We, the PEOPLE!!

Last night Rick Santorum came very close to beating Mitt Romney in Romney’s own home state of Michigan. The tally: Romney 41% to Santorum’s 38%.

That Santorum came so close but couldn’t close the deal is a testament to his extremist socially conservative views, such as his opposition to women’s use of contraceptives and his rigid  and inflexible position that all abortion should be illegal, even in cases of rape, incest, danger to the mother’s health or life, etc.  He also holds the ultra-conservative view that all sex outside of marriage is wrong and immoral, and that marital sex should be primarily for procreation.

Besides his hostility toward the reproductive rights of women, Santorum has also expressed hostility toward college graduates and the idea that everyone should have access to college.  Since he believes in a religiously traditional role for women, i.e., stay-home mothers and wives, not single, sexually active, college-graduated company executives telling men what to do (and presumably where to go do it), he is clearly the darling of born again/evangelical voters.  This is evidenced by the exit polls in Michigan where a 51% to 35%  majority of such voters chose him over favorite-son Romney.

Santorum might well had won Michigan if he had not been so vocal as to his extreme-right social views.  But he miscalculated how much (or how little, actually) his ultra-religious-right views would resonate with the average voter in the GOP primary. Perhaps, as Jerry Falwell did 30 years ago with his “Moral Majority” movement, Santorum thought that his fundamentalist-religion-belongs-in-government philosophy would catch on with John & Jane Q. Mainstream.

Unfortunately there are people out there who share these views.  Almost always republicans, they believe that if these “rules” are good enough for the bible, they’re good enough for the government and for everyone living in America.  That views has fueled the recently re-energized onslaught of attacks on women’s rights in state legislatures across the USA, where ever-tightening limits on a woman’s right to choose are popping up in GOP-controlled states,  further strengthening the war on women.

For example, look at Virginia (VA).  Similar to other states that have placed limits on a woman’s right to choose, the GOP-controlled Virginia General Assembly trumped them by passing legislation that would mandate a women seeking an abortion to first undergo an expensive and medically unnecessary invasive intra-vaginal ultrasound procedure, “because woman have a right to this information” as these fundamentalist fanatics have tried to publicly rationalize their arrogant actions.  Of course, the woman herself would be forced to pay for the procedure out of her own pocket.

After a tremendous amount of criticism and ridicule was levied against the Virginia GOP from all over the USA, the republican governor of Virginia convinced his cohorts in the Virgina legislature to soften the bill by requiring only an “on-the-tummy” ultrasound.  The legislature passed the new bill and the governor is expected to sign it into law.

WOW…For a political party that screams bloody murder over the federal health care reform mandate that most people will have to buy health insurance starting in 2014, the GOP sure seems to embrace government mandates when it suits their purposes.

Other states have imposed waiting periods (as if a woman suddenly chose an abortion as she was passing an abortion clinic), parental consent for women under 18 (who are just as unintentionally pregnant as women over 38), unnecessary ultrasounds, mandating the woman has to listen to the fetus’s heartbeat for a certain period of time before her abortion is scheduled, having to view photos of aborted fetuses, and other medically unnecessary processes and procedure designed solely to delay an abortion in the hopes of scaring or shaming the woman out of it.

It’s like someone trying to scare or shame someone else out of accessing their right to freedom of speech, or the right against self-incrimination.  Besides being unconstitutional, it is also immoral.

Imagine that:  an immoral practice from people claiming to be standing on the highest moral ground!

But besides the incredibly arrogant hypocrisy of this “holier-than-thou” crowd, what’s even worse is that it seems to be the most pious among them that continuously are being caught literally with their pants, down, in extramarital and or/gay affairs and/or sexually abusing children.

And they scream the loudest about an assault on their religious “freedom” if they have to allow health insurance companies to provide contraceptives to non-believers in their employ.  But they see no such assault on their part when they forcibly impose their anti-contraception beliefs by refusing to allow health-insurance-provided contraceptive services to women in their employ who want them!

This would be laughable if it wasn’t so tragic.  In fact, the other advanced western industrialized countries of the world (all of which have single-payer universal health care) ARE laughing at us!

Santorum and his fundamentalist-religious-right brethren would do well to remember that….as would his own campaign…because we WANT him to be the GOP nominee!! 

With the 2012 campaign season in full swing, more and more negative political advertising by one GOP candidate against another is showing up in the media where the GOP still has primaries to run.  But the GOP also has been running a lengthy negative advertising campaign against President Obama for over three years, and it is heating up even more right now.

