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Robert Cramer, Tolerance, and Free Speech (Blog)

In the goofy world of social conservatism, you are "intolerant" and threaten "free speech" if you oppose Robert Cramer's nomination to sit on the Iowa Board of Regents.

 A funny thing happened to Robert Cramer on his way to being confirmed to sit on the Iowa State Board of Regents.  The construction company executive, a corporate crony of Republican Governor Terry Branstad and chairman of Iowa Family Leader, is being opposed by Iowa Senate Democrats Herman Quirmback (Ames) and Matt McCoy (Des Moines).  Cramer’s sordid political past, and Quirmbach and McCoy’s charges against him, perfectly illuminate how “tolerance” and “free speech” have been redefined in the daffy, conservative world where 2+2=5.

If you have forgotten, Iowa Family Leader is Robert Vander Plaats’ creation.  In the wake of the Iowa Supreme Court decision in the Varnum v. Brien case which legalized same-sex marriage, Vander Plaats rallied the Iowa GOP right-wing base in opposition to LGBT civil rights, even going so far as to promise to sign an
executive order, if elected governor, to nullify Varnum v. Brien.  An incident in Des Moines a year or so ago, when a baker refused the business of a lesbian couple who asked her to bake their wedding cake, reveals that the issue goes far beyond civil marriage rights.  Cramer represents those conservatives who are convinced that their freedom depends on being able to discriminate against LGBT people without having to face any consequences.  Cramer and his ilk also refuse to see marriage as a civil institution, not a religious one.  The irony, of course, is that the business wing of the Iowa GOP, horrified at the prospect of yet another losing campaign by Vander Plaats, coaxed Terry Branstad out of political retirement in order to deny Vander Plaats the 2010 GOP gubernatorial nomination.

As chairman of Iowa Family Leader, Cramer leads an organization which succeeded in ousting three of the seven justices who unanimously ruled for the plaintiffs in Varnum v. Brien.  However, we have seen in Iowa the same rapid
change in public support of same-sex marriage that the entire nation has.  Cramer’s group achieved its goal of punishing justices who deviated from its version of political correctness in 2010.  The tables were turned in 2012, when Iowa Family Leader failed to convince a majority of Iowans to oust a fourth justice, David Wiggins, who also ruled in favor of LGBT civil rights.  National polling shows how rapidly the consensus has shifted as a majority of Americans now support the important civil right of gays and lesbians being able to create civil marriage contracts.  The reasoning in Varnum v. Brien was close, rigorous, compelling, and irrefutable: there is no constitutional basis for denying lesbians and gays the right to marry.

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In his “Caffeinated Thoughts” blog, Shane Vander Hart spares no hyperbole in claiming Cramer is a victim.  In Vander Hart’s crazy world, Cramer is being punished for saying: “My personal religious beliefs are that we’re created by a loving God, created male and female, and he created marriage and so marriage should be between a man and a woman, but I understand that other people have different views of that.”  How strange that Cramer embraces a view of marriage which is no longer binding under Iowa law; how revealing that he has also denounced one of the favorite bogies of the social conservative mind, “the homosexual agenda;” finally, how fitting that Cramer is being held accountable for his abhorrent activity and disgusting views.

Vander Hart is simply being dishonest when he writes, “Apparently the new criteria on whether someone can serve on the Iowa Board of Regents is to
agree with homosexuality.”  Vander Hart saws away on his violin of conservative self-pity when he claims, “What great example of tolerance that is being shown by Iowa Senate Democrats on the committee, in particular State Senators Quirmbach and McCoy.”  This issue is not what Robert Cramer thinks about LGBT civil rights; the real issue is Cramer’s past political activity, which had the deleterious effect of undermining the independence of Iowa’s judiciary, one of the best in the nation, in service to a political agenda which is itself intolerant, and not just of LGBT people.

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Thus we see how the discourse of “tolerance” and “free speech” is being emptied of meaning by social conservatives.  Robert Cramer certainly has the “free speech” right to propose denying fellow Americans full civil rights protection because he thinks his religion demands he do so.  However, I also assert that I and others have a “free speech” right to disagree with what Cramer says and with what he has done.  And, since when must I “tolerate” activity which I find repellent by remaining silent?  Cramer and Vander Hart are simply wrong when they accuse Quirmbach and McCoy of “intolerance.”  Both senators
are simply doing their jobs.

Serving on any appointed state board is not a “right,” it is a “privilege.”  Cramer is now being held accountable for his role as chairman of a statewide political group which raises money in order to deny LGBT Iowans civil rights: I thought social conservatives supported such “personal responsibility.”  Quirmbach and McCoy are not punishing Cramer for being a vocal opponent of civil rights; they are rightly opposed to seeing a person like him being placed in a position where he can endanger the independence of Iowa’s Regents’ universities, as he has shown he will endanger the independence of Iowa judges.  Cramer has shown his refusal to work on behalf of all Iowans.

Shane Vander Hart can spare us the crocodile tears.  Robert Cramer is unfit to serve on any Iowa state board, since he has abused the power he had as chairman of Iowa Family Leader.  Cramer is simply getting what he earned, and deserves.

Link to Shane Vander Hart’s risible screed: http://caffeinatedthoughts.com/2013/03/iowa-board-of-regents-must-now-favor-homosexuality/

A much more reasoned essay from the Gazette’s Todd Dorman: http://thegazette.com/2013/03/21/a-family-leader-in-trouble-in-the-senate/

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