I heard about the Texas Republican Party platform on the Atheist Experience last night, and today Zinnia Jones has a post about it. Have you seen this thing? The Texas Freedom Network has a breakdown of its contents.
Declares separation of church and state is a “myth” and calls for Congress to withdraw federal court jurisdiction over cases involving religious freedom and the Bill of Rights
Calls for teaching creationist arguments in public school science classrooms
Opposes the sale and use of emergency contraception and backs the Legislature’s war on women’s health programs
Rejects “any sex education other than abstinence until marriage” in public schools
Adopts a radical position that would essentially bar abortion even in cases of rape, of incest or to save a woman’s life
Advocates for the repeal of the Voting Rights Act, minimum wage laws and the Endangered Species Act as well as the abolishment of the Environmental Protection Agency
Attacks LGBT Texans as a threat to families and objects to laws that would protect them from job discrimination and hate crimes
Calls for further funding cuts for public schools following draconian cuts by lawmakers in 2011
Seeks to change the 14th Amendment to limit citizenship by birth only to those born to a U.S. citizen
Threatens federal judges with impeachment if they don’t toe the far right’s line in controversial court cases
It also says we should end the Social Security program, arm college students, requiring presidential candidates to submit a birth certificate, and a return to the gold standard.
You know, though, this is just the Texas Republican’s idea of a better nation. These party platforms at the state level are hammered out by the ideological extremists of the party; when it gets to the national level, the rough edges and spiky knifey bits will be smoothed out and puttied over by apparatchiks who know they have to win over a majority of the country, so most of this will go away or be buried in cryptic language and dog-whistles.
But the thing about these state platforms is that they expose the primal id of the party. I’ve been to local Democratic caucuses, for instance, and I see the extremists of that party at work — and also most of their ideas get pared away at the state and national level, too, smoothed out to a blander, more conservative muddle. You can see better where the party faithful want us to go, while the party leadership always steers a more middling course.
At the Democratic caucuses, you see people exposing the real dreams of their group. And at Democratic events, they want things like: free education for everyone; free healthcare for everyone; more open immigration policies and education and healthcare for immigrant children, legal or otherwise; an end to all wars; reduction of the defense budget; more support for labor unions; protection for endangered species; more environmental restoration; full civil rights for gay people; closing Guantanomo Bay; and just generally making the universe a friendlier place. They’ll also toss in some nonsense about organic herbal medicine or increasing subsidies for corn ethanol production, so they aren’t perfect, but one thing they are is idealistic.
Contrast that with what the dedicated Republicans propose. Sure, Democratic dreams are too often impractical, but they at least value human beings, every one of them, and want all of us to live safely and securely, with hope for personal improvement. The Republicans always sound so sour and stupid, dedicated to shutting down everyone who isn’t a white heterosexual male; it’s an “I got mine” attitude that seeks to influence the state to enhance their privileges.
This is why, even when we’re saddled with a moderate conservative jerk for a president, I have to hold my nose in November and pull the lever for the asshole with a (D) after his name. I don’t like him, I think he betrays our values at every turn, but I like the people of the Democratic party far more than I do the people of the Republican party. I’m not going to vote for Obama, ever; I’m going to vote for that guy at the Minnesota caucus who suggested that we cut the defense budget in half and spend the money on universal health care instead, and I’m going to vote against the guy in the Texas caucuses who thinks our most pressing concern is preventing gay couples from having a happy life.
Don’t forget this little gem from page P-12:
I’ll give Rick Perry this much: as far as critical thinking goes, he definitely leads by example.
The Texas Republicans aren’t even trying to hide how socially regressive, bigoted, and outright evil they are anymore.
Events like this cause the mask that the national level Republican party chooses to affect to slip, and we get a glimpse of the sheer depth of privileged, elitist, hatred-fueled nastiness that makes up the true face of their party.
Suddenly, it is all too easy to see where the Bachmanns and the Perrys come from – they aren’t outliers; they genuinely reflect the position of the bulk of Republicans. It is those Republicans who aren’t frothing fundamentalist bigots who are the oddities.
