I am often asked how I can possibly be gay and conservative. Regular party Democrats and non-partisan progressives (forgive the redundancy) are stymied by my beliefs in personal responsibility and economic freedom. They visibly shudder when I say I am more closely aligned with Republicans than Democrats. It seems they cannot bear the thought that I believe government control over every aspect of our lives is dangerous. There is no more vicious and hateful group than progressives who are frustrated by a gay person who likes liberty and does not have total allegiance to The Party. So when an opportunity presents itself to show just how vile the progressive/socialist philosophy is, I must take it. Let me present as Exhibit A: columnist Dan Savage. Savage is a person so strident in his hate and adherence to The Party Line he will violate any moral principle to attack those with whom he disagrees.
First, a short introduction of Mr. Savage. He writes a weekly column in Seattle’s alt tabloid, “The Stranger.” Savage is a gay commentator whose sex advice tends to be hedonistic. However, Savage alleges he exhibits some sense of right and wrong when it comes to treating people with respect. At least, that is how he presents himself. For example, most of our readers are familiar with Savage’s project, “It Gets Better,” a project Misfit Politics has written about in the past. This website has videos of gay people who have been bullied, telling viewers not to give up hope. They should not think of themselves as isolated and alone in the world. The project’s guiding pledge is as follows:
“Everyone deserves to be respected for who they are. I pledge to spread this message to my friends, family and neighbors. I’ll speak up against hate and intolerance whenever I see it, at school and at work. I’ll provide hope for lesbian, gay, bi, trans and other bullied teens by letting them know that ‘It Gets Better.’”
This message is very positive and uplifting. Gay youth often have a difficult time because without social support, they can feel weird or isolated. Savage should be applauded for his efforts in this matter. The problem is, Savage is more dedicated to spreading his message of hate than of hope.
From Savage’s own account, ‘Germ Warfare,’ Jan 27, 2000:
“In my Sudafed-induced delirium, I decide that if its terrorism Bauer wants, it’s terrorism Bauer is going to get. Naked, feverish, and higher than a kite on codeine aspirin, I call the Bauer campaign and volunteer. My plan? Get close enough to Bauer to give him the flu, which, if I am successful, will lay him flat just before the New Hampshire primary. I’ll go to Bauer’s campaign office and cough on everything. Phones and pens. Staplers and staffers. I even hatch a plan to infect the candidate himself; I’ll keep a pen in my mouth until Bauer drops by his offices to rally the troops. And when he does, I’ll approach him and ask for his autograph, handing him the pen from my flu-virus-incubating mouth.”
At least Typhoid Mary didn’t know she was infecting anyone. Savage took it upon himself to intentionally get other people sick. He thought this was clever and edgy. I think it’s just amoral self-righteous bullying. But, he doesn’t just “plan” the deed. Savage actually does it.
“I go around the room licking doorknobs. They are filthy, no doubt, but there isn’t time to find a rag to spit on. If for some reason I don’t manage to get a pen from my mouth to Gary’s hands at the conference, I want to seed his office with germs, get as many of his people sick as I can, and hopefully one of them will infect the candidate. I lick office doorknobs, bathroom doorknobs. When that’s done, I start on the staplers, phones, and computer keyboards. Then I stand in the kitchen and lick the rims of all the clean coffee cups drying in the rack. I grab my coat and head out.”
He later recounted he did hand a pen crawling with his germs to Gary Bauer. Let’s look at the intensity of Savage’s blind hatred. He volunteered to sabotage a campaign of a person he doesn’t like. He deliberately spread his sickness throughout the campaign office. He did this without a moment of thought as to infecting children, the elderly, or someone with an immune deficiency. Then, he bragged about it in a column to the whole world. He’s unabashed in his anti-social, possibly criminal behavior.
That was in 2000.
“Well,” you may counter, “that was twelve years ago.” Surely Savage has matured since then. He probably regrets using biological warfare against a political rival. Au contraire. Next, we have Typhoid Dan spreading hate for the entire Santorum family name.
From NPR, January 6, 2012, “How Rick Santorum’s ‘Google Problem’ Has Endured,” reporter Laura Sydell explained the Google search problem:
“That’s because if they do, one of the top results is a scatological and sexual site called SpreadingSantorum.com. It’s got a big brown blotch on it — and we can’t say more than that. It’s a political stunt staged by columnist and gay-rights activist Dan Savage, who says he was “outraged by an interview Santorum did in 2003 when he was still a senator from Pennsylvania. He argued that birth control should be illegal and that states should have their right to arrest, prosecute and imprison people for their private consensual sexual conduct,’ Savage says. Savage was angered when Santorum went on to say that states have the same right to regulate homosexuality as they do pedophilia and bestiality. One of the readers of his column suggested that they hold a contest to redefine Santorum’s last name.”
