Political Irony

Conservatives say that because owning a gun is a protected right we should not restrict their sale in any way, no matter how much that restriction makes sense. Keep loopholes in background tests so that terrorists and the criminally insane can easily buy guns? Of course!

On the other hand, even though the Supreme Court says that abortion is a right, conservatives are more than happy to create a multitude of roadblocks to getting one.

For example, the state of Missouri has some of the strictest laws against abortion in the nation, ostensibly to save the lives of fetuses. At the same time, the rate of homicides in the state is 56% higher than the national average, making it one of the worst in the nation. In fact, more people die from guns in the state than die from car accidents.

The solution is obvious!

Missouri state Representative Stacey Newman recently introduced a bill that would take the same restrictions to getting an abortion, and apply them to getting a gun. For example, there would be a 72 hour waiting period for purchasing guns, and the buyer would have to watch a 30 minute video on firearm fatalities.

Some of the restrictions sound crazy. Like the one requiring a gun purchaser to visit an emergency room at an urban hospital “when gun violence victims are present”, and have a counseling session with two faith leaders who have presided over funerals in the last year of a child gun violence victim. But these restrictions were modeled on the ones already required of women seeking an abortion in the state.

It could have been worse. In a Facebook post, an anti-gun activist suggested that we treat young men who want to buy guns the same as we treat women who want an abortion:

Make him walk through a gauntlet of people holding photos of loved ones who were shot to death, people who call him a murderer and beg him not to buy a gun. It makes more sense to do this with young men and guns than with women and health care, right? I mean, no woman getting an abortion has killed a room full of people in seconds, right?

But if I can’t scare the shit out of you, I might not get elected…

copy; Keith Knight

Last week, the New York Times ran an opinion piece headlined “Anyone but Ted Cruz“. It is widely known that Cruz is utterly despised in Congress. Maybe it is because of things he has done, like when “He likened Senate Republicans who recognized the impossibility of defunding Obamacare to Nazi appeasers.”

Cruz tries to spin this as “the price invariably paid by an outsider who challenges the status quo, clings to principle and never backs down.”

However, it turns out that virtually everyone who has ever worked with him (or even just knew him) loathes him. As someone who worked with Cruz in 2000 on the Bush presidential campaign put it, “Why do people take such an instant dislike to Ted Cruz? It just saves time.” Indeed, he was the only campaign staffer who did not get a job in the White House. Even his former boss, Dubya, said “I just don’t like the guy.”

It goes even further back than that. His freshman roommate in college at Princeton hates him so much he said publicly “I would rather have anybody else be the president of the United States. Anyone. I would rather pick somebody from the phone book.”

A political blog in Texas (where Cruz is the junior senator) picked up the story, and added that Cruz is so busy trying to put himself in the limelight that he has accomplished nothing for the state that elected him.

The best part are the comments. One comment says:

Cruz is an untrustworthy, narcissistic, plutocratic, theocratic fascist who speaks with a forked tongue. He lies as easily as he breathes. Truly, he is an insidious snake oil salesman–lacking any sense of ethical and social responsibility–not an ounce of compassion or loyalty in his bones. He has no respect for anyone. Cruz is all about Cruz.

Someone else responds “and those are his good points”.

Another series of comments goes:

i used to like Cubans until this fraud came up, which is everything Fidel Castro fought against. He is obnoxious to a stinking level, a parasite whose accomplishments in Texas amount to zero.

so you lump all cubans in with him? Come on

Yeah, lay off the Cubans. This bozo is Canadian anyway. Wait… Sorry Canada!

Extra special bonus: Watch unedited video of Cruz coaching his family to say nice things about him for campaign ads. There’s even a small argument between Cruz trying to talk his mother into saying some stuff, but she is uncomfortable and resists. Another video has his wife talking about her brother, who she says “is presently a missionary in Haiti”. But then she stops the taping, saying “My brother’s thing’s too much” because actually “He doesn’t live there”. Cruz tells people what to say, and hugs are repeated over and over until they have just that right feeling of warmth and spontaneity. Warning, watching Cruz try to appear human can be painful, and the discomfort of his own family is palpable.

© Keith Knight

Lemme see. Instead of the “Good Samaritan” they have the “Selfish Samaritan”. Why would he let any of those Syrian refugees seek refuge in our country?

They have Saint Ronnie. And the Golden Rule (“he who has the gold, makes the rules”). With the preemptive war in Iraq, they have “do unto others before they can do unto you”.

WWJD?

The Bible has over 300 verses where Jesus speaks about the poor and social justice. Here are just a few:

But when you give a feast, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame, the blind

Blessed are the meek, for they shall inherit the earth.

You lack one thing: go, sell all that you have and give to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.

Whoever is generous to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will repay him for his deed.

It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich person to enter the kingdom of God.

I applaud Paul Ryan’s speech today, where he pledges to “put together a complete alternative to the left’s agenda” over the coming year.

Ok, I admit it, I really want to see what the Republican agenda is. For too long, their agenda has been to oppose everything Obama favors (even when it is something the GOP came up with in the first place, like healthcare reform). But Ryan agrees with that, saying:

And I don’t mean just undo what the president has done — as if we could time-travel back to 2009. I mean, show what we would do, what our ideal policy would be — looking forward to 2017 and beyond. We owe it to the country to offer a bold, pro-growth agenda. And that is what we are going to do.

But that’s not the only reason. I sincerely believe that the GOP has an important role to play in this country. I consider myself a moderate, and that means that I should be somewhere in the middle between liberals and conservatives. Conservatives have done many great things in this country, just not many of them lately. For example, I admire William F. Buckley’s oft stated opinion that conservatism needs to be more than just a “negative response to liberalism”.

And finally, I believe in competition. I don’t want our country to be dominated by a single political party. I want lively debate between multiple parties (as many as reasonable), and someone to hold those in power in check.

Is Ryan serious, or is this just a cynical political exercise to get people to vote for a Republican president so they can control all three branches of our government? We’ll see.

UPDATE: On the other hand, the other big GOP news today is the vote in the Senate to repeal Obamacare, including Medicaid expansion. The same bill also defunds Planned Parenthood. Some things never change. The bill will be vetoed by Obama.