Remember reading about the Ik tribe of Uganda back in college? At the time, I thought the description of their ultra-individualist society was vastly exaggerated… after observing Tea Party politics for a couple of years, I’m not so sure.
People just can’t be that stupid. Oh . . . Wait . . .
Sometimes I would like to see this GOP utopian dream in action so everyone can see how wonderful life would be living in corporate Jesusland. I think you would end up with a nation of 90% white men. Maybe Texas can succeed and implement it. They threaten to succeed from time to time and are part of the way there already. Sorry Austinites, you are advised to relocate.
I suspect it is really not much different than any of the other Republican platforms. Here is the Iowa Republican Party Platform.
http://theiowarepublican.com/2012/proposed-2012-republican-party-of-iowa-platform/
:(
I’m sorry, Americans. Especially Texans who don’t support this but can’t escape.
Wow, that is really a huge pile of denialist crap.
Too bad shit denialists say don’t have any real substance. If it had it’d probably collapse on itself as a denialist black hole, and the problem would be solved. (Or far worse, it depends on your view of micro-black-holes.)
fsamuels;
I think you meant that Texas should “secede” from the union. They’ve been threatening to “succeed” for years, and failed under the Republican Party! (sorry, couldn’t help that dig at the right wing… the pun was just too good!)
Fleo humanitatis
Louis
I’m going to hold my nose and vote for Obama for one thing if nothing else. Mitt Romney will put another Scalia on the Supreme Court.
But… but… ROMNEY WOULD BE WORSE!!!
Well, Prof. Myers, you obviously don’t care about civil rights, women, the GLBT community, or atheists! Shame on you for coming onto this liberal, freethought blog and not voice your support for the lesser-of-two-evils candidate who will treat us and the world like shit only three-quarters as often as the Republican!
[curls into a fetal position and rocks back and forth, catatonically]
Baby steps… gotta take baby steps… baby steps… baby steps…
Declares separation of church and state is a “myth”
Silly republicans are hankering for sharia law again, huh?
mattand @1
Holy Fuck, are you kidding me.
PZ,
Well if your talking about the same organic herbal medicine I’m thinking about they should legalize that as well.
Right on brother!
Who Knows @ #6
*from the link*
Iowa platform :
Simple domestic assault… As opposed to the sophisticated variety.
Republicans in Texas depend on a small fraction of the Hispanic voters to vote Republican to win a majority.
Since their party platform will have a greater impact on Hispanics than whites -even Hispanics who are relatively economically secure- this opens a window of opportunity for the Democrats. They should run repeated TV ads showing those asian “Hispanics” and other example of Republican jingoism.
.
Keep reminding the voters about the douchebag in Arizona who wrote the extreme anti-immigrant law and has been filmed schmoozing with a notorius white supremacist (TV ads depicting it please) and this same Republican was later filmed shaking hands with Romney (show that too in the ads, please).
— — — — — — — — — — —
“I think you meant that Texas should “secede” from the union.”
Let’s set up fundie Bantustans! Preferably in the most marginal patches of land. To get into the rest of the US, they should be required to carry passports all the time.
Here’s what it says about evolution:
Notice it says ALL sides. So techncially they endorse the Gaia theory along with the Hitties, Hindus, etc creation stories as well as the theory in the Matrix movies and Dreamtime. What do you want to be they won’t exactly go for that part.
Also if teachers and students can talk about the weakness of those theories without fear of retribution then it means teachers can critizise christianity. Somehow I don’t think that’s what they meant by that.
The one thing that always confuses me about conservatives is their lust for guns. If all the policies they drool over were to be put in place, you’d think they wouldn’t want to arm the inevitable revolution.
Doesn’t get much plainer than that.
*facepalm *facedesk *doubleearpalm
I guess this is all about how the US constitution is a Christian document (and trumps Matthew 26:52..)
Oh c’mon the two parties are almost the same!!!
Democrats. Let’s cut the defense budget and feed hungry people.
