Facebook A.J. Otjen: "Is progressive a bad word? Not if it means science and technology and playing by the rules. Lets make being a Teddy Roosevelt Republican mean equal rights, conservation, and free and fair competition."
Posted on 04/14/2012 7:42:03 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
Republican politicians are fixated on culture wars.
New laws, or legislation now being considered, in the Republican controlled states of South Dakota, Virginia, Arizona, Minnesota, Indiana, Florida, Missouri, Kansas, Alabama, Idaho, and Georgia limit, restrict, or prevent women from obtaining various health services applicable to only females: contraception, mammograms, cancer screening, abortion counseling.
Before withdrawing from the presidential race on Tuesday, Rick Santorum had said that birth control is “a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be.”
Is this an example of Republicans wanting to limit the size of government? This presidential candidate wanted to crawl into our beds and chaperone consenting adults. Sorry, Rick. You’re not invited.
Both Santorum and Newt Gingrich indulged in theocratic presumptuousness, with bellowing commentary on the supposed religious errors of other political figures.
Santorum twisted John F. Kennedy’s thoughtful 1960 speech about religious liberty into an attack on religion, saying he wanted to throw up. Gingrich accused President Obama of attacking Catholics and Mitt Romney of attacking Jews.
Wasted opportunities
By indulging in divisive culture wars, Republicans have squandered opportunities to offer a more inclusive, hopeful message about creating jobs and growing the economy. How many times have they promised to focus on jobs and the economy and yet the very first item on their agenda has been none of the above.
For the 2011 Congress, it was abortion. Five states with Republican legislatures, including Montana, have introduced legislation for a personhood amendment or other bills that would call into question the legality of birth control and raise the specter of government imposing an unenforceable ban on contraception. This, despite 78 percent of voting Republicans being pro-choice (www.gopchoice.org/map.asp).
The 2011 Montana Legislature promised us it would concentrate on economic issues, but then embarrassed our state nationally with its crazy cultural agenda. I found myself apologizing to my friends across the country on Facebook. The extremists who support big government when it comes to personal matters spent more time fighting women’s rights, medical marijuana, and equal rights in Missoula than they did creating jobs for Montanans.
In Montana, the state GOP platform says that homosexuality should be illegal. In this, as with other cultural