The Family Leader
In 2012 the New York Times dubbed Bob Vander Plaats a “political kingmaker” for the GOP. The NYTimes hasn’t bathed itself in glory in the last handful of years and its coverage of Iowa has been willfully ignorant of the threats posed by Iowa’s theocratic politicians for over a decade. Bob and crew have benefited tremendously from Donald Trump’s presidency. Trump let the ugliest parts of our society pull on their khakis and stroll around with their tiki torches alight - that kind of hate and the media coverage that follows is the marrow Bob and his fellow right wing theocrats feed on - and it’s starting all over again.
I’ve pulled a few bits from articles I’ve written over the last decade plus about BVP and the Family Leader - so when they do their big shindig tomorrow night in Iowa - let’s remember who we are dealing with and why they are even more dangerous now
November 2011:
Just seven weeks before the state’s caucuses, the first in the nation, Herman Cain and the rest of the GOP presidential hopefuls (except Mitt Romney) will participate in the The FAMiLY Leader’s Thanksgiving Family Forum. The candidates will face an audience of Iowa voters lining the pews of The First Federated Church in Des Moines.
The FAMiLY Leader (TFL) is the primary politico-Christian organization in the state, having played a crucial role as liaison for visiting GOP hopefuls since before the straw polls last spring.
The group has made controversial statements about homosexuality (worse than second hand smoke) and women’s role in society (producing lots of babies). They are responsible for the bizarre “Marriage Vow” made famous in July that extolled the benefits of slavery to African American families. (After push-back, TFL removed all reference to slavery from the pledge’s text). Despite all this, TFL wouldn’t be half as interesting a story if, as a Focus on the Family affiliate, the organization hadn’t been built with over $3 million in federal funds.
Bob Vander Plaats, head of The Family Leader looks like a high school principal: slight comb-over, a hallway-commanding gate, sturdy handshake and obligatory smile. He’s been called a Republican political “kingmaker” by The Atlantic and ranked as one of the top 10 “endorsements the presidential candidates covet most” by The Hill. Vander Plaats has carefully crafted his national power position over the past several years, most recently demonstrating his strength by spearheading the ouster of three Iowa Supreme Court Justices who had all ruled in favor of same-sex marriage.
Of this weekend’s debate, co-sponsored by Focus on the Family affiliate CitizenLink and the National Organization for Marriage, Vander Plaats told Citizen Link, “We’d like to see the candidates go beyond the talking points. We want to know why they think what they think, or why they believe what they believe. So we’re really looking for worldview, both from a biblical perspective and from a constitutional perspective.”
What could a host of “traditional values,” and “pro-marriage,” and “pro-family” Christian groups have to say about Herman Cain? Even before Bialek’s more serious claims of assault surfaced, PRRI posted an article titled “Sexual Harassment Allegations Could Damage Cain’s Popularity Among White Evangelicals“:
91% of Americans say that taking a bribe is a very serious moral problem, while 81% say the same if an elected official does not report all of their income on their taxes. By comparison, two-thirds (67% and 66%, respectively) say that sending sexually explicit messages to someone other than their spouse and having sex with a prostitute are very serious moral problems. Nearly two-thirds (64%) say that an elected official who commits an immoral act in their personal life cannot behave ethically in their public life.
December 2013:
[NOTE: HE IS AT IT AGAIN PEOPLE - THIS FROM JUNE 2023 - calls for ouster of 3 supreme court justices in split abortion ruling]
The Family Leader (TFL) headed by Bob Vander Plaats, whose name has recently been floated as a possible contender for the Republican nomination for Senate, launched an aggressive and ultimately successful campaign to oust three Iowa Supreme Court Justices. After these three judges ruled in favor of marriage equality, making Iowa one of the first states to allow same-sex couples to marry in the state, Vander Plaats and TFL mustered the anti-gay marriage troops.
Money poured in from The National Organization for Marriage, The Alliance Defense Fund, The Family Research Council and the American Family Association. Well north of $500,000 was dumped into Iowa for the cause. The highlight of the campaign was a 20-stop bus tour coordinated by TFL that drew perennial right-wing religious favorites like Rep. Steve King (R-IA), Tony Perkins and Rick Santorum. Each stop bashed gay marriage, warning Iowans that it was a slippery slope toward incest, polygamy and man-on-dog love (really)
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