Gay Marriage Supporters' Patriotism Questioned
Sen. Dan Hall: "Why is it you never see an American flag where you see a Vote No for the MN #Marriage Amendment sign?"
The image seems pretty innocuous—a row of older houses on a side street, their clapboard siding shining in the sun, a lighthouse peeking over rooftops in the background. An American flag flies from a house in the center of the photo, while houses to the left and right of it have orange signs staked in their front yards urging passers-by to vote down on the constitutional amendment writing a ban on same-sex marriage into the state's constitution.
To Sen. Dan Hall, the GOP incumbent for state senate in Burnsville, Savage, and Lakeville, the scene is anything but bucolic.
"Why is it you never see an American flag where you see a Vote No for the MN #Marriage Amendment sign?" he tweeted on Monday afternoon, alongside a link to the photo.
The photo appears to have been taken on South Lake Avenue in Duluth, near the iconic Lift Bridge.
Hall hasn't yet elaborated on his comment with subsequent tweets.
Inevitably, calls will start coming from some quarters denouncing Hall's comments as anti-American and repugnant, but who's right here? Is it ok to call our political opponents "anti-American?" What about if you think their policies or ideas are actually dangerous to the health of the country?
Joshua
10:00 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
From his website:
"Strong Families - We know that children are best raised with mom and dad, living together in a happy, healthy, life-long marriage. We must help families become more successful at reaching this goal. At the same time, we must help single parents, foster parents, and grandparents, succeed in their desire to raise healthy children."
So how can children be successfully raised in a single parent home but not in a gay marriage home? Sorry Dan, but you can't have it both ways.
Joshua
10:33 am on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
As for the anti-American survey:
Questioning someone's patriotism after they place signs in their yard stating something such as "I hate the USA" is something I consider fair game.
However, what does gay marriage have to do with ANYTHING relating to a United States citizen supporting their country or not?
Simply put- Dan's tweet is a cheap shot to generate a strawman.
Chris Buckley
12:26 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
It really shouldn't be all that surprising. This is the same guy who last year said that he had to remove his kids from Minneapolis because "they ruined our neighborhoods with integration and desegregation"
You certainly can't expect him to go along with giving rights to MORE people after he still hasn't gotten over having to give rights to the last group that demanded them. It just steels my resolve that this is a civil rights issue and nothing else. Same game, same political party, different century, different group being denied civil rights.
Jill Lafferty
9:02 pm on Tuesday, August 21, 2012
What a shameful and embarrassing comment for those of us represented by Dan Hall. What about equality is unpatriotic? (And for the record, on my walk tonight in my Burnsville neighborhood, I saw many signs from across the political spectrum, but only one home with a political sign was also flying a U.S. flag. So....according to Dan Hall, all those folks are unpatriotic?)