Think Humanely

The latest installment of Hypocrisy Watch is once again brought to you courtesy of a conservative “values” forum. Rep. Trent Franks stood up and called Obama “an enemy of humanity.” Watch below:

Maybe you agree with Franks and his fanatical opposition to abortion. Fine. But where the hell does this guy get off calling anyone “an enemy of humanity?” Let’s look at his record. Below you’ll find a list of some of the things that he has voted against:

● Paycheck Fairness Act
● Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, which would penalize employers for pay discrimination against women
● CHIP Reauthorization Act, which would expand health care coverage for children
● Extension of Unemployment Benefits
● Federal Student Aid Programs
● Cash for Clunkers
● Trade-in Vouchers for Fuel Efficient Cars
● Hate Crimes Expansion
● National Volunteer Program Expansion
● Food Safety Regulations
● Mortgage Restructuring in Bankruptcy
● District of Columbia Voting Rights Act of 20007
● Voting Rights Reauthorization Act, the pesky little bill that seeks to protect minorities from voter intimidation and other illegalities
● establishing an Office of Congressional Ethics
● GI Bill
● Funding for Midwest Flood Cleanup
● Iraq Related Provisions such as Troop Withdrawal, a Permanent Base Ban, and Limiting Interrogation Techniques
● a ban against arresting and suing patients who use medical marijuana
● College Student Relief Act of 2007
● Student Loan Forgiveness for Teachers
● the Ready to Teach Act of 2003 (one of only 17 people to vote against)
● Sexual Orientation Employment Nondiscrimination Act

So let’s recap: He’s not only against but actively tries to obstruct equal pay for women, increasing health coverage for children, making it easier for people to buy environmentally safer cars, regulating unsafe food practices, making it easier for people to get out of bankruptcy, extending suffrage to Americans and protecting minorities from voter discrimination, benefits for veterans, ending a war that has claimed up to 1 million innocent lives, ending torture, making higher education more affordable, ending work-place discrimination against homosexuals, and rewarding people for becoming teachers.

Say what you will about abortion, but for this particular individual to call anyone “an enemy of humanity” is a fucking joke. Franks, you are a disgusting individual and belong in the ninth circle of hell, frozen for all eternity.

Watch this roughly nine minute clip from The Rachel Maddow Show, then I want to comment on two of the speakers, Rep. Chris Smith and a model whose name I can barely stand to type, Carrie Prejean.

Let’s start with Smith and this rather amazing quote: “The culture of death promoted by Barack Obama, by his Secretary of State, by his cabinet, by Sebelius, by the subcabinet, and by appointees by czars, is outrageous and unconscionable.”

Whatever decency Smith may show in his other legislative efforts and speeches he has made is overshadowed by the dogmatic, irrational, unsupported, and utterly asinine statement that he made in his speech. Smith accuses everyone politically related to Obama of supporting and actively striving to create a culture of death. His only “rationale” for this ludicrous drivel? – the fact that the Executive hasn’t sought to overturn the law of the land and outlaw abortion across the country.

Think about that. Because liberals, who are constantly accused of being “activists” who want to subvert the Constitution, increase the power of the federal government, and impose their will on the people, refuse to overturn a law that has been upheld by courts all across the nation, including the Republican dominated Supreme Court, and supported by the majority of citizens, they are guilty of forcing death onto people. They’re not respecting an equal branch of government (the judicial). They’re not respecting the right to privacy guaranteed by the Constitution. They’re not respecting the rights of women, who make up the majority of the American population.

By the way, how many times did Bush and his GOP Congress introduce constitutional amendments to overturn Roe? What quotes from Bush can Smith provide in which the former President demands that the Republican controlled Congress amend the Constitution to make it illegal in all fifty states to provide abortion services? . . . Why do I hear crickets?

According to Smith, however, whose blind idiocy is eclipsed only by his incoherent religious zealotry, liberals are the ones promoting mass murder.

Yet Smith supported the invasion of Iraq, voting to authorize an illegal war of aggression. This war has claimed the lives of anywhere from 100,000 to 1.2 million Iraqi civilians. Why didn’t he mention this at that so-called values conference of his? Because he doesn’t care. Mass murder is just fine as long as it’s profitable and instigated by a Republican. It’s especially okay as long as the majority of the victims are brown people who talk funny and worship the same god in a different way.

Smith also opposes embryonic stem cell research. This research has the potential, if left unmolested by theocratic assholes like Smith, to cure or treat cancer, heart damage, haematopoiesis, neural and behavioral birth defects (might be useful for all those babies he wants to force women to have, despite their, you know, neural and behavioral birth defects), Crohn’s disease, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, diabetes and, especially useful for all those soldiers he decided to send off to war, brain damage, spinal cord injury, deafness, blindness, and wound healing. He’s against developing these treatments and cures in the quickest and most efficient way. In 2006 he voted to uphold Bush’s veto of a bill to aid the scientific development of embryonic research.

Then there is this gem by the 22-year-old model, in which she starts by patting herself on the back for essentially lacking the common sense to not say something so incredibly bigoted on national television, and then proceeds to highlight how her education at the evangelical San Diego Christian College has completely warped her sense of reality, let alone the actual meanings of words:

“A young woman who had the courage and the bravery that not many people have […] And I am disgusted at the way some people can be so intolerant [applause]. It disgusts me.”

Saying that you think a certain group of consenting adults should be deprived of the same rights and opportunities afforded to, for instance, her, is neither brave nor courageous. It’s fucking idiotic and ugly. Would it have been brave if she stood up on national television, looked into the camera, and told an audience of tens of millions of people that blacks shouldn’t be allowed to marry whites, just like in the good ol’ days? Would it have been courageous if she had told all the young girls watching that women really aren’t smart and rational enough to have the right to vote? Of course not. And those two scenarios are no different, ethically or morally, from what she did. The only reason that my two hypothetical examples seem so hyperbolic is because we’ve largely evolved past that past bigotry and hate. We haven’t when it comes to same-sex marriage. It’s still okay to say faggot. It’s still okay to fire somebody from their job in several states because they love men rather than women.

Then for her to go on and decry the public’s treatment of her, to complain about how intolerant people are and how much it disgusts her is ludicrous. She doesn’t mean any of this. Like Smith, she’s perfectly fine with intolerance, as long as it’s the kind that her Bible condones, as long as it’s the intolerance that she herself practices. And to call the small public backlash that she has experienced ‘intolerant’ is misleading in the extreme. Technically, you can call opposition to racism, rape, sexual harassment as intolerance of those things. But a more accurate term would be humane. Just. Moral. When you go on air, Ms. Prejean, time and time again, and regurgitate your hate and prejudice, you do not deserve “tolerance” as you understand it. You deserve rebuke. You deserve shame.