Church leader and over all swell guy Fred Phelps was a Democrat. Does anyone esle feel that if he were a Republican that fact would be mentioned constantly?

I don’t think you can all encompass someones political beliefs in a single word that tells their party affiliation. I know you can’t mine.
I wouldn’t have guessed democrat, but it is a big tent. If he had been a tea-party Republican, his obituary would still say “ass hat” first, or should anyway.

@SecondHandStoke They didn’t _ “mention that he represented the Left“_ because he didn’t. Being a Democrat and supporting Democratic candidates does not mean you represent them.

As a Baptist, he probably knew that Democrats are much closer to living Jesus’ teaching of caring for the poor and downtrodden. He knew Republicans in Christian clothing are hypocritical in their lack of action.

And, he notably split with Democrats over their support of gay rights, in essence renouncing his support of Democratic candidates, much like Robert Byrd renounced racial intolerance and left the KKK.

So to answer your question about ass-pounding in hell, Phelps maintained his hate filled beliefs as long as he could. Byrd repented and apologized, and most Christians would believe him forgiven for his erros long before he died.

@SecondHandStoke

You are hereby ordered to write “Democrat =/= left” 100 times on the blackboard.

And regardless Phelps have have been registered as a Democrat (at least in the past), but he no more represented Democrats than he represented Christians.

Very confusing question. We have a tag of “political left” and you have this…

@SecondHandStoke: “Today’s media didn’t seem motivated to mention that he represented the Left.”

Huh? Can you explain what you are talking about here? Democrats are not “left”, and how did he even represent Democrats?

And overall, are you proposing some kind of conspiracy theory here? Would describing him as “Democrat Fred Phelps” have provided us with more information? Everyone I know knew of his self-identifying as Democrat. What are you proposing here?

@SecondHandStoke: “Do you think he and card carrying KKK member democratic WV senator Byrd are getting asspounded in hell?”

What is this “hell” you speak of? I thought Byrd and Phelps died?

Perhaps “Today’s” media doesn’t feel compelled to mention that Phelps represented the “Left,”—as you call it—because Phelps hadn’t represented any issue remotely connected to the Democratic Party since his disbarment from the legal profession in Kansas in 1985.

There was a time when Phelps found an association with the Democratic Party useful in his law firm’s legal battles against the institutional racism in Topeka, Kansas in the 1960’s, which was a cause most unacceptable in that state’s Republican Party at the time.

To quote his daughter:
“We took on the Jim Crow establishment, and Kansas did not take that sitting down. They used to shoot our car windows out, screaming we were nigger lovers.”
~Topeka Capital Journal, Phelp’s Career Checkered, Joe Taschler and Steve Fry, 3 August, 1994.

Racial discrimination cases handled by Phelps’ Chartered Law Firm made up one-third of the state’s federal docket on civil rights during this period. He got plenty of press while fighting the good fight against racism in Kansas during his association with the Democratic Party, you can be sure. And not necessarily the kind one would like, due to the tenor of the times and the popularity of Jim Crow among the Topeka establishment.

However, he was permanently disbarred in 1979 when his moral indignation rooted in his religious fanaticism increasingly affected his behaviour in the courtroom:

“A formal complaint was filed against Phelps on November 8, 1977, by the Kansas State Board of Law Examiners for his conduct during a lawsuit against a court reporter named Carolene Brady. Brady had failed to have a court transcript ready for Phelps on the day he asked for it; though it did not affect the outcome of the case for which Phelps had requested the transcript, Phelps still requested $22,000 in damages from her. In the ensuing trial, Phelps called Brady to the stand, declared her a hostile witness, and then cross-examined her for nearly a week, during which he accused her of being a “slut”, tried to introduce testimony from former boyfriends whom Phelps wanted to subpoena, and accused her of a variety of perverse sexual acts, ultimately reducing her to tears on the stand. Phelps lost the case.”
~Wikipedia

Eventually his professional license was put in jeopardy because it was proven that he had made false, malicious statements in the courtroom meant to specifically damage Ms. Brady personally by entering these into permanent court record, and as a result, he was forever disbarred from practicing law in the State of Kansas in 1979.

But this did not prevent him from practicing in federal court until, in 1985, his accusations and personal attacks against the President of the United States and the certain individual members of the Supreme Court caused the injured parties to force Phelps to agree not to practice in federal cases either.

And thus ended Phelp’s active association with the Democratic Party.

@SecondHandStoke You appear to be beating a dead horse.

Beating a dead horse? Hell, he’s humping the horse’s sun-bleached bones here.

^Shit.

You’re on to my equine necrophilia thing.