Wait, The GOP is Seriously Considering Michele Bachmann?

Last week, Michele Bachmann caused a ruckus in the black blogosphere after signing “The Marriage Vow” a uber-conservative manifesto to ensure candidates agree that they will oppose gay marriage measures once in office. The document is offensive enough on its own, but it got a little extra juice from this inclusion:

Slavery had a disastrous impact on African-American families, yet sadly a child born into slavery in 1860 was more likely to be raised by his mother and father in a two-parent household than was an African-American baby born after the election of the USA’s first African-American President.

This makes me wonder have these people read anything at all about slavery. Did they know that slaves were considered chattel? Property, not people? And under such considerations, not allowed to legally wed? Do they even know what jumping the broom is? (Historically, black slaves jumped the broom into the land of matrimony, since many slaves were denied traditional weddings since they were considered property.) Did they miss the fact that children and families were routinely sold away from each other, breaking the bonds of family? What kind of revisionist bullshit were they reading? That whole “blacks were better off during slavery” lie has a ridiculous hold on the GOP. But I suppose this is what happens when we start re-writing history books and sanitizing what happened.

To add insult to injury, the Marriage Vow follows that steaming pile up with a glowing reference to the Moynihan report, and quickly points out the white community has exceeded those crisis levels (and the black community is doomed). Oh, the humanity!

But Bachmann signed this thing, and so far, it’s rolling off her like Teflon. Many Black conservatives, pleased with the message Bachmann endorsed with her signature, believe she’s speaking some kind of truth to power.

So, of course, the first thing I’m wondering is if there’s any policy behind all of Bachmann’s posturing, and surprisingly there is. And to my horror, it’s gonna be really appealing to social conservatives.

Bachmann hasn’t yet dropped an official platform (her Presidency page has an issues section that leaves a lot to be desired), so we can only piece together policy points from what she’s done. Since she signed “The Marriage Vow,” she’s promised not to cheat on her spouse, to only appoint strict “Constitutionalists” to the Supreme Court, to protect “the innocent fruit of conjugal intimacy,” rejection of “Sharia Islam” (yes, that’s what they wrote, Sharia ISLAM not LAW), and first amendment protection from those of us who would have the nerve to point out that we wouldn’t necessarily want to live under someone else’s religious doctrine.

Other bits are more interesting. The Free Republic reported on an April address given to the Americans for Prosperity Forum which outlined some of her other key beliefs:

Reinstate 1994 welfare reform act with 5 year lifetime cap (Latoya’s Note – They meant this 1996 act. The pilot programs started in 1994)

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