Really, I get the "low taxes, small government" argument. I do. Your Department of Defense wastes 80 billion in cost overruns every year. Both parties spend too much. Congress and the federal government are merely training grounds for lobbyists and corporate spin doctors. The will of the people is thwarted every day by professional politicians more focused on re-election than why they were elected. (See: "lack of action on gun registration.") The Republican Party has a valuable role in curbing the profligate nature of Democrats who often believe that the federal purse is the answer to everything.
However, rather than govern or legislate, Republicans have continued to propose and pass state laws designed exclusively to pander to the dumbest, most reactionary of their constituents. Note: Please , if you can point to one,just one, Democratically controlled statehouse guilty of passing goofy laws like these I'll gladly offer equal time and equal ink. A few of these laws are noted below:
1) The Old Dominion of Virginia is facing a gubernatorial race in November. The leading candidate for the GOP is State Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli. Kenny is a Roman Catholic, tea party zealot who has spent his four year term trying to: 1) prohibit abortions in the state, 2) repeal National Healthcare, 3) block immigration reform, 4) encourage discrimination against gays, 5) discredit climate science. That's one busy asshat!
Cuccinelli has recently filed a petition to uphold Virginia's anti-sodomy law. Laws like this have been deemed unconstitutional for ten years. In 2003 the Court told Texas they had no right deciding who puts what where as long as the players were consenting adults. Apparently Cuch isn't buying what the Supremes are selling. Playing to his Christian friends in Roanoke "Missionary Ken" is determined to be the anti-blowjob candidate. I'm sure his anti-LGTB stance played no part in his position.
2) The great state of North Carolina, not to be outdone, has decided that "the Constitution be damned". Ten state legislators have proposed a law which (are you ready?) would allow North Carolina to establish a state religion. Unfazed by details like the First Amendment, these glue-sniffers think that the federal government has no power over them. Correct me if I'm wrong but didn't we discuss this very issue from 1861 to 1865? I know I read that somewhere. So, even if this passes the legislature in N. Carolina, it's DOA in DC. The only reason for even proposing this is to give the finger to the federal government and look tough to the corn-cobbers in Durham. BTW any guesses as to the religion of choice? Islam? Buddhism?
Again, if you know of a comparable Democratically sponsored bill, tell me.
And then there's South Carolina, ever in a world all its own The Palmetto State is listed here, not because of any legislative turdblossoms but because GOP voters have decided they just can't get enough of that Appalachian Asshat, Mark Sanford. Yes folks, SC's disgraced former governor barely deplaned from Argentina with his hot new South American fiancee (aka the bimbo in Buenos Aires) before announcing his candidacy for the U.S. Congress. Naturally, the good people of the First District, never ones to hold a grudge, said "Sure, why not?" Remember, Sanford only left the governor's mansion in 2011, eighteen months after he was outed as a cad. He will return to Congress as the current recipient of the David Vetter Rehabilitated Swordsman Award given to legislators who, having been caught with their pants down, have survived and prospered. God may forgive sins but the GOP is aces when it comes to forgiving sinners. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord and pass the condoms.
These legislative misdemeanors are only the most recent and egregious missteps by the Republicans and their teabagger minions. Not listed here are the states lining up to suppress voter turnout by demanding photo ID at the polls. (Ten states and counting.) Also unlisted are the states rushing to pass any crazy gun law that looks like an F You to Washington's efforts to curb gun violence. Add in North Dakota and its draconian new abortion law and you get a vivid picture of the tone of governance rampant in states run by teabaggers.
True, Maryland has just eliminated the death penalty, extended social benefits to illegals and severely restricted the sale and possession of firearms but these "liberal" laws do no harm and in fact attempt to do good. (Texas, by the way, has offered to execute Maryland's capital criminals if "Maryland is too woosie to do it themselves") There is no meanness afoot in Maryland as there is across the Potomac. No one in Maryland is trying to force their brand of religion or morals on its citizens. The answer to Newtown, CT and Aurora, CO may not be harsher gun laws but it certainly isn't more guns.
So while the legislatures of states like Virginia, North Dakota and North Carolina continue hissy-fits to rebel against federal authority, let's try to have a little patience. A reckoning is coming. Our Latin brothers are on the rise and on the march. Before too long the legislatures of Georgia and Texas; of Kansas and Arizona will thrill to the refrain "...all in favor of the bill on the floor, please signify by saying 'Si".
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