Station:      KFKA, 1310 AM

Show:        Amy Oliver Show

Guests:      Brophy

Link: http://www.1310kfka.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=41&Itemid=59

Date:         November 12, 2012

Topics:      Civil Unions, Same-Sex Marriage, Adoption, Religious Liberty, First Amendment, Civil Rights, Bible Study, Anti-Christian, Bed and Breakfast, Hate, Freedom, California, Libertarian/Left, State Assembly, Colorado House of Representatives, Elections, Barak Obama, Legalization of Marijuana, Amendment 64, Hurricane Sandy, Hurricane Katrina, George W. Bush, Media Bias, Todd Akin, Missouri, Debt, Tax and Spend, Economy, Federal Reserve, United States Supreme Court, Constitution,

 

[following commercial break at 26:55]

GUEST HOST KRISTA KAFER:    […] Now, I’m disappointed—I mean, civil unions is bad enough but I’m disappointed to hear that they’re probably going to run a gay marriage bill.  And the reason for that is that gay marriage really does hurt the first amendment rights of those people who don’t – who hold to a traditional view of marriage.  I think about the fact that they shut down a 100 year old adoption agency in Boston because they wouldn’t adopt to same sex couples.  And it seems to me that if you want to have a different definition of marriage, be it plural marriage or be it gay marriage, that’s fine.  But when you force it on other people you’re necessarily going to injure their first amendment rights — of association, of free speech.  And so if that passes, it’s really going to put the burden on faith based organizations and churches because they’re going to be coerced into adopting this different definition of marriage that is not the historical view.  It really ultimately comes down to squashing peoples’ first amendment rights.  Is that what you see happening?

COLORADO STATE SENATOR, GREG BROPHY:  I don’t know that you and I have ever really discussed this but we’re on almost the identical page.  I think it’s the effort to raise sexual orientation to civil rights protections that is in a direct contradiction with religious liberty—first amendment protected religious liberty.  And I think most of Colorado understands that people may want to live together and have this relationship – that’s fine.  But isn’t there a happy medium here where you can also have an adoption agency that says, “All things being equal, we would prefer to have a male-female married couple work with our adopted children – all things being equal.”  I mean, I think most people believe that too, and I would hope that we could find a happy medium.  I suspect that we will end up settling this question at a U.S. Supreme Court level within just a couple of years, because there are some cases that are testing this.  For instance, say, if you run a Bed and Breakfast and want to cater to folks who are on, you know, bible study-based family vacations, and you refuse to rent a room to somebody who isn’t married, or who is in a same-sex marriage, you can be sued for discrimination.  And your– that’s a direct contradiction between the civil rights protection and the religious liberty protection.  And somehow, some way, we’re going to have to find a happy medium, here.

KAFER:  Yeah, I agree.  And I think most Americans could care less what other people do in the bedroom, I really don’t.  I mean, I’ve got friends that are part of—that are in alternative relationships.  I respect my friends.  I love my friends.  What they do in terms of their relationships, in terms of – that’s their business.  They’re adults.  That said, I do hold to a biblical view of marriage and I don’t want a government to be able to say, “No.  No, Kafer, you can’t hold that, and you can’t operate your life that way.”  And I think– what kind of angers me is that they try to make those of us who oppose gay marriage on the basis of first amendment liberties, they try to make us out to be hateful.  I don’t hate anybody.  I don’t.

BROPHY:  [Lauging] No, actually, I just like freedom.  And I do wish that you could live unencumbered by other folk’s opinions being rammed down your throat.  And hopefully, we’ll get there.  I do think so.  I really think that when the dust has settled, all of this is going to settle out over the course of the next one to five years and hopefully we will still have the ability to practice the religion of our choices without encumbrances placed upon us by the government saying, “You can practice your religion but you can’t say or do these three things.”   Now, because then you no longer have religious liberty.  And I do think we’ll get there.  And I do think that’s a happy medium.  It’s a funny state that we live in.  I mean, you said your mom said we now live in California, somewhat.  Um, I think based on the vote here, this last week, we have to be considered a Libertarian/Left state, by the outcome of the vote.

KAFER:  Which is kind of interesting—an interesting combination.  You know what, we’re going to talk a little bit about that when we get back from the break.  But we’re just going to take a short break and talk to our sponsors.  Back in a jiff.

