Doubletalk

This post is dedicated to my wonderful cousin Heather in North Carolina, of whom I'm proud to be associated because she stands up for the same stupidity that I try to address on this blog.

One doesn't know whether to shake one's head and laugh, or cry. 

During the North Carolina gubernatorial race, Republican candidate Pat McCrory was asked how many anti-abortion bills he would sign as governor. "None" he quickly replied.

Then North Carolina Republicans came into power in a big way, earning a majority in the state legislature that Republicans hadn't held since Reconstruction. 

You'd be forgiven if you thought that the legislative agenda that followed was all about small government conservatism. Instead, the Not-So-Grand Old Party has had a field day doing everything from trying to establish a state religion to banning nipples. No; I'm not making this up.

But perhaps most egregious of all, besides the onerous voter ID bill Republicans passed (the subject of a blog post to come), is Senate Bill 353. 

Originally a bill concerning motorcycle safety, Republicans shoehorned abortion restrictions into the bill hoping that voters would be either too dumb or too uninformed to tell the difference. The bill passed the legislature (naturally) and headed for Governor McCrory's desk.

The man who claimed during the debate that he would not sign any abortion restrictions into law promptly approved the motorcycle bill, abortion restrictions and all.

http://tinyurl.com/lkysmue

That action in itself would be cause for understandable outrage among North Carolina voters - McCrory went back on a rather clear and distinct promise he made to not sign abortion restrictions into law.

Perhaps more egregious, however, is the way in which McCrory is trying to spin the situation:

"This law does not further limit access, and those who contend it does are more interested in politics than the health and safety of our citizens."

Ah, the old "it's for the health and safety of women" dodge! McCrory and his Republican cronies would have us believe that they cared so much about women's health that they shoehorned abortion restrictions, which impose overly strict regulations on abortion clinics that will likely shut them down, into a motorcycle bill and passed them on to the governor.

There's a word for people who promise one thing and then do something completely different.

A Big 'Screw You' to Texas Women

Following an eleven-hour filibuster by state representative Wendy Davis, and protests numbering in the thousands, Texas Republicans finally passed their restrictive anti-abortion bill, which is supposed to close all but five of the thirty-six Planned Parenthood clinics in the state.

How the legislation was passed is instructive of the underlying agenda:

Texas Republicans voted early Wednesday to move forward with new abortion restrictions, after limiting testimony at a public hearing, refusing to consider Democratic amendments and imposing strict security precautions to prevent disruptions from protesting abortion-rights supporters.

 (Emphasis mine)
Source: Washington Post

The irony is striking. Republicans are usually the first to emphasize accountability and "consensus of the governed". That was partly the basis of their opposition to so-called "Obamacare" in 2009: Democrats have "pushed through" the legislation despite the fact that the American people "didn't want it".

Yet when it comes to unpopular legislation that harms women's health, Republicans are suddenly very, very concerned with making sure that We The People (whose opinion they claim to value more than almost anything) don't get a chance to speak out.

It just goes to show something that I've slowly begun to realize in the past five years: you can tell when Republicans are lying by simply looking to see if they are talking.