COMMUNITIES DIGITAL NEWS – Mikey Weinstein: ‘Fox is’ what ‘professional wrestling is to real competitive sport’

Selected Article Excerpt:

…Nonetheless, moderate Republicans are often vilified before getting the chance to articulate their message. In an already hostile political environment, this brings about many more unnecessary troubles.

One man who has seen this for himself is Mikey Weinstein, the Military Religious Freedom Foundation’s leader. His group, which advocates for the civil rights and liberties of U.S. Armed Forces personnel, has attracted boundless criticism from Christian conservative groups. Said criticism has led to Weinstein and the MRFF being smeared “radical atheists”, as well as no small number of serious personal threats.

Despite this, the criticism, sometimes brought about by figures like Religious Right kingpin Dr. James Dobson and delivered to large audiences by Fox News, seems unlikely to let up.

For all the conservative movement-related publicity that he receives, Weinstein’s career as a Ronald Reagan Administration appointee and Air Force Judge Advocate General goes unmentioned, along with him being a registered Republican.

He tells me that his being a GOPer “doesn’t fit” the “narrative” of his critics, also mentioning that his “family tends to be, in many respects, a very conservative family. Not all of us, but, I mean, this is not — the MRFF fight is not a political spectrum left or right fight, it’s a constitutional right or wrong fight….some of our best donors and supporters are extremely conservative Republicans. We have liberal Democrats, we have Greens, we have Independents.

“By gosh, the gentleman that ran for the presidency under the Libertarians — with the Libertarian nomination — former two-time New Mexico Governor — Republican governor — Gary Johnson, he’s a close friend, and he garnered almost 1.3 million votes in the last presidential election, and he’s on our advisory board. “So, it doesn’t fit their narrative….I think that Fox and the Dobsons would love it if I could be viewed, or our foundation, as a tree-hugging, Northern California, Chardonnay-sipping bleeding-heart liberal Democrat, not that there’s anything wrong with that, but we’re not, and my family has three consecutive generations of Military Academy graduates in it.

Click to read more