[commercial break]

KAFER:  And welcome back to the Amy Oliver show.  This is Krista Kafer.  I’m sitting in for the awesome Amy Oliver, who is not in the studio today.  And we are talking with Senator Greg Brophy of Eastern Colorado about the last election, what it will mean for us.  Before we went to the break, you mentioned that we are now a Libertarian/Left state, which – there seems to be a little—it’s almost like saying “a large shrimp”, or something.  Those two things don’t really go very well with me.  Explain what you mean.

BROPHY:   [laughs] Well, you know, Barak Obama won Colorado with about the same amount of votes that he got four years ago.  And the “legalize marijuana” issue actually got more votes than Obama did in Colorado

KAFER:  [laughs]

BROPHY:  And that’s what leads me to say that we’re kind of a Libertarian/Left state.  Um, and you know, and geez, I hate to say this, but it sure seems like there is an element of an anti-Christian bent in Colorado which probably does also play into that Libertarian/Left side of things.

KAFER:  Which is interesting.  You know, I’ve heard—I read a commentary in the Wall Street Journal this morning.  Basically this woman was accusing social conservatives of hurting the party.  And, you know, with the exception of a couple of idiots like that Akin guy in Missouri, I thought most people really did just focus on the economy, on tax & spend issues, on the fact that we can’t continue to have a $16 trillion debt.  I didn’t see a lot of loud, crazy social conservatives out there.  So, I’m wondering where this animus is coming from.

BROPHY:  Well, like I said, there’s an element of folks who just don’t like Christians, and I think it’s been in the—they’re well represented at the State Capital right now.  And there’s an element, there’s a leg, or an element of the Republican Party that has always been rather embarrassed by the Christian conservative component of the Republican Party.  I don’t know what to do with them.  I mean, you know, we form our coalitions in U.S. politics before the primary and so, pick your side.  And as for me, I’m going to be on the side that argues for fiscal restraint, and that argues for religious liberty and individual liberty, limited government and less spending by the government, but either people buy that argument or they don’t.  The exit polling was kind of funny in that, still, by—I think, something like 53 to 37 percent, people blame George Bush for the current economic conditions.  And, which is – you know, that’s a success of the Obama administration and his allies in the Left-stream media, to continue to portray all of the current economic conditions as something caused by the Bush administration, when objectively you can’t say that.  You also can’t say that George Bush was a supply side conservative, but you can’t blame George Bush for entitlement spending that has grown over last thirty years, and is ultimately just killing us.  And you can’t blame George Bush when the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates too low and collectively encourages banks to make loans on assets that clearly couldn’t continue to go up in value. 

KAFER:  That is kind of interesting, you know, that four years later we’re still blaming Bush.  We might as well just blame Bush for Hurricane Sandy, you know, so-called global warming.  I mean, whatever. 

BROPHY:  You do bring up an interesting point there, in that, if you remember, when Katrina blew ashore in New Orleans, the news media went down and found people to ask that question:  Where’s George Bush? And now that Sandy has blown ashore in New York with a different president, no one is blaming the current president for the woes that the victims of Hurricane Sandy feel.

KAFER:  Very interesting. 

BROPHY:  Not once do you see that kind of a story leading the headline, “Where’s Barak Obama?  Why isn’t my power turned back on?”  It’s always, you know – they’re blaming the power company.  They’re blaming the Red Cross, even.  But no one was blaming Barak Obama for the victims being out of power and without food and living in pretty tough conditions after Hurricane Sandy.  That is not the same as when Hurricane Katrina blew ashore in New Orleans.  And that is in part because reporters prime people with questions about who they are mad at.  “Are you happy with the way your president has been handling this hurricane in New Orleans?”  They certainly never asked that question of anybody and put them on TV up in New York.

KAFER:  You know, you’ve got a point, that it is really hard to surmount this media bias and this is just a great example of it.  You know, we only have about thirty more seconds.   You just tell people how to find you on the web, and also, what do you think people can do now?

BROPHY:  Well, that—you know, the media is never going to be on our side, so we have to tell our story, we have to tell it well, and we have to not nominate people like Todd Akin, who clearly isn’t ready for prime time.  And remember, this is a big country.  We still have a Constitution and a Supreme Court that are hard to change and that’s a good thing.  You can find me, easy as pie – “SenatorBrophy”, all one word, on Twitter—[I]do a lot of things there.  greg@gregbrophy.net is my email address, and I of course have a website.  I do a little bit of stuff on Facebook, but I usually [inaudible] social.

KAFER:  Well I hope people find you.  Thanks a lot, Senator Brophy.  We’ll be back after this break.