How extreme has the Republican Party become? Very extreme! Case in point: check out who Yesli Vega, one of the leading candidates for the VA07 Republican nomination to take on Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-VA07), was hanging out with last night – David Barton. Who’s David Barton, you ask? Check it out!
David Barton (born January 28, 1954) is an evangelical Christian political activist and author. He is the founder of WallBuilders, LLC, a Texas-based organization that promotes pseudohistory[1][2][3] about the religious basis of the United States.
Barton has been described as a Christian nationalist;[4][5] his work is devoted to advancing the idea that the United States was founded as an explicitly Christian nation and rejecting the consensus view that the United States Constitution calls for separation of church and state.[6][7][8][9] Scholars of history and law have described his research as highly flawed, “pseudoscholarship” and spreading “outright falsehoods”.
Great, huh? But wait, there’s more! LOL
In 2012, Barton’s New York Times bestseller[62] The Jefferson Lies: Exposing the Myths You’ve Always Believed About Thomas Jefferson (published April 10, 2012)[63] was voted “the least credible history book in print” by the users of the History News Network website.[64] A group of ten conservative Christian professors reviewed the work and reported negatively on its claims, saying that Barton misstated facts about Jefferson.
Oh, and check out what the Southern Poverty Law Center has to say about Barton:
- “A prolific propagandist, Barton has long promoted the canard that our Founding Fathers never intended the separation of church and state but rather sought to construct a Christian nation.”
- “Barton has warned about the dangers of Islam but claimed that ‘secularism presents a greater threat to American traditions and values than does Islam’ and that the Constitution was not meant to be a secular document. He has battled marriage equality and has campaigned for state restrictions on legal equality for LGBT people. He has involved himself in the new war on unions, claiming that Jesus and the Bible oppose minimum wage laws. He has also been extremely active in the religious right’s campaign against so-called ‘activist judges.’ His 2003 book Restraining Judicial Activism calls for the impeachment of federal judges who don’t interpret the Constitution the way he does. In addition, he says, members of Congress should use the threat of impeachment to intimidate federal judges.”
So yeah…if Yesli Vega turns out to be the VA07 Republican nominee against Rep. Abigail Spanberger (the primary’s on 6/21), the choice for VA07 voters in November couldn’t be starker.
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