The ad campaign referred to above is in the form of bumper stickers.  It’s been going on since Obama took office in January 2009, and was designed to keep the anti-Obama folks energized.  Slogans on stickers making fun of his name, the health care reform law, and all fashion of insulting “cutism”s (at least to the right wing) are seen on the back of cars…many of them old and beat up…and also particularly on pick-up trucks in the south, west, and elsewhere.  Messages such as:

“How’s that Hope & Change working out for you?” and

“O(ne) B(ig) A(wful) M(istake) A(merica)!”  and

“Send that Muslim back to Kenya!”

…and other similar stuff.

Well, as a progressive thinker, you no longer have to cringe in your car as you resist the temptation to drive it into the back of the pick-up displaying those obnoxious GOP bumper stickers.  You can now fight back!  As a public service, We, the PEOPLE!!  is providing anti-republican, anti-Tea Party bumper stickers so that the progressive thinkers among us can fight back.

All you have to do is copy & paste any or all of these into your favorite word processor or Photoshop-type program and enlarge and print them.  Or capture them and take them to your local bumper sticker printer…Or for a particularly satisfying experience…capture them and email them to all the conservatives you know, and revel in the knowledge that you may well have made their heads explode! 

You see…they don’t expect this from progressives.  They think progressives are a bunch of nancy-pansies who can be abused at will.  Well….this will turn the tables, at least once.  So here they are.  Enjoy!

And this author’s personal favorite:

What FUN!!!!!!  

(Note:  With very special thanks to RocketManLA!     )

Readers of We, the PEOPLE!! often submit letters, and occasionally they are so good that this blog would be remiss if the special ones would shared with the greater reading audience.

The following is an example that everyone should read and think about:

“Ronnie Republican is a self-made man who believes in the free market system.

“He knows the problem with the economy is too much government interference and the real answer is unrestricted capitalism.  He’ll have none of that liberal “European style socialism” or “tree hugging environmentalism.”  No more helping those too lazy to help themselves.  Government can do no good.  Ronald and Rush and Glenn all told him that.

“So he enjoys his morning breakfast eating food that is the safest in the world, and the water used to make his coffee is fresh and pure all thanks to some food safety regulations which some “environmental wackos” and bunch of “progressive Communists” fought to establish.

“He drives to work in a car with safety features that some liberals fought for, over safe high-speed roads and interstate highways constructed with federal funds.

“He refuses to join the union at work.  In fact, he doesn’t like unions and he doesn’t like progressives, either.   He doesn’t think about it, but that nasty union of progressives struggled to achieve his higher wages, decent hours, safe working conditions and even the health care he takes for granted.  Plus, his ten year old son isn’t working in a dangerous factory or an unsafe coal mine, either, because of those nasty union progressives.

*Ronnie’s flying off to the West Coast today in a plane made safe by federal regulations and guided on its way by federal (as in government) “air traffic controllers of the Federal Aviation Administration.

“His children are attending college thanks to government student loans, and his parents are enjoying dignity in their retirement thanks to Social Security and Medicare.

“But Ronnie Republican never thinks too much of all this.  You see, Ronnie is a self-made man.  Nobody helped him.  He made it all on his own, and everyone else should do the same thing.”

….or how about this one, regarding the self-righteous, self-appointed, self regulating “GOP Jesus”:

“With Rick Santorum claiming we need a “Jesus” candidate, Mitt Romney telling us that Obama will prevent us from being “one nation under God”, and Pat Robertson claiming God has told him God opposes Obama, an old familiar figure is back.  Once again, “GOP Jesus” is making an election year appearance and touting his special version of Christian values and principles.

“‘GOP Jesus’ and his followers fully support the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and, in fact, they never met a war they didn’t like.  They also fully support torturing suspects during wartime, albeit as one pastor (who wants to remain anonymous) told me, “reluctantly.”

“‘GOP Jesus’ and his buddies want to cut food stamps and heating assistance to the poor, but there can never be enough money for the military or the extremely wealthy.  They believe the military-industrial complex creates the secret to happiness.  They condemn and resist all attempts to tax the richest 1% a bit more to feed or clothe the working poor and/or help the middle class, because, they explain, you can’t, “build up the weakest by knocking down the strongest.”  As for the sick, they can take care of themselves, just as they have done for centuries.

“When Obama has said that we’ve made mistakes as a nation, “GOP Jesus” and his followers won’t have any of that “excuse-mongering)!   It just shows them how filled with shame and hate for this country Obama really is!