Tea Party/GOP Let’s increase the defense budget and set up Soylent Green factories.
See. Either way there are no more hungry people.
Wish me and Mr. Rawnaeris luck. We may be able to get outta this crazy-ass state as early as December.
I wish I would occasionally get a candidate I could vote for. Obama was such in 2008. I try to understand how near-impossible it is to do anything useful when the legislative branch of the federal government is determined to grind the machinery to a halt, but there are limits to my ability.
In the meanwhile, I’m going to at least continue voting against the worse things.
————
I’m a little surprised the Texas Reps want to arm all college students. Aren’t colleges supposedly the places where librul professors convert all those god-fearing good kids into pinko commies?
HOLY SHIT. Most women murdered in domestic violence situations are killed when they are trying to leave. If a person cannot control themselves in their home why would you give them instant lethal force? FUCK.
I am a bit hopeful if he gets a second term, actually. too bad I am in Utah where my vote means jack shit.
It’s certainly good to see that the Republican party’s laser-like focus on jobs and the economy is so evident in their state platforms.
No wonder they get so miffed when people ask them about their stance on social issues. As if they would consider such things worth meddling with.
[/snark]
No, no, it’s their answer for making America “energy independent”.
It’s our fault for using the phrase “The stupid, it burns”.
“Adopts a radical position that would essentially bar abortion even in cases of rape, of incest or to save a woman’s life”
So, they’re okay with women dying to give birth? Were there women on the panel that approved this platform? Very scary.
And I guess getting rid of the Voting Rights Act would stop those pesky Black, Latino, non-White folks from voting.
Interesting that under this platform, people like me (foreigners) could never become citizens of the good old USA.
JUST WOW!! Thanks Texas Republicans for spelling out your view of the world — a world where people like me just don’t matter.
The thing about these platforms that the middle of the road corporatist Vichy Democrats don’t want you to know is that this is what will be in America in the very near future. It’s not by mistake that they silence them-the Vichy Dems want the same things the Republislime do: Money and power, and more and more and more and more and more and more of the stuff.
They won’t rest until we’re Somalia.
I’m at the point that I think the only thing that will change this–maybe–is for Europe to band together and invade America.
And I think most Europeans know it will be necessary, to keep the christslime here from blowing up the planet.
Wouldn’t their platform deny Mittens citizenship?
… this is just the Texas Republican’s idea of a better nation.
Prof. Myers, the Apostrophe Police have already issued you a warning about this.
Unless you can provide evidence that there is only one Texas Republican… well, you’ve seen what happened to ERV.
Don’t panic everyone. I live in Texas. I’ll handle this.
Confronted with this magnitude of stupidity, I find, I am at a loss for words.
All I can think of is an image of bear traps springing shut on Texas Republican’s testicles.
I’ve never actually voted for a presidential candidate.
Pierce R. Butler
I think PZ was talking about the Texas Republican type specimen when he used the apostrophe that way.
They are virulently stupid, unabashedly evil, and they are armed.
Comma Police: Sir, what were you doing with those commas?
Me: Honest officer, I have no idea where those unnecessary commas came from.
That’ll only last until we see black people carrying firearms openly again, at least.
Fuck, I know. I instantly caught that myself. It’s fucking fucked up, is what it is. Also, minimizing domestic violence as though it were ‘just a misdemeanor’. Shows their priorities.
What is it with libertarians and conservatives hankering after the gold standard? To have enough gold to back each dollar in circulation and on deposit would mean buying up most of the gold in the world. Do the goldbugs really want the US to be beholden to the Russians, Chinese and South Africans so we can buy their gold? Or are they willing to face massive currency deflation?
These people need to talk to a competent economist about the gold standard. Even a competent Austrian School economist would be able to explain the problems with returning to the gold standard.
It sounds like a key component of the Texas GOP platform is making sure the next generation can’t actually read the Texas GOP platform.
Don’t be silly, he’s a rich caucasian.
@39 Naked Bunny with a Whip,
More like making sure the next generation not only can’t read the platform, but can’t understand it when it is read to them.
