Quite often the most damning thing you can do with hateful, stupid and evil people is just to let them speak for themselves. We’ve been doing that quite a bit lately with The Week In Stupid and The Bubblegum Crucifix Award. But while the stupid and the tacky have certainly exploded exponentially in recent times, they are by no means a new phenomenon.

When I first started circulating information about propaganda back in 2001, which I did via email list (remember those?) I compiled quite a collection of quotes of conservatives speaking for themselves, from roughly 1964 to 2004. Recently I came upon this list, and decided it was too good not to share. So here is the first installment. When they tell you who they are, believe them.

“Things are more like they are now than they’ve ever been before.” —Gerald Ford, former impersonator of Chevy Chase

“And I see Bill Buckley is here tonight—fellow Yale man. We go way back, and we have a lot in common. Bill wrote a book at Yale. I read one.” —George W. Bush, former impersonator of Wil Ferrell

“If I hadn’t (helped) then Reagan would not have been re-elected, and certainly Bush wouldn’t be in office today.”—Sun Myung Moon, founder of The Unification Church (“the Moonies”)

“I will be a uniter and not a divider.” —G. W. Bush, campaigning in 2000. And then…

“Either you’re with us or you’re against us.” “Get aboard or be left behind.” “I’ve earned political capital, and I intend to spend it.”—G. W. Bush, post-campaign

“The nation must come together to unite.”—G. W. Bush

“If you teach a child to read, then he or her will be able to pass a literacy test.” —G. W. Bush (whose campaign website listed “Putting Education First” as his number three priority.)

“I have opinions of my own—strong opinions. But I don’t always agree with them. —George H. W. Bush

“Rarely is the question asked, is our children learning.” —G. W. Bush

“The problem with AIDS is, you get it, you die. So why are we spending money on the issue?”—Dennis Rehberg, Lt. Gov., MT

“There is not one single case of AIDS reported in this country that cannot be traced in origin to  sodomy.” —Jesse Helms, former Sen., NC

“(AIDS is) God’s way of spanking us.” —Rev. (sic) Jerry Falwell

“The homosexuals have declared war on nature, and nature is exacting an awful retribution.”—Pat Buchanan

“I was with some Vietnamese recently, and some of them were smoking two cigarettes at a time. That’s the kind of customers we need.” —Jesse Helms

“It’s interesting when you think about it, the slaves who left (Africa) to  go to America, because of their steadfast [sic] and their religion and their belief in freedom, helped change America. ” —G. W. Bush

“I don’t feel we did wrong in taking this great country away from (Native Americans). There were great numbers of people who needed new land, and the Indians were selfishly trying to keep it for themselves.” —John Wayne, who made a career of portraying an actor

“(Native Americans), from the beginning, announced that they wanted to maintain their way of life… and we set up these reservations so they could… Maybe we made a mistake. Maybe we should not have humored them in that wanting to stay in that kind of primitive lifestyle.”—Ronald Reagan, true actor and profound student of history

“(My father would ask me) how did you feel when you stood up in front of the people for the State of the Union Address—state of the budget address, whatever you call it.”—G. W. Bush

“Women are best suited to secretarial work, decorating cakes, and counter sales, like selling lingerie.” —-State legislator Larry Koon ,SC

“Like most women, my wife thinks with her glands, and not with her head” —Sen. Mark Hatfield, OR.

“Human beings are not animals, and I do not want to see sex and sexual differences treated as casually and amorally as dogs and other beasts treat them. I believe this could happen under the ERA. —Ronald Reagan

“Sexual harassment on the job is not a problem for virtuous women.” —Phyllis Schlafly, GOP token female straight guy

“Women are less equipped physically to ‘stay on course’ in the brawling areas of business, commerce, industry and the professions.” —Pat Buchanan, token Catholic Nazi

“The feminist agenda…is about a socialist, anti-family political movement that encourages women to leave their husbands, kill their children, practice witchcraft and become lesbians.” —Pat Robertson, one of many WASP televangelist Nazis

“Feminism was established so that unattractive, ugly women would have easy access to the mainstream of society.” —Rush Limbaugh, beautiful mainstream male

“If you want a successful marriage, let your husband do what he wants to do.” —Rush Limbaugh, while on his third successful marriage

“I believe we are on an irreversible trend toward more freedom and democracy. But that could change.” —Dan Quayle, former bulletproof vest for George Bush

“I stand by all my misstatements.” —Dan Quayle

“Boy, they were big on crematoriums, weren’t they?” —George H. W. Bush at Auschwitz

(On what he had in common with Tony Blair) “We both use Colgate toothpaste.” —G. W. Bush

“Capital punishment is our society’s recognition of the sanctity of human life.” —Sen. Orrin Hatch, UT

“If you set aside Three Mile Island and Chernobyl, the safety record of nuclear is really very good.” —Paul O’Neill, former Sec. Of the Treasury(Other than that, Jackie, how was your trip to Dallas?)

“All we’re seeing (on TV so far) is the negative side of nuclear war.” —Barry Goldwater, former senator, AZ — who more than anyone else launched the canard of the “liberal media”. Ah, if only the press had celebrated nuclear annihilation more

“The reason we start a war is to fight a war, win a war, thereby causing no more war.”—G. W. Bush

“My fellow Americans. I’ve signed legislation that will outlaw Russia forever. We begin bombing in five minutes.” —Ronald Reagan, doing a mic check before a live telecast

“The United States has much to offer the Third World War.” —Ronald Reagan (He repeated this Freudian slip NINE TIMES in the same speech.)

Stay tuned. There will be more. Much, much more.