Thursday 29 November 2012

What Republicans say and what they do


Rachel Maddow had a great piece recently on how the mainstream media is totally missing the work of real Republicans passing real laws in the states. She noted that while beltway reporters are musing that Republicans learned their lesson after the election and are now tacking to the left, Republicans out in the states, where they control legislatures and statehouses, are still pursuing the causes they really believe in – the war on women, the war on gays, banning abortion etc. In other words, in Washington where their minority views are often irrelevant, Republicans are playing nice, but out in the E-I-E-I-O states where they have real power, they are marching forward with extremist agenda.


Meanwhile, in the House of Representatives, the one key place in Washington where the GOP does rule, they have put forward their slate of House committee chairs. Nineteen white men. Notwithstanding all their blather about the need to reach out to women and minorities….When their actions actually count, they are still marching forward as though the election never happened.

Meanwhile, Daily Kos has a superb article about America’s Christian right celebrating Uganda’s effort to pass a bill imposing the death penalty on homosexual acts by parents, authority figures, and “repeat offenders”, as well as lesser punishments for all the other gays and lesbians. Powerful members of America’s Christian right are tremendously excited about the law, calling it a worthy example for America – let’s make it happen here! “It can be done!” As the Jewish community would be happy to remind you: when powerful rightwing nut jobs with government connections begin to openly advocate genocide against an unpopular group….you might want to pay attention. Because they, too, said “it can’t happen here!”


So in 2014 and 2016, when the Republicans yet again send people like Nikki Haley and Piyush “Bobby” Jindal to sell us their Big Tent snake oil, pleading with us to believe that they really love women and minorities, let’s all remember that all they love about women and minorities is their voting power. Once the election is over, it’s ban abortion, ban contraception, kill gays, blah blah blah.

Because they think we’re all stupid.

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