The False Premise of Conservatives - Lessons Learned from Chick-fil-A

We see it every day. Conservatives frame every important discussion in America by establishing a completely false premise first. The most recent example is the "Chick-fil-A" fiasco.

Conservatives framed the issue as, "Dan Cathy is merely exercising his First Amendment right to free speech," or, alternatively, "Dan Cathy is just expressing his religious views." If you believe this lie, then if you take exception to Chick-fil-A's activities (and that's what they are, activities, not speech), then you are somehow against freedom of speech and/or freedom of religion.

Let me suggest, if Dan Cathy had merely said in an interview, "I believe in the traditional definition of marriage," or "I believe in the Biblical definition of marriage," and that was the extent of it, there would be no controversy. But that is not the extent of it.

First, part of what Dan Cathy said was, "I think we are inviting God's judgment on our nation when we shake our fist at Him and say, 'We know better than you as to what constitutes a marriage,' and I pray God's mercy on our generation that has such a prideful, arrogant attitude to think that we have the audacity to try to redefine what marriage is about." So he didn't just state his position on traditional marriage or the Bible, he went on to use some pretty strong language directed at the gay population in our country. Okay, so we are still in the free speech category, although the speech is a lot stronger than some would think because I had to search to the second index page of Google to get this quote. It seems that, even after the fact, conservatives are still redefining the argument. The first 11 Google hits when I searched the string "Dan Cathy quote" were stories in "Christian" publications that claimed Dan Cathy is being misquoted, then go on to omit the above quote that was in the original news stories and only quote the "soft" part of his interview.

Second, Dan Cathy didn't just speak, he donated millions of dollars in corporate profits that had made their way to his Winshape Foundation to fund the cause of depriving gay Americans of their rights. So now we have moved from speech to action. And some of that action (money) went to a group called the Family Research Council that has been identified as a "hate group" by the Southern Poverty Law Center for, among other things, making statements that some gays should be exported out of the United States and that those remaining in the country should be criminally prosecuted for their behavior, specifically sodomy. Sodomy laws were ruled to be unconstitutional by a decision of the US Supreme Court called Lawrence v. Texas in 2003.

So now we have framed the real issue...Dan Cathy was not merely exercising his freedom of speech or religion, he was making negative statements that were directed at a part of our society and he was donating money to groups that were actively working to deprive that part of society of the same rights other Americans have. Starting to make a little more sense why gay Americans and their supporters were upset enough to take action, in this case, organizing a boycott to deprive Dan Cathy of the money he was using against them, isn't it? Also, starting to make a lot more sense why "Christian" leaders needed to falsely frame this argument. It would have been much harder to stage a "Chick-fil-A Appreciation Day" if the cause was to support hate speech and to take people's rights away. They would have gotten a few people to turn out, but not the masses.

Conservatives have been doing this for 30 years, and getting better and more refined about it all the time. For example, no conservative will utter the words "Democratic Party" ever, they have renamed it "Democrat Party," even though that is not its name. They have taken it so far that even I had to look up the name of the Party to be sure...they are changing what reality is...because to most people perception is reality.

It is getting harder and harder all the time in this age of electronic overload to maintain truth and sanity.

That is why I am here for those who care!