When Atheists Invade the GOP Straw Poll… August 14, 2011

When Atheists Invade the GOP Straw Poll…

By Hemant Mehta
August 14, 2011

I love this picture 🙂

Reader John snapped this image of his friends Amber and Jason with Congresswoman Michele Bachmann‘s husband Marcus during the GOP Straw Poll in Iowa yesterday:

ABC News’ Matt Jaffe noticed, too:

When I was standing outside Bachmann’s tent, Marcus Bachmann was there shaking hands with supporters. One girl walked up wearing a t-shirt that said, “Some dudes marry dudes. Get over it.” She shook his hand and walked into the tent. Asked if she’d vote for Bachmann, she said she would… if Bachmann became an atheist.

Awesome 🙂

Also, click on the image to see Jason’s Iowa Atheists shirt!

(That is *so* much cooler than when I met former Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack‘s wife back when he was running in the Democratic primaries leading into the 2008 election.)

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  • Buzzalot

    Awesome picture!!!

  • GentleGiant

    So, he has his arm around the shoulders of Amber, but(t) where’s his left arm and hand?!?
    Just putting some fuel on the in-the-closet rumours of Mr. Bachmann. 😉

  • The atheist are giving the secret handshake behind dudes back.

  • Couldn’t vote for Bachmann even if she was an Atheist. She’s delusional and anti woman’s rights. Utterly despicable. Nice picture though.

  • John F

    Later that day, we stood in the center of the GOP poll holding this banner:

    http://goo.gl/1JTDW

  • Marguerite

    Ahhh, but it seems many of her “delusional” views stem from her religious beliefs, so if she became an atheist she’d probably change her views drastically.  But of course, then she’d lose the supporters she’s cultivated, so it’s probably not gonna happen:-).

  • Don

    Why are you called the ‘friendly atheist’ again? You think a good response to ‘Would you vote for Bauchman’ is ‘if she became an atheist’. Nothing to do with policy, just become an atheist. Perhaps you are the bigoted atheist??

  • Michael Appleman

    Its another way of saying “No”.

  • GentleGiant

    Reading comprehension fail…
    It wasn’t Hemant (The Friendly Atheist) who said that.

  • Monkeymuck

    Tom Vilsack never ran in a Republican primary.  He was and is to this day a Democrat.

  • Sophia Preston

    Just a quick correction: Vilsack is a Democrat.

  • Kevin S.

    Considering so much of what most of us disagree with her about stems from her religious beliefs, it’s actually a perfectly legitimate response.

  • John F

    Bah, forget that Facebook link I posted above, I put the photos right on our web site: http://www.iowaatheists.org/

  • Deb

    You are absolutely right. I might support her if she supported women’s rights, healthcare, religious tolerance, and a dozen other issues, but then she’d be a Democrat, anyway.

  • Jason Benell

    Glad to see you all like my shirt:) I plan on doing more of this kind of thing. Stay tuned to Iowa for more news!

  • Fixed! Thanks.

  • Fixed! Thanks.

  • Of course “If she became an atheist” would be a good response. It would mean that most of her deluded hypocrisy and harmful ideas for this country would be eliminated, and she may have a chance at being a rational, clear-thinking human being instead of some crazy-eyed, brainless, woman-hating zombie.

  • Nice photo but defeating Bachmann still leaves Romney or even more likely, Perry; possibly the greatest threat of all.

  • Anonymous

    By the way, I just paîd $21.87 for an îPad 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
    Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://BidsFirst.com

  • “Awesome.” So soon you forget that kerfuffle about a religious test for public office. I’m starting to think you don’t know what you believe.

  • Anonymous

    By the way, I just paîd $21.87 for an îPad 2-64GB and my boyfriend loves his Panasonîc Lumîx GF 1 Camera that we got for $38.76 there arriving tomorrow by UPS.I will never pay such expensive retail prices in stores again. Especially when I also sold a 40 inch LED TV to my boss for $657 which only cost me $62.81 to buy.
    Here is the website we use to get it all from, http://BidsFirst.com

  • Kevin S.

    Meh.  Perry couldn’t carry the primary against a geriatric, flip-flopping McCain back in ’08 when his name was Mike Huckabee.  I’m really not all that concerned about him.

  • Fredericka

    “Asked if she’d vote for Bachmann, she said she would… if Bachmann became an atheist.”

    What a concept! If atheists voted for atheists and theists voted for theists, then we’d be safe from atheist mis-rule, such as that which desolated Cambodia! Why has no one thought of this before?

  • dauntless

    Call me dense, but I have no idea what point you’re trying to make. Could you elaborate, please?

  • Anonymous

    No No No! It doesn’t matter if people try to extrapolate that if Bachmann became an atheist she would be less crazy. That is a horrible response to the question. As others have noted “NO RELIGIOUS TEST”. A more appropriate response would be, if she somehow eventually became competent and then if she was the best available choice.

  • I hope you are correct.

  • Suz
  • Jason Benell

    To be fair, she was asked on the fly and was being flippant. Obviously she would not vote for Bachmann if she were an atheist on those grounds alone. I think the point is that she would be more inclined if Bachmann were an atheist and all the things that followed came true as well; no more opposition to homosexuals or atheists, no more religious dogma, much better policy decisions.

  • John F

    Sweet!  This guy has nads of steel!  

    We talked to this guy near the Fred Karger table.  He’s a professor at ISU where the straw poll was held and he says he a friend of Hector Avalos.

    Thanks for posting this, I’m going to contact Warren.

  • GentleGiant

    Sigh… it really has nothing to do with atheism as such, but totalitarian rule.
    You don’t see anyone here trying to outlaw religion.
    So it’s a strawman argument. Want to try again?

    And if you really thought your comment through, you’d then also realise that if your assertion was true, then your theist state would be similar to Iran or other religion controlled places. Is that what you want instead?

  • Fredericka

    “You don’t see anyone here trying to outlaw religion.”

    No, just trying to classify sending your child to Sunday School as ‘child abuse,’ as Richard Dawkins claims.

    Thank goodness you folks are such a tiny minority!

  • GentleGiant

    Deliberately handicapping your children in their future academic endeavours by telling them patently falsehoods I would indeed classify as child abuse!
    Besides, that’s a whole other discussion, you didn’t answer anything in my other reply.

    And us “folks” – do you mean anyone not proscribing to the Christian religion? That’s actually the vast majority of the world’s population.
    Or do you mean rational thinking people? In that case I’d say it’s sad that we are in such minority, think of how far we as humanity could reach without the shackles of religious dogma!

  • William R. Dickson

    If she were an atheist, she’d be a completely different person; she might still be completely odious, but since so many of her repellent ideas flow directly from her religion, we can’t really know that. A more interesting question might be: if Michelle Bachmann were an atheist, who would she be?