“‘GOP Jesus’ and his followers send out all kinds of ugly emails about President Obama, never checking them for accuracy or concerned about “bearing false witness.”  If it’s a knock against Obama, it must be true!   And they will almost always conclude their knocks with “God Bless America!!!!!”

“They love Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh, who preach hate for Democrats and especially Obama, and while eating pork hot dogs at work on the sabbath Sunday, they denounce gays and lesbians because “that lifestyle is something that is forbidden by the Old Testament.”

“Yes,” GOP Jesus” has many followers.

But one has to wonder what the original “Man from Galilee” would have to say about all this!  Somehow, it’s hard to believe that Jesus is really on their side!”

“signed,

“Secret Sam”

Secret Sam obviously doesn’t receive the same secret transmissions and messages in his head that those religion-loving, government-hating GOP tea baggers seem to be hearing in their heads.  It’s really too bad, because it must be the ultimate joy to know that what you believe is absolutely blessed, even in the face of overwhelming empirical evidence to the contrary.

After all, what did empirical evidence, science, data, proof and verifiable facts ever do for anyone?

Anyone paying attention to GOP race will note that, with the possible exception of Ron Paul, the other three GOP candidates are falling over each pandering to the GOP’s extreme conservative religious right.  Each claims to be more religiously devout and more socially conservative than the other two.

Mitt Romney is a Mormon, Rick Santorum is Roman Catholic, and Newt Gingrich was a Baptist and a Lutheran, until he converted into a Roman Catholic.

The Roman Catholic church, as well as some ultra-religious evangelical sects, actively disapproves of all forms of birth control except the “rhythm method“, a partial-abstinence methodology that seemingly works reasonably (though not infallibly) for priests and nuns.  However, a 2011 study by the Guttmacher Institute, a nonprofit organization working for the advancement of reproductive health, found the following statistics (which do not include the “rhythm method” as a form of contraception):

*  Among all sexually active women in the USA, 99% have used contraception, while 98% of sexually active Catholic women have used contraception.

*  Among sexually active women of all denominations wishing to avoid pregnancy, 69% are using a highly effective method (i.e., sterilization, the pill or another hormonal method, or the IUD).

*  68% of Catholic women, 73% of Mainline Protestants and 74% of Evangelicals use a highly effective method as described above.

*  More than 40% of Evangelicals rely on male or female sterilization, which is higher than other religious groups.

Thus it can be said that the vast overwhelming majority of American woman, as well as a vast overwhelming majority of Catholic women and evangelical women ignore  the teachings of either the Catholic Church or the most extremist fanatical evangelical churches.

That’s important because this past week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services began requiring all employers’ health insurance – including religious institutions such as schools and hospitals (but not churches) – to cover contraceptives including the birth control pill and so-called Plan B pill, as well other highly effective methods such as those described above (within an implementation period of one year).

Of course, Romney, Gingrich and Santorum, who are all trying to out-pander the other for the ultra-religious voters, screamed about the evils of Obama’s health care reform and how it’s an unholy “war on religion” because of the HHS requirement on Catholic school and hospitals.  They claim it’s an attack on the Catholic institutions’ religious freedom.

But let’s examine some important facts:

1.  No one is forcing any Roman Catholic church (or any other church) or institution to either start handing out or using birth control.  The private for-profit health insurance companies are the ones providing the employer-based health insurance, and the mandate applies to those private insurance companies, to now cover the cost of birth control IF (and only if) a woman seeks it, regardless of her place of employment (except in a church itself).  The religious institutions can and will continue to preach whatever they want, and 98% to 99% of all women the USA will continue to ignore them, just as they do now.

2.  Religious institutions such as schools and hospitals generally employ people of any religion, not just the sponsoring religion of institution.  Do the churches or evangelicals and these hypocritical GOP contenders really think that the anti-contraception churches have a right to impose their particular religious beliefs on people of other religions, just because of where they work?  Is that what they consider “religious freedom”…forced imposition of one religion’s belief on others??  What about the religious freedom of the employees/victims of these employers?

Maybe the GOP’ers think that only those who share their beliefs have religious freedom, but no one else does.  Kind of a First amendment freedom but only for our special “club. 

Interestingly, Romney has five children, all born between 1970 and 1981.  Unless he and his wife haven’t had sex (with each other) in 31 years, they must use a highly effective form of contraception.  Gingrich has had more wives than he has children (2, born almost 50 years ago), so you KNOW he and his multiple sex partners have used highly effective contraception.