Interesting how you add the “domestic” and it becomes “simple” (mere) assault.
I’d happily go along with the 14th amendment, citizen by birth only to a US citizen rule if we made it retroactive. Anyone having descended from an immigrant that did not actually naturalize, but rather just popped out anchor babies to make their family into “Americans” would no longer be American citizens. How many white European descended Americans would that cover? Most? That’s good enough for me.
Oh and those Hispanic people who were born on the land before it became America? They get citizenship based on the fact that we moved our country’s borders around to contain them. We invited them, they didn’t crash.
Just last week I and my friend remarked, in the midst of a very smug Western European kind of conversation, how remarkably intelligent and knowledged our American colleagues and business contacts are. However, we both have noticed a few blind spots about American ideas of right and wrong, quite difficult for a European to understand. So, it is wise to avoid certain topics.
Republicans and Texas are not among those blind spots. They represent such total darkness, that no human communication would be possible, there would be no topics left. I can’t help but assume they also hate nice weather, good food and laughter of little children. I can’t understand how the USA can stay together as a nation when half the nation seems to oppose everything that is good and decent about humanity.
Akira, shut the fuck up. Your strawmaning, ignorance of civics, math and basic pragmatism do not reflect highly on you. If you want to feel proud and pure of your ethics regardless of the reality of the situation then join a pro-life demonstration. Yelling at people who are trying to keep the society afloat in spite of idiots like you rushing around blindly like blind gerbils in jetpacks does not make you superior. People like you are fucking up the system even more and it’s annoying to hear you yell at people trying to fucking make things work in some small way.
If the separation of church and state is a myth, will they make it into law based on my belief in it?
I guess we should be glad they didn’t bring back slavery.
O.o
one step at a time. first you bring back Jim Crow, then you bring back slavery. d’uh
@47 : No 14th amendment, no minimum wage, no unions, no Voter Rights Act, no separation of church and state — how close to slavery do they need to get ? If working 16 hours a week to pay off what you owe to the company store isn’t slavery, it’s damn close.
Hey, Walton, what’s the deal on Emigrating to the UK again ?
I’ll bring my D&D books with me.
Don’t forget this is the same Rick Perry that held up the state budget for “emergency legislation” in order to force women seeking termination of their pregnancies to view a medically unnecessary vaginal ultrasound 24 hours prior to an abortion, complete with script the doctor must follow or risk loss of their medical license.
This is the same Rick Perry who appointed his own independent review board to oversee stem cell treatments/human trials conducted by one of his major donors. He’s also been hand-picking reagents and high ranking officials to state universities for years. You can’t throw a stone at them without hitting one of his major donors. I won’t get into what’s going on with funding, or I should say de-funding, the universities.
This is the same Rick Perry that held a three day pray for rain last April. Which preceeded major wildfires across the state. I’m not saying he caused them, but his prayer fest didn’t work so well.
And of course it’s the same Rick Perry who hinted at succession and said that Texas doesn’t need anything from the Federal government then demanded quick action from FEMA and the National Guard during the wildfires. [FEMA and the Guard were awesome responding to those btw.]
I’m actually surprised the whole endorsement of raw milk isn’t on that list. I don’t know when it became a party platform but the GOP has been acting like pasteurization is a form of oppression recently. Because evidently campylobacter equals freedom?
But, yea, I agree with you that much of what the GOP “stands for” is “I’ve got mine and you can’t have it”. The Dems are far from perfect but in this election I can’t conclude anything but they’re the lesser of two evils.
Someone should make a chart of what average statistics and metrics would improve for the US if Texas did secede. That could be interesting.
Hey macrophage,
At first, I thought so as well. Later on, after the “death panels” and -no insurance, let ’em die- hatred was exposed, I thought they were the “I’ve got mine, f— off and die” party.
I’ve thought about it a little more, reflecting on the fact that they want other people to pay for their mistakes (Iraq war based on lies, stealing Social Security taxes) and insanity (take your gubmint hands off my Medicare *and* lay off all lazy gubmint workers, but kill health insurance reform), I’ve come to the conclusion they’re the “I’ve got mine, pay for my entitlements then f— off and die” party.
