Richard Viguerie – Marketing & Direct Mail

But first — if you’re coming to New York, add Come From Away to your wish list.  A friend took me.  I wasn’t expecting much.  But guess what?  It’s terrific.  Filled with humanity and humor and foot-stomping energy. (And no annoying intermission to interrupt the flow — what a concept!) You will leave the theater feeling great.

Meanwhile, if you happen to be gay (or have lots of gay friends), see Bright Colors and Bold Patterns.  Again, I wasn’t expecting much. The website “trailer” didn’t grab me.

But the director is a friend, and both the Times and the New Yorker called it “hilarious” — so I got tickets.

Well!

It’s quite the one-man show!

You’ll swear you see four characters on stage the whole time.

And how odd to juxtapose that recommendation with this one, because my friend Richard Viguerie — king of right-wing direct mail — is staunchly anti-equality.  And most other things I care about.

We were once on a panel, back when Charles was alive and gays were not included in America’s hate crimes law and could not serve openly in the military — let alone marry — and I finally boiled it down to this: “Look, Richard.  You know me, you know Charles.  I know you like us and wish us well, as we do you.  And you know we pay our taxes as you pay yours.  So just tell me: If it were up to you, which rights would you allow us and which would you not?  May we live together?  Hold hands?  Sleep together?  Serve in the military?  You’re in charge. Just tell us.”

Richard squirmed.  His faith told him he couldn’t start allowing us rights because that slippery slope would lead to marriage and who knows what else.*

He said he wanted time to think about it.  We agreed that I’d ask him again the following year, which — given the vagaries of panel scheduling — I did not get to do.

Anyway, I happened to come across this 2016 interview on YouTube yesterday.  If your job involves marketing or direct mail — or you’d just like to put a human face on “the enemy” (because no one has done more than Richard to move America to the right) — watch.  He brims with energy and — in his way — good will.  But, oh, the harm his team has caused.  Never  more than this year.

Speaking of which . . . here is a report of the speech in which the President lied massively, blatantly, and consequentially for all to see — saying that he and his wealthy friends would be paying much more under the Republican plan than the relatively little they pay now.  It’s not a gray area; it is a knowing, enormous, colossal lie.  That he is not universally condemned for it by Congressional Republicans is appalling.  And scary.  And ominous.

Have a great weekend.

*Polygamy!  Bestiality!  And Gomorrah stuff like that. Like go-Moore-ah 32-year-old man molesting a 14-year-old and then running for Senate.