Santorum is the only one who might qualify as a bonafide ultra-religious-right-wing-nut.  His wife was a human factory product eight offspring!  Additionally, while in the US senate he tried to make the teaching of religious creationism mandatory in US public schools.  He opposes contraception (ergo, eight kids!), hates a woman’s right to choose, opposes gay rights, and disagrees with the principal of a distinction between private religious conviction and public responsibility, as espoused by President John F. Kennedy.  Instead, he embraces religious imposition.

Though he may be the least hypocritical of the three noted GOP candidates when it comes to these issue, he is also quite possibly the most dangerous candidate regarding women’s rights and freedoms.

The other two are simply telling the religious right wing-nuts what they want to hear, whether they believe it or not. 

Especially Romney…..who has been for everything… until he was against everything.

Once upon a time there was a man named George Romney, who was a mainstream republican back when the GOP was a moderate political party that believed in working together for the good of the nation. They believed fiscal responsibility in government was important, but they also believed in the well-being of ALL Americans, and not just the very wealthy.  As a result, as governor of Michigan, George increased state spending but responsibly made sure it was paid for by increasing state taxes.  In other words, no deficit spending, but services for the people responsibly paid for by the people.  The state prospered and he was re-elected twice!

The social upheaval of the turbulent 1960′s did not leave Michigan unscathed.  Both anti-Vietnam war protests and pro-civil rights riots occurred in its cities, most notably Detroit, and George on occasion requested that federal troops intervene to keep order.  And even though George had been CEO of the American Motors and Director of the Automobile Manufacturers Association (and therefore had an interest in big business and capitalism), he did not believe that protecting the wealthy and the powerful was the overriding task of a republican.

Although he initially supported the Vietnam war after a carefully orchestrated visit to South Vietnam in 1965, his position changed as more US troops were killed and more Americans began to change their minds about their initial support as well.  He ultimately withdraw his support of the Vietnam War  even though the big business corporate elite of America were making billions of dollar from the American war effort in Vietnam.

George also supported civil rights at a time when the more conservative people in America (namely fascists, white supremacists and extremist fundamentals Christians many of whose ancestors had actually support and defended slavery) opposed the civil rights movement at every turn.

In 1966, the republican governors of the USA wanted George to be the republican presidential nominee for the presidential election of 1968.  In fact, a Gallup poll taken in November of 1966 showed that republicans in general favored George over former vice president and former losing republican presidential nominee Richard Nixon.  A Harris poll indicated that Romney was favored to win over then-president Johnson in the upcoming presidential election.  However, due to some gaffs on his own part as well as his evolved opposition to the Vietnam War and the money Nixon spent on his own campaign, Romney began to lose popularity against Nixon, and lost his bid for the republican nomination for president in 1968.

George had a son called Mitt Romney.  Although George was not a gazillionaire, he and his family had the money to live very well and to provide Mitt with plenty of opportunity.  Mitt used that opportunity to avoid being drafted into the military by first getting a student deferment, then traveling to France as a Mormon missionary which provided a ministerial deferment, and then returning to college in the USA for another student deferment until the draft lottery of 1969 provided him with a high-enough number to escape the draft permanently.  Through it all he supported the Vietnam war, although, it was evidently not enough to serve his country fighting the war he supported.  After all, support and commitment only go so far.

What Mitt wanted was to make tons of money just like those guys producing endless supplies of military equipment for the meat-grinder of the Vietnam war.  So after Harvard Business School (paid for by his dad, of course) he became one of those businessmen he admired and made millions and millions of dollars, partly by buying up distressed companies, breaking them apart, firing people, and then selling off whatever was left.  You know…one of the job-creators.

Next he decided to play politician and ran against Ted Kennedy in 1994, changing his conservative views in mid-campaign to more liberal ones on topics such as abortion and unions (known today as flip-flopping).   But he lost that election, which taught him to tell people what they want to hear BEFORE the next campaign starts.  With his new liberal positions now a bit older, he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002 and won.  As governor, he supported and signed a universal health care law with a mandate that people had to have health insurance.

Then in preparation for a 2008 presidential campaign, he changed his position on abortion AGAIN, taking it back to its original anti-choice position in 2005.  He had learned his lesson:  Tell ‘em what they want to hear.  His campaign failed in 2008, but 2012 was another opportunity.   So after Obama’s Health care reform law passed in 2010 with an identical mandate, Mitt strenuously opposed it.

But “tell ‘em what they want to hear” won’t work in a divided USA, and ol’ George would have known that.

And George would have told Mitt:

“Son, you’re either moderate or conservative.  You have to pick one or the people will pick without you.”

But Mitt probably wouldn’t listen.  After all, Mitt’s one of the 1% and dad George was only one of the 99%!