The thing that boggles my mind is that I’ve sat through some of the local Democratic party conventions where platforms planks are formed to send to the state convention. (And in the Ann Arbor area there are some really out-there planks proposed.) The people proposing them know the state level convention officials will probably not include them in the state convention, but they like to get them anyway.
In other words, the platform eventually adopted by the Michigan Democratic party is usually fairly bland and inclusive of a lot of generalizations. In my opinion the platform is possibly too bland, which prevents a great deal of interest in the public from occurring. But the really nutty ideas which would be impossible to implement, like requiring automakers to move to a 50% electric car production, are eliminated at the state level.
But these republican conventions, at the STATE level, are thinking it is a good thing to go back on the gold standard? Why aren’t they laughed back to their caves?
@Jerry #53
You left the last part out, it’s the “I’ve got mine, pay for my entitlements then f— off and die so I can have yours as well” party.
macrophage @ 51;
At this point, you realise that the Romans were lucky that all the Emperor Caligula did was plan to appoint his horse as a consul* – a horse would make consistently better policy decisions than Perry, and wouldn’t feel the need to obnoxiously pray in public.
–
* Doubly so in the light of modern theories that this was, far from an act of egotistical madness, actually a calculated insult to his political opponents in the senate – essentially saying that a horse could do a better job than them. Maybe someone should start a campaign to elect a horse as an independent in Texas with the campaign slogan “seriously – Blossom here would do a better job than him.”
There is a cat running for Senate in Virginia. http://hankforsenate.com/
A horse would be more appropriate for Texas. Or maybe a bull?
macrophage @ 57;
As a Brit, citizen of the nation that gave the world the Monster Raving Loony Party, I can only applaud this bold move…
Nutshell:
Democratic heartland: “We’re all in this together.”
Republican heartland: “Every *man* for *him*self.”
I’m in a lecturing mood today, so I’m going to consider , both pro and con.
For centuries gold was a common form of money due to its rarity, durability, fungibility*, and ease of identification. By the 1880s, for reasons I won’t go into, gold became used as reserve currency and paper currency backed by gold went into circulation. This currency could be redeemed for specific amounts of gold.
During the late 1920s, the world economy became sluggish. In the US, the Federal Reserve was prevented from issuing currency to stimulate the economy, lend money to insolvent banks, and fund government deficits which could “prime the pump” for an expansion. This is because by law currency issued by the Fed had to be backed by a specific amount of gold** and the Fed had only so much gold on hand.*** By converting to fiat currency**** the Fed was able to create money to stimulate the economy, primarily through government spending. The US and every other first and second world country moved off the gold standard in the 1930s and has remained off it ever since.
The advantages of a gold standard for currency:
● Long-term price stability has been described as the great virtue of the gold standard. The gold standard makes it difficult for governments to inflate prices through issuance of paper currency. Under the gold standard, high levels of inflation are rare, and hyperinflation is nearly impossible as the money supply can only grow at the rate that the gold supply increases.
● The gold standard provides fixed international exchange rates between those countries which have adopted it and reduces uncertainty in international trade.
● The gold standard acts as a check on government deficit spending as it limits the amount of debt that can be issued. It also prevents governments from inflating the real value of existing debt through currency devaluation.
● A gold standard cannot be used for what’s called “financial repression”. Fiat money is used to purchase goods and services and to discharge debts at no cost to the government. This transfers wealth to those who can print money from everyone else. Financial repression is most successful in liquidating debts when accompanied by a steady dose of inflation and is a form of taxation.
The disadvantages of a gold standard:
● The gold standard acts as a limit on economic growth. As an economy’s productive capacity grows, so should its money supply. Because a gold standard requires that money be backed by gold, then gold’s scarcity constrains the ability of the economy to produce more capital and grow.
