two parent home, than being born a citizen in a single parent home. Slaves weren't CITIZENS, they were PROPERTY. This shows that the authors of this document have very little regard for Black people. It also recommends that gay people in the military be separated from straight people, be housed and serve in isolation from the straight soldiers. If that were to take place, then it would be a short step to isolating gay people in the general population. I remember going to school with Japanese students whose parents had been in "internment camps" during WWII, simply because they here Japanese. Those interned were 2nd and 3rd generation citizens but were singled out because of their race. The pledge reeks of this type of bigotry and racism. It promotes elitism and the superiority of a ruling class (Evangelical Christians). If you agree with this pledge, then you are WRONG to call yourself a Christian, you're merely a CHINO.
How many people remember when Ellen's first show was taken off TV because of hateful people like Bachmann, nay, I believe there is a lonely faith among people who wanted the skeletons back in the closet if not sent to live on Greenland to live as the evil unChristians she says they are, and has created her own biological science that cuts the science of genetics off at Eve as inferior to Adam having been made of but a rib from his gender. I have a wonderful story, very humerous, about this Biblical moment and should you wish a copy of this story, just reply to this comment and I will forward you an email of the manuscript of the story soon to be published but not in my own form from my personal manuscript in a book of my collection of fiction short stories. But this will give you a happy change and will explain Ms. Bachmann's position to the last letter. Now you know every male who is feeling a little insecure is going to vote for Bachmann, as she offers the head of womanhood on a silver platter to every Republican male, and any seriously insecure Democrat, as she massages their male ego, while she gives them control of pro life (so when do men take their responsibility over pro life, if you fertilized it, it's yours, and you pay for 9 months of pre-natal care by the woman you didn't bother to put on a condom for. Maybe Bachmann will absorb all the responsibilities for everything a man does, good for her, let her lay her body down on the train tracks for the good of mankind, not humankind, and I do NOT want this TWIT telling me what my God has passed down to Harvard Medical about the genetics of sexuality, that's not her specialty, and she's no theological leader either, so who the HE!! is she to tell the rest of the country how to live, that takes a lot of nerve, so she's right and anyone who doesn't agree with her is wrong???
Look, Bachmann, you know that more women have lost their jobs than men, that women are making $0.76 to the males $1.00 in spite of the fact that more women get Master's Degrees and Ph.D.'s than men, that if sex results in an unwanted pregnancy, who decides what's going to happen as a result...No, sadly women have no choice, it is the choice of men what's going to happen to the woman, and you, Bachman, you are just fine with this, and we owe you no thanks at all. Are you absolutely sure you are a woman??? There is no shame in gender identity, Ms. Bachmann, none at all, just hang around Democrats and no matter what gender identity you choose, you are ok with us, really we don't want to control you, we just want you to live to pursue your rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, but you have got to help our Democratic politicians out...you have to have courage that we can beat this war against the GOP, who will economically rape the Democrats as long as they can get away with it. We must work hand in hand in this war against the GOP, fight against the enemies, such the like of Bachmann who cares not what the future of American females is. While we can stand here and say, "She should be ashamed, pushing women back after how hard the small gains we have made...only a woman who has little to no faith in her educated counterparts would be in favor of giving the power back to the men, and even while she can see that whenever you give a male Republican an inch, they take the whole ruler, and have no remorse for leaving women back in the dust by selecting only males for the major political roles, and look where this has left us, looking down a deep, dark hole without a bottom, which the Republicans thought they could create while giving themselves BIG, BAD BONUSES leaving us on the edge of a fallen economy.
I did some thinking about how a fallen economy would benefit the rich and wealthy, and the farthest I can follow is that the prices of everything not only in the US but worldwide, anyone with liquid assets could pick up lots of valuable stuff at crippled prices, when banks should be taking back the mortgages on homes of unemployed who can no longer afford their mortgage payments, and then the banks take the homes back and sell them for next to nothing and the government would bailout, a much smaller bailout that we Americans experienced, but what should have happened was that the bank along with the government refinance the mortgage at a much lower interest rate and then the former owners get to rent to own their home and the rent become part of the down payment and allows the people to keep their home and the children to keep their friends, a most dear and significant issue for a child's sense of security.
Yes, houston, I am not entirely sure why these folk do not see that they are cutting off their noses to spite their face, but would
I'm sorry but I would rather these candidates spend their time telling me what they are going to do any different than President Obama to move our country forward. I would like to know how they plan to create jobs and fix the economy? What exactly are their plans to move our country forward rather than backwards? How do they plan to work with a Congress that wants them to fail? Do they plan to compromise or do they think that only their beliefs matter rather than listening to all Americans? I would like to know how they intend to end the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. How do they feel about nation building? How do they feel about using up our natural commodities rather than looking into a way to preserve our country. What are their plans for our infrastructure?
I would like to know what they will do to unite the American people because by signing these pledges they seem to be saying the heck with anyone that doesn't agree with their narrow minded agenda. I can not for the likes of me understand how they intend to govern ALL Americans considering how diverse we all are. making these social pledges that do nothing other than divide the American people will do absolutely NOTHING for our country. Tell us what you all plan to do for ALL of our country.