North Carolina Democrat Kay Hagan is running against Republican incumbent Elizabeth Dole for a Senate seat, as I’ve mentioned on here before.

Hagan is currently winning. And momentum is on her side.

Much like John McCain‘s campaign, when Republicans saw their candidate sliding in the polls, they decided to organize a smear campaign against the opposition.

How? By finding a loose association between the candidate and someone — anyone — the Republicans can vilify.

In this case, they’ve exploited Hagan’s attendance at a fundraiser last month held by two liberals — both of whom were very active with the ACLU, continue to stand for the rights of the oppressed, work with church/state separation groups… you get the idea).

They also happen to be atheists.

For the North Carolina Republicans, that’s like striking oil.

What does their attack look like?

Take a look. Here’s the mailing that just went out from the North Carolina Republican State Executive Committee (via I’m Important and Smart):

Let’s see what they say… and how they’re lying to you:

Godless Americans Political Action Committee is a left-wing organization based in Washington, DC — dedicated to “Mobilizing America’s Nonbelievers for Political Activism.” They actively support political candidates who are Atheists and who also support their liberal agenda to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance and force the Boy Scouts to accept atheists and homosexuals as troop leaders. Their goal is to remove any reference to God in the public arena, including eliminating the Christmas Holiday

Now, once again with commentary:

Godless Americans Political Action Committee is a left-wing organization based in Washington, DC (actually Parsippany, NJ) — dedicated to “Mobilizing America’s Nonbelievers for Political Activism.” They actively support political candidates who are Atheists (There are atheist candidates?! Name one. I dare you. Even Pete Stark, the one Congressperson who doesn’t believe in God, doesn’t call himself an “atheist.”) and who also support their liberal agenda to remove “under God” from the Pledge of Allegiance (that would be nice, but if it ever happens, it’ll be through the Courts, not the Legislative Branch) and force the Boy Scouts to accept atheists and homosexuals as troop leaders (The Boy Scouts of America can unfortunately exclude whomever they want. As long as they stay away from taxpayer money. They do not, so the argument against them will continue.) . Their goal is to remove any reference to God in the public arena, including eliminating the Christmas Holiday (No one wants to remove God from the public arena. We simply ask our politicians to refrain from promoting any one particular religion over another — or religion over no religion.)

The Republicans march on (the emphasis is theirs):

In North Carolina, Kay Hagan says she shares our values. But, behind our backs she’s the guest of honor at a fundraiser hosted by the most vile, radical liberals in America.

Vile? Radical? The fundraising hosts work with groups who want equal rights for everyone. That includes Christians and Muslims and, yes, atheists.

Apparently, to the NC Republicans, the state’s values include intolerance and bigotry.

Oh.

And they quote this website on the last image.

They don’t quote me, the person who actually writes posts for this site.

Instead, they quote a commenter on this site.

What horrible thing did the commenter say?

Nothing evil.

Just that he donated to Hagan’s campaign.

And he said so on this site, a site with the title “Friendly Atheist” (cue creepy music).

I don’t know that I’ve ever been to North Carolina besides driving through, but I just donated [to Hagan’s campaign].

Clearly, that’s hate speech…

The Republican Party also quotes from our friend Ebonmuse at Daylight Atheism as well:

Hagan ought to be rewarded for inviting nonbelievers onto her platform…

What?! Rewarding a politician who invites more people onto her platform?! People the Republicans have pushed off their own platform?! Blasphemy.

Two other thoughts.

One: Not that it matter a great deal here, but it’s times like these I’m glad my site’s name is “Friendly” Atheist and Ebonmuse’s site is “Daylight” Atheism. It would look much worse if our sites were called “Angry Atheist” or “Dark Atheism”… there’s something to be said for a more positive, optimistic outlook on atheism.

Two: It’s not too late to donate to Kay Hagan.

You can help get these sleazy anti-atheist Republicans out of office.

Thanks to reader Pete for informing me about this. He wrote this in an email to me:

I am an atheist currently living in North Carolina. I have been leaning towards Kay Hagan in the upcoming election for some time now, but I had yet to make up my mind for sure. “The Benefit of Elizabeth Dole Committee, Inc.” changed that today… I have always known that I would be voting against Elizabeth Dole in this election, but now I know that I will be voting for Kay Hagan.



