Larry Pittman is a bad joke

by | Apr 14, 2017 | Editor's Blog | 7 comments

Rep. Larry Pittman is the best entertainment in the North Carolina legislature. He came on most people’s radar screen back in 2013 when he introduced a bill that would establish a state religion in North Carolina. He was shut down by an embarrassed leadership but he’s never one to be easily deterred. On Wednesday, he introduced a bill that would override the US Supreme Court and ban same-sex marriages in North Carolina. Then, while most of the country was laughing at him, he defended his bill in a post on Facebook that calls Abraham Lincoln a tyrant and compares him to Hitler.

Pittman is special kind of ignorant. He’s a Christian fundamentalist preacher who puts his religion before his country and his beliefs before those of his fellow citizens. His bill to override the Supreme Court basically says that God’s Law, as he interprets it, takes precedent over the government’s. He also has his own twisted version of history to back up similarly twisted logic. In his telling, Lincoln waged an unconstitutional war that cost the lives of 800,000 white Americans.

While Pittman is fun to watch because he’s such a parody of himself, he’s also disturbing because he will probably continue to get re-elected. He represents a world view that is still too common in many parts of North Carolina and has been given new license because of the rise Donald Trump and the alt-right.

Throughout my life, I’ve heard these theories and always dismissed them as the rantings of ignorant reactionary extremists with very limited influence. They’re rooted in the ideology that drove the Ku Klux Klan at various times throughout our history. The KKK considered (and I guess still considers) itself a Christian organization intolerant of opposing views of religion and promoting a distorted version of history.

While the Klan’s influence waned after the success of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s and early ‘70s, remnants of their distorted views of history remained. Otherwise intelligent people would argue that the Civil War was an unconstitutional invasion of the South and not about slavery. Not that Pittman is intelligent, but that’s where he’s coming from.

I don’t think Pittman is any great threat and I’ve certainly had a good laugh at his expense. Speaker Tim Moore was smart to tell the press that his marriage ban bill was DOA. Kudos to Rep. Jason Saine for calling out Pittman while embracing Lincoln. However, the GOP should do more to rein in the likes of Pittman and disavow his divisive, ignorant and discriminatory ideology.

7 Comments

  1. Randolph Voller

    The irony of Rep. Pittman is that while some of his supporters and perhaps Pittman himself work about Muslims and “Sharia Law” he introduces legislation that is theocratic and in violation of the first amendment.

    Furthermore, any claims he makes or made by his supporters that they serve a “higher law” that they will interpret for the benefit of the body politic is not comical nor farcical but rather downright dangerous.

    He has the right to practice his religion as do his supporters, but that right ends when it seeks to encumber the rights of others through the imposition of a state sponsored religion.

  2. A.D. Reed

    What saddens me is that, despite more than 50 years of bipartisan state governments’ determination to provide a good, solid, free education to every child in North Carolina (a half-century that abruptly ended in January, 2013), there are still tens or hundreds of thousands of Tar Heels who are so ignorant, so uneducated, so gullible, so disturbingly dense that THEY VOTE FOR PEOPLE LIKE PITTMAN. [sorry for the all-caps, but I can’t emphasize with ital. or boldface. 🙂 ]

    Maybe it really is time to require people to pass a citizenship test to vote. If every citizen, in order to register, had to pass the test required of new immigrants to our country, we could soon find ourselves with a dimwit-free legislature. What a relief that would be!

    • Jay ligon

      You hit the nail on the head. There have always been and always will be zealots and ignorant people who want public attention. It is discouraging that there is a majority in Larry’s district who are at least as ignorant as he is. Someone should take Larry aside and explain a basic principle of law (since he is in the business of making laws): the Supreme Court can never be overruled by the legislature. Larry doesn’t know this widely-understood fact of government.

      There should be a Barney Fife rule on Jones Street. You can propose one idiotic law that makes everyone laugh, but after that, you need to get a real lawyer to sign your legislation affirming that it is at least somehow constitutional.

    • joe Friedberg

      Please don’t think that North Carolina, or for that matter, the South, have a monopoly on Pittmans. My State of Minnesota just elected Jason Lewis to replace Ms. Bachman in Congress. Ms. Bachman’s husband takes federal money, as a psychologist, to turn gay people straight.

      Their districts are made up of people with high forheads sitting on their front stoops, staring straight ahead. They are thinking great thoughts about how a legislative bill to bring back blacksmithing is going to make America Great Again. Jobs Jobs Jobs

  3. ariel Metcalf

    Not sure Mr Pittman represents a minority view. Looks more to me like many many think that way and while they won’t admit it publicly will certainly vote it in the privacy of the voting booth. And now that we’ve elected one just like him president, his kind of thinking has become main stream and supporters are coming out of the woodwork like (whatever nasties come out of the woodwork). I think it is time to stand up and be counted if you’re of the opposing view.

  4. Dwight Willis

    I personally don’t find Mr. Pittman or others of his ilk “entertaining.” I am not entertained by racists, misogynists, sexists, xenophobes, homophobes, or others who express their narrow intolerant views of the world and who dismiss and revile those who share a different world view. I am especially offended by those who provide these views in the name of Jesus Christ.

    • Norma Munn

      I’m with you. As a woman, I have never found sexism funny. I still recall the moment when I finally told a male colleague who made sexist jokes, that I did not find my own oppression funny and walked out. It was very hard to say that to a group I considered friends, hard working, caring people, but they learned as did I. Some behavior is too harmful to be used for entertainment. (I will admit that there are professional comedians who can occasionally break that rule and make an important point, but I still don’t laugh.)

      In the case of Pittman, he has some power both in his community and as an elected official. One should never overlook the damage even those with little power can do to others. I wonder what happens in his community to young women, people of color, the LGBT individuals, non-Christians, disabled, or even those who believe in science and serious education. Clearly many of those in his district agree with his views, or at least tolerate them, but it is hard for me to believe that there are not dissenters.

      If he truly embarrassed the NC GOP leadership, I suspect they could do something to get rid of him. They don’t. Not surprising, of course.

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