David O'Steen, Executive Director, National Right to Life
The National Right to Life organization is a radical forced-birth organization which engages in grassroots and legal activism to force women to give birth without a choice on abortion.
They have actively advocated for full repeal and/or nullification of the ACA, proving they only respect fetuses, and not living human beings.
Paula White, New Destiny Christian Center
Paula White is Donald Trump's "God-Whisperer," according to Politico. White is a televangelist who has been divorced, had failed businesses, and been investigated by the IRS. White has been reviled by most mainstream church leaders, including the leaders of the Southern Baptist convention, hardly what anyone could consider left-wing.
Read the whole thing. It's a real horror show, and you need to know about it. There are several more examples from organizations that are as bad or worse. That Trump would nominate a judge to whom groups this extreme would gravitate is unsurprising; what's jarring is that these are the people and groups that the White House chose to highlight.
I'm sure there are organizations that are a bit closer to the mainstream that would endorse Gorsuch, but this regime is so brazen that they went full on wingnut in introducing him. They came thiiiiis close to trumpeting an endorsement from David Duke. Which they could've, because it exists:
Thank God Trump won! A Christian on SCOTUS! If Obongo and Hillary would have won, they'd put Garland in - on the way to a SCOTUS KNESSET !— David Duke (@DrDavidDuke) February 1, 2017
They. Made. Me. Reference. David. Duke. Could this get lower?
Glad you asked:
The Council for National Policy
Of those Spicer listed, nearly all are members of the secretive, extreme theocratic organization known as the Council for National Policy (CNP), a cabal of right-wing organizations, businesses, lawyers, media personalities and church officials, founded by Tim LaHaye.
A list of inner-circle members of the CNP from 2014 uncovered by Hatewatch has Dannenfelser, Blackwell, Leo, Norquist, LaPierre, and Nance listed as members. While O'Steen was not specifically listed as a member, there was a representative from the National Right to Life Committee on the main list.
From the Southern Policy Law Center, which monitors hate groups:
The CNP is an intensely secretive and shadowy group of what The New York Times once described as “the most powerful conservatives in the country.” It is so tight-lipped that it tells people not to admit their membership or even name the group. Revealing when or where the group meets, or what it discusses, is also forbidden. The organization, which can only be joined by invitation and at a cost of thousands of dollars, strives mightily to keep its membership rolls secret.
It's basically like Fight Club -- if you're a member, you don't discuss it. Steve Bannon and Kellyanne Conway are among its members. This is yet another signal that Bannon wants to turn the whole world into Fight Club, which of course he does.
But wait, there's more! Back to the original piece for a window into Gorsuch himself. Karoli references his college yearbook quote:
That is a quote from Henry Kissinger, which reads, "The illegal we do immediately, the unconstitutional takes a little longer."
As we've witnessed over the last not even two weeks, they've figured out a way to shorten the timeline on the latter.
If there's a little bit of a bright side, it's that Karoli is actually giving us information we can use:
Please keep this list in mind and circulate it every time a Republican claims that Judge Gorsuch is qualified and a Democrat counters with a need for a more moderate nominee who can get a consensus vote of more than 60 in the Senate. Judge Gorsuch is the dream of extremist right-wing groups. He's pro-business, anti-individual, and hard-right wing. Ideology will drive his rulings from the bench, and he's the wrong choice for the Supreme Court.
Potentially 40 years of this guy on the bench. It's OK, I know Hillary would've also nominated a Scalia clone on steroids.
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