● Economic recessions can be largely mitigated by increasing the money supply during economic downturns. A gold standard would mean that the amount of money would be determined by the amount of gold, and so monetary policy could no longer be used to stabilize the economy in times of recession. Monetary policy would essentially be determined by the rate of gold production.
● The gold standard may be susceptible to speculative attacks when a government’s financial position appears weak.
● Gold is a commodity, used in jewelry, dentistry and electronics. Hence its price may rise and fall irrespective of government action.
● If a country wanted to devalue its currency, a gold standard would generally produce sharper changes than the smooth declines seen with fiat currencies.
● If each dollar in circulation and deposit were backed with gold, large amounts of gold would have to be acquired by the US government. This would certainly invite massive speculation in gold and other governments demanding certain quid pro quos for allowing the US to buy gold. If the amount of gold acquired could not back each dollar, then there would be massive deflation.*****
Personally, I believe a gold standard would be ruinous to the US and world economies. Most other economists agree with me.******
*Fungibility is a good’s interchangeability with other individual goods of the same type. For example, specific commodities, such as light sweet crude oil, are fungible because it does not matter where the oil was produced, all light sweet crude oil is worth the same amount per barrel.
**The Federal Reserve was required by law to have 40% gold backing of Federal Reserve demand notes. So each dollar had to be backed by 40¢ worth of gold.
***To make matters worse, commercial banks redeemed gold certificate bills for gold, reducing the Fed’s gold reserves, and forcing a corresponding reduction in the amount of Federal Reserve notes in circulation. Fearing imminent devaluation of the dollar many depositors withdrew funds from US banks causing a contraction in the money supply.
****In a fiat money system, money is not backed by a physical commodity such as gold. Instead, the only thing that gives the money value is its relative scarcity and the faith placed in it by the people that use it.
*****Deflation is a decrease in the general price level of goods and services. It happens when the inflation rate falls below 0% (negative inflation rate). Deflation is generally regarded negatively, as it causes a transfer of wealth from borrowers to the benefit of lenders. While an increase in the purchasing power of one’s money benefits some, it increases debt for others. During deflation, debt payments represent a larger amount of purchasing power than they did when the debt was first incurred. Deflation is an increase in a loan’s interest rate. If deflation averages 10% per year, even an interest-free loan is unattractive as it must be repaid with money worth 10% more each year.
******TL;DR over. You can wake up now.
ALL “Republicans” in this day are stupid, ignorant, insane and/or evil.
In the case of a TEXAS “Republican,” the “/or” should be deleted.
These are essentially bad human beings whose only perverted pleasure is being allowed to harm others. And see each other tripped up.
I don’t understand why anyone would want to get rid of the Endangered Species Act. Do they hate life and variety? Is it because they want to shoot some Endangered species and make rugs out of them? I can’t comprehend it.
The Endangered Species Act interferes with corporate interest and the right to kill whatever we want. God gave dominion to man after all.
The Endangered Species act tells people what they can and can’t do with their land, and is therefore the epitome of evil in the minds of conservatives, who believe that property rights are the be all and end all of existence.
Thanks, No One and Dalillama.
I guess that makes a twisted sort of sense, to people who don’t value anything but themselves. It still disturbs me, that someone could think their right to hunt or own land was important enough to justify wiping a unique species out completely.
It’s ironic, then, that these are the same people who claim that God lovingly poofed each species into existence, and claim that saying that each species evolved, rather than be poofed into existence, demeans and cheapens life and living.
Wow, what a beautiful little piece. That was stirring. I feel stirred. I actually like Obama quite a bit, but on all other counts I think you hit the nail on the head.
Skeptifem @24:
HOLY SHIT. Most women murdered in domestic violence situations are killed when they are trying to leave. If a person cannot control themselves in their home why would you give them instant lethal force? FUCK.
A guy could hurt lifting his arm to smack a bitch down. Presumably the Texas Repubs want to spare men the risk of injury.
Kinda boring set of platform points if you ask me. Let me suggest a few that will really get the GOP excited:
* Reinstatement of the Inquisition. We in the GOP cannot suffer a witch to live ( or heretic, democrat, liberal ( anyone to the left of Pat Robertson), or person outside of our belief system).
