Current Events v. Politics

Having grown up in a family where one political party was always wrong wrong wrong & the other was always in the right, I developed little interest in partisan politics.  It was the dynamics that intrigued me, what was being said by whom, did it reflect back to values or to votes, did the politico seem to be set on serving his/her constituents & just who did those actual constituents seem to be?

Two situations came up over the past days that touch on experiencing politics as current events rather than a personal engagement.

The horrific flooding in Texas immediately got me wondering if the same people who recently signed a petition calling for the state to secede from the Union would expect the governor to ask for federal aid.  Someone on Facebook was shocked at the hypocrisy of bleeding-heart liberals who wanted Texas to be denied federal aid because of such blatant disloyalty, but I haven't seen any such calls.  

 

I've seen a lot of people - myself included - wondering if the people across the state, from the Panhandle to the Rio Grande would suddenly realize the value of belonging to a greater whole.  We can all go it alone when times are good  - it's when disaster happens that being part of something bigger makes a difference, whether it is one state among many or one person who is part of a family, a circle of friends, a community.  It wasn't a partisan sentiment, but one based on what was to me an obvious question - will Texas take this opportunity to show it can truly stand alone?

The other incident involved Gov. Scott Walker, who's expected to make a run for the GOP presidential nod.  On a radio show, he gave an astonishingly warm & fuzzy reason for the 2013 law that requires women seeking an abortion to first have an ultrasound.  He went beyond disingenuous to sound flat out disconnected.

Background - personally, I believe that SOMETHING happens at the moment of contraception that deserves protecting.  But my religion raised me, child & adult, in the belief that life doesn't begin until the first breath.  My heart tells me abortion is an aborration, but my religious upbringing could leave me wondering.  

Getting back to Gov. Walker...  Appearing on a conservative radio show, he   touted his achievements as governor - “We defunded Planned Parenthood, we signed a law that requires an ultrasound. Which, the thing about that, the media tried to make that sound like that was a crazy idea.”

“Most people I talk to, whether they’re pro-life or not, I find people all the time who’ll get out their iPhone and show me a picture of their grandkids’ ultrasound and how excited they are, so that’s a lovely thing. I think about my sons are 19 and 20, you know we still have their first ultrasound picture. It’s just a cool thing out there.”

“We just knew if we signed that law, if we provided the information, that more people if they saw that unborn child would, would make a decision to protect and keep the life of that unborn child.”

As a woman, it doesn't matter what I believe about abortion.  Forcing someone to have an ultrasound when she has decided to terminate a pregnancy strikes me as cruel & unusual punishment. I don't get how current conservatives get up in arms about government regulating our business practices, yet are all for it regulating what women do with their bodies.  And I don't even agree that abortion is ok - but it currently is legal in the USA.  

While Gov. Walker's comments stopped me in the tracks, a piece on a conservative blog amazed me just as much.  It slammed Planned Parenthood for criticizing his comments.  "Walker gave an interview, during which he talked about how amazing technology is nowadays that people are able to show the very first picture of their baby to friends and family — an ultrasound picture of their baby before birth. But the abortion giant Planned Parenthood trashed Walker and took his words out of context by attempting to make it appear Walker wanted to mandate ultrasounds before an abortion."

Bad, bad Planned Parenthood - making it look like he wants to mandate ultrasounds for women seeking an abortion.  Wait...  He did sign into law that very mandate.  It was signed into law on July 5, 2013, taking effect the very next Monday, so it should have registered with the folks at LifeNews.com.

Gov. Walker decries the "gotcha" media that misrepresents his tenure & values, but what to say about a conservative media that will say whatever suits their point of view, even if light years away from the facts.  They are far worse about this trait than their liberal progressive counterparts.  Which is one of their strengths.  They don't let the facts limit or restrict or apparently even inform their opinions.  Was it Gov. Rick Perry who said he knew something was true because - in spite of the fact there was no evidence backing it up - he felt it in his gut.  It's impossible to have a reasonable discussion with anyone thinking from his or her gut.

The blog bolstered the governor's charming scenario of grandparents showing off an ultrasound to admiring friends.  It noted that when women at a pregnancy center see their ultrasound picture, almost all of them keep the baby.  That makes sense - they are at a pregnancy center, not at an abortion clinic.  Flip the statement to be the latter & I wonder how many women change their minds.

My interest isn't in politics, it's in current events.  For most of my life, I was an untried but very true conservative.  But today's conservative movement would turn off even my Mom, perhaps even Aunt Gay.  They elevate the worst sort of thinking, disregard facts when they don't dovetail with their preferred narrative, ballyhoo thinking from the all-knowing gut while deriding science.
 
Earlier this month, a major news story was about a vast number of Texans signing a petition to secede from the Union.  Their state has a booming economy, is a magnet for people moving from other regions.  Texas, they believe, can make it on its own.  To them, the Lone Star State is capable of becoming its own sovereign nation.  How strongly do they feel that when disaster strikes?  

The state of Wisconsin requires that women seeking an abortion have an ultrasound before proceeding.  I respect the state's right to pass such a law.  Personally, I would ban all abortions, can understand why people believe that keeping a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus is a form of abortion.  But I am appalled at the governor's lack of a principled stand, at his use of Hallmark images rather than doing what's right.  He believes in the law he signed - he should stand by it, unflinching in his resolve to save the lives of the unborn.

In neither case are my feelings & opinions colored by partisan politics.  Values?  Absolutely.  But my interest is spiked by current events, not whether a state should be allowed to exit a union that works against their best interests rather than for, by well-respected voices speaking out in disreputable ways.