First of all, Santorum never said birth control should be illegal. He personally doesn’t believe it is right, but private conviction isn’t public policy. Furthermore, Santorum never argued for illegalization of homosexuality. He simply said states have a right to regulate it, not that they should. I disagree wholeheartedly with Santorum’s view of homosexuality, but that doesn’t mean I condone “Typhoid Dan’s” behavior. Savage used Rick Santorum’s last name as a noun describing a fluid that results from anal sex. It’s not only a sick provocation against a political opponent; it’s also an indecent public smear of an entire family.
Everyone with the last name “Santorum” must now endure a scatological definition of their last name in the public domain. Children who have had nothing to do with Rick Santorum’s political beliefs will face snickers of derision by foul, disgusting progressives who care nothing for political discourse. Instead they think it’s funny to use a family name as a pejorative. Typhoid Dan brought nothing substantive to the political arena except to prove that he and his followers have perverted minds.
“Well,” you may say, ” that is a political ploy and wholly within the bounds of reason. After all, politics ain’t bean bag, right?” Fine, let’s look at Typhoid Dan’s latest attempt to spread hate and intolerance in the political arena.
Todd Starnes reports:
“Savage was supposed to be delivering a speech about anti-bullying at the National High School Journalism Conference sponsored by the Journalism Education Association and the National Scholastic Press Association. But it turned into an episode of Christian-bashing. Rick Tuttle, the journalism advisor for Sutter Union High School in California, was among several thousand people in the audience. He said they thought the speech was one thing – but it turned into something else.
“I thought this would be about anti-bullying,” Tuttle told Fox news. “It turned into a pointed attack on Christian beliefs.”
‘Anti-Bullying Speaker Curses Christian Teens,’ April 27, 2012, Fox News Radio.
So, the so-called “anti-bullying” speech presented by Typhoid Dan was just anti-Christian scree intended to foment hatred of Christians? In front of a group of high school age children, Savage attacked a religious belief, belittling it and bullying some in the audience? Yep.
“As the teenagers were walking out, Tuttle said that Savage heckled them and called them “pansy asses.”
This is why I don’t subscribe to the artificial construct of the GLBT community, or as I call them, the “GiBLeTs.” They don’t represent gay people or transgendered people. They could care less about lesbians or bisexuals. They are progressive/socialists and committed members of the Democratic Party first and foremost. Typhoid Dan is simply a product of this enclave of dedicated neo-Marxists who make all gay people look bad.
Typhoid Dan is indicative of this kind of progressive thought. He’s so filled with hate and intolerance toward those with whom he disagrees that he’ll call them “pansy asses” at an anti-bullying event. He’ll smear a family name just to get even. Typhoid Dan will run around licking staplers to infect people with an illness. His progressive rage isn’t an outlier; it’s the norm. When misogynist Bill Maher calls Sarah Palin foul names, he’s exhibiting Typhoid Dan’s thinking. When President Obama calls political dissenters “bitter-clingers,” he’s exposing the progressive viewpoint of their opponents.
Typhoid Dan’s history of immoral action to make political hay is simply the progressive/socialist way. We must reject that message and the premise behind it. Otherwise, it spreads like a disease.
Editor’s note: Dan Savage’s foul-mouthed behavior is not limited to licking doorknobs or redefining last names. Savage has not only invited presidential candidate Herman Cain to publicly “suck his d**k” and called Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia a “c**kscuker,” he also declared that he wished all Republicans were “f**king dead.”


It’s different when they do it, though. Ask them, they’ll tell you.
How is this any different from President Civility asking for calm after the Giffords shooting (very Presidential, to be honest) in early 2011 only to have Biden liken Tea Partiers to terrorists later that year? Or Hoffa Jr’s comments to “take these sons of bitches out”?
It’s always always ALWAYS going to be “do as I say, not as I do” from that crowd. And like parents who do that (and are promptly ignored by their children), they should be made to see their own hypocracy.
It’s wasted air, like trying to explain how to repair a car’s transmission to a cat.
I will say one thing, their antagonism ensures job security by creating the enemies of tomorrow with their attacks today.
“It’s wasted air, like trying to explain how to repair a car’s transmission to a cat.”
One of the best explanations I’ve ever heard of the futility in pointing out hyprocrisy to a liberal. I will be using this from now on.
Thanks!
Oh and, also, great post, Brett!
Anytime someone takes the rhetorical ax-handle to this guy I feel like giving them a standing ovation! Brett you certainly deserve one! This guy is a real lowlife and has to be one of the worst advocates for gay people in the country.
And while I am in favor of civil unions and not gay marriage, I can only imagine how many rational gay folks (and other traditional folks in favor of gay marriage) must be embarrassed by this jerk.