* Boldly strengthen our economic position through education. Student will watch 6 hours of Fox “truthiness” per day. Science and secular subjects will be forbidden. Of course students MUST have strong expertise in history; events of Eden, World flood, Egypt slavery. Mandatory historical figures that will be taught: Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Joseph ( many color coat guy, saviors dad and senator from the 50’s), Savior, Peter, Paul,Mary and Ringo; scratch Mary.
* Flat Tax. If you’re rich you flat won’t pay any taxes.
* Promote war for economic stimulus. It worked so well for us in Iraq and Afghanistan, we should continue the successes by attacking other aggressors; Hey Monaco we’re looking at you.
* And of course all “facts” must be analyzed through our dogma machine before we permit them for public consumption. Any “facts” that do not fit the dogma will be made to conform.
On second thought, these are on the GOP agenda! Never mind.
The great Dwight Macdonald said the national motto for American should be “I’ve got mine, fuck you jack!” (of course appropriate) is that what you are referring to?
Good points. I have grown to despise both parties pretty much equally but I don’t vote for them, I vote for this country, and if one party is 99.9% rotten and the other is 99.8% rotten then with no other viable alternatives I have to choose the less evil of two lessers. I could vote Green or Socialist or the American Vegetarian party but unfortunately they are not going to win, I wish that wasn’t true but it is, so either I can cast a doomed vote to prove to myself how ideologically pure I am or I can hold my nose and help my countrymen and country .01%.
It’s a crap sandwich either way but isn’t less crap better than more?
Whoopsie! That should be .1%.
This is the same Rick Perry that held a three day pray for rain last April. Which preceeded major wildfires across the state. I’m not saying he caused them, but his prayer fest didn’t work so well.
You skipped the step about the rain being needed to stave off one of the worst droughts Texas (and almost entirely only Texas) has had since the Great Depression. And how thousands of head of cattle had to be slaughtered, rather than letting them die of thirst. And how many other animals died from it. And how ranches and farms in Texas were nearly ruined. And how the top soil was the driest in decades.
Then came the wildfires.
We’re still dealing with the aftereffects of that drought, and probably will for at least the next five years.
We have these droughts every now and then. You have to be prepared for it. Perry wasn’t. But what else can we expect of this numbskull–or the people who voted for shit like that?
Somewhere along the political evolution freeway the term conservative became confused with anti-human, anti-intelligent pandering to some nightmarish vision of a fascist Christian-corporatist plutocracy. When I lived in Canada I thought I was a conservative. I believed in conserving the environment, efficient budgeting, conserving an advantage in technology with the best science education and science funding, and conserving a positive image with other nations. What a fucking disappointment it was to come to the US and see what these people’s idea of conservative was. They’re nothing but outright assholes, and not one of them seems remotely aware of the outcome of any of their wet-dream ideals. Is Orwell on a banned list in some states (which shall remain rednec…er, nameless)?
After thinking about it, I wanted to rant some more. The magnitude of what the GOP are saying with their ‘platform’ of religion-based (or should I say, half-guessed at interpretations of the bits they’re told to read) legal atrocities hit me harder afterward.
My freedom is drastically more important than the mindlessly arbitrary make-work projects of some pathetically credulous schmuck’s imaginary friend. These flag-draped, bible-thumping twits are consistently unaware the constitution of the US barely mentions religion at all in the original draft. Religion was a remote afterthought, the first amendment coming four years after the original constitutional draft and two years after it went into effect. The only mention it gets in the original draft is to say that no tests of religion are required to run for office, making it clear that religion wasn’t a necessity to the maintenance of freedom. But Liberty is right there in the first fucking sentence.
It should also be pretty bloody clear where the priorities of the writers of the constitution were when they come up with the phrase ‘promote the Progress of Science’ there in the first draft, before even having twinges of thought about religion or imaginary friends.
The priorities of the GOP are warped. They live in an imaginary bubble where it doesn’t matter what reality is, as long as they believe it to be true. The numbers of people that follow this ‘knowledge by imagination’ is frightening and extraordinarily dangerous. If only the clowns that are just quasi-religious would stop defending these cretins, or not actively interfering with their actions. To the fence-sitters, somehow just having vague affiliation to the same imaginary friend makes the other person more ‘moral’ (even though they’re utterly bankrupt of having thoughtful ethics).
With this level of fourth-grade sciolism, patriotism without dedication to the intent of the country (Liberty and Justice for all) becomes nothing more than hypocrisy and pretense. Having half the population not recognizing it, while happily waving their flags (which aren’t even made in country) and popping their firecrackers (ditto), all while thunderously patting their half-read bibles, it all becomes staggeringly and hopelessly depressing.
Akira MacKenzie @12:
I’m completely in agreement with you. But there’s one caveat. Everyone from Sun Tsu to my mother-in-law (unfortunately) knows there is a right and wrong time to pick your battles. Politicians like Obama aren’t the ideal candidates in the long-term scheme of things, but for the course of the next four years, knowing full well one or the other has to win in this instance, which one do you think is going to serve the purpose of your long-term goals best?
There is absolutely no organization or groundswell that is going to happen to bring in the best and ideal candidate for left-leaning politics before this November. The entire ‘Democratic’ base is angered, but they’re going to be lemmings at least one more time. The window of opportunity to get a significantly sufficient segment of population behind reform-minded candidates passed at least a year ago, before we knew even more knocks against Obama.
However, I have been the unfortunate victim of several months of GOP debates, with the most disgustingly vile candidates I have ever seen in any party not in a banana-republic or thuggish theocracy. Not wanting to abandon the country to either of those two extremes, I’m willing to fight for the one-of-two that is least likely to take us on an imminent crash course to that destination. But I say that knowing that the minute the campaigning for this term is no longer necessary, I’m going to be intently and persistently looking for, helping and promoting the ideal progressive candidate(s) I spoke of earlier. I would hope that the lemmings have tasted enough of the bitter pill, and are finally motivated to do likewise at that time as well.
@60, ‘Tis Himself
Thank you! I knew most of that already, but I finally just understood why a low level of inflation is a good thing!
ruteekatreya:
Thing is, they figure they’ve got that possibility covered:
(emphasis mine)
They would be quick to assume that “law-abiding citizen” and “dark-skinned person” are mutually exclusive. If they ain’t in the Klan – they ain’t really a Man.
What is it with libertarians and conservatives hankering after the gold standard?
Gold is shiny and gets their attention.
@dean:
Actually, I think it’s more likely that it’s ~from the Olden Days~ and we all know that old ways of doing things are *always* better!
Ing…
I ask you the same question that I have asked so many times before: When are we going to be allowed to vote for an actual leftist candidate rather than a right-wing place holder who is only slightly less capitalist, religionist, and backward than the fucking Republicans?
In the meantime, kindly fuck off. Take your pragmatism–and a running chainsaw– and insert them into the reproductive and/or excretory orifice of your choice. I’m done with your shit.
No take your unpragmatism and shove it. The universe doesn’t care about your feelings. Your lack of basic civics and ethics is embarassing
I have two challenges for any and all universities in Texas: First, a collaboration between a graduate class in Economics and one in Political Science detailing exactly what we can expect from a return to the gold standard.
Second, for a detailed report from law students and others in graduate studies on what would happen if Texas did succeed from the Union. This would have to cover how the succession would legally happen and what happens to federal property in Texas, federal pensions, currency, post offices, air traffic regulations, etc., etc., etc. (I want an opinion on what would Mexico do to reclaim territory.)
I cannot fund either of these two proposals but I hope there are university faculty who can get grants from the usual rightwing suspects. Please!
McC2lu @@ 74-76:
What can I say other than, well said– bravisimo!!
I too am particularly stymied as to why we have such a huge portion of the population that is so myopic as to not see how conservatism/Republicanism is slowly devouring the drive, intellect, potential and economic security of the populace in this upside-down American society.