It’s not government that I have a problem with—it’s the lack of leadership that is so damaging and disconcerting. Here we are, having barely survived a housing crisis that still has not corrected itself, while the villains who recklessly abused our economy and created untold suffering remain the fat cats of Wall Street. Criminality within the financial sector is a revered way of life these days, and the fiddler on the hill watching this Romanesque burning of our nation is the governmental leadership that has turned its back on ordinary and extraordinary Americans so that they may drink champagne with those same fat cats at the party.
This week the house decided on an abortion bill that will do nothing to create jobs, protect the economy, reduce student debt or give a morsel to the poor, but it is a masterfully manipulative pandering of what the GOP still considers to be its base. This bill, is doomed to fail in the Senate which means that the whole thing was all for posturing and has nothing to do with addressing the real issues strangling the country.
I don’t write too much political stuff anymore. It’s too upsetting and the story has been told so many times that I have become almost numb to it. But this morning, once again I read (oh I must stop reading morning news) about two GOP men, of course, who are using my tax dollars, to push forward an abortion bill that has more to do with stripping women of any legal, private, personal healthcare choices that it does anything else.
First there is Michael Burgess, who not surprisingly is a Republican from Texas. He opposes a women’s legal right to choose to abort a pregnancy beyond 15 weeks because he, as a former OB/GYN, has witnessed male fetuses masturbating in the womb! That’s right. That’s his argument…you cannot makes this stuff up, even though he has. He postulates that if a male fetus can feel pleasure, than surely it feels pain, a new but totally unproven GOP theory. Makes me wonder about the female fetuses that the GOP would condemn were they to be found with their little hands between their legs. Really!? And you’re a doctor?! The GOP has done everything in its power to paint women as stupid, irresponsible, sluts, whores and idiots when it comes to personal choice, but hey a boy fetus that masturbates—well, boys will be boys and it seems to have provided scientific ground for Mr. Burgess. Meanwhile, Rome burns.
Secondly and unfortunately not last, is Trent Franks also a Republican this time from Arizona, who voiced the “rape” exception quietly added to the bill last week, by stating that “very few pregnancies result from rape.” An author of the bill that will now go to the Senate where it will fail, Mr. Franks backed off of his remarks via spokes-people who tried to make the arrogant standard-bearer for women’s health issues look remotely human.
Do we need to examine our views about aborting pregnancies to a greater and deeper degree? Yes, we do. We also need better sex education for young women that will include learning about birth control, responsibility and choice, so that more abortions are prevented. That of course means, that factions of the GOP who oppose birth control are going to have to get over it and come to terms with the fact that we are all sexual beings! Similarly, we need for women to know that if they are raped, they have more than one choice. But if one more man who has never owned a vagina tells me what the psychological/spiritual makeup of the physiological condition of pregnancy or rape is; and then tells me that he knows better than me and my doctor, I most likely will hunt him down and beat him with a speculum until he shuts up!
These are the bills that our so-called leadership is working on and it will not result in the prosecution of Wall Street criminals. This type of bill will not create jobs or bolster a sagging economy; they will not heal the housing industry or help the poor. These bills, in my view, will only serve to underscore a false theology crammed down our throats by a GOP who fears sexuality in women and wants to control it! Chattel, anyone?
There it is, my morning political rant because I just couldn’t help myself and I had to get my ire out onto the page. I vote and I pray that my vote still counts. That and being vocal about the outrageous abuse of what governance is supposed to be, is about all that I can do. Yes, it is not government that I have a problem with—it truly is the staggering lack of leadership coupled with a stunning ignorance and arrogance that seems to have taken over at least half of the House and Senate and continues to fiddle while we burn. And you thought you would be reading about baby robins and walks with the dog this morning?