I'm referring, of course, to recent laws proposed and passed by Republicans that give the government - that hated institution - power to override the personal decisions made by women.
Take, for example, a recent law from the hopelessly Republican Iowa legislature which gives the governor the power to personally approve abortions. No; I'm not making this up!
Source: http://tinyurl.com/mhczlcq
Imagine the outrage - the howls about a burgeoning police state - if a liberal or Democratic governor wanted to assume for him or herself the power to personally approve gun purchases. But the government taking control of women's personal decisions? Perfectly fine!
This is also happening in good ole Wisconsin, where noted union-busting Governor Walker has decided to use the power of government to force women to have medically unnecessary ultrasounds before an abortion - because, you know, that worked so well for Governor Bob Ultrasound McDonnell here in Virginia.
Source: http://tinyurl.com/lkazzho
"I don't have any problem with ultrasounds!" said Walker recently, apropos of nothing. Of course, it's not his body that the Wisconsin state government wants to invade in the name of punishing women who want to undergo an abortion procedure.
These are examples of a (recent?) trend among Republicans that Rachel Maddow rightly calls 'big government conservatism', the phenomenon of running on a platform that decries the "gubmint" and then, once elected, using the power of public office to control and micromanage people's (read: women's) lives.
Whether this trend is truly indicative of a contradiction in conservative philosophy is debatable, though it certainly looks like one. It does, however, prove the old adage to be true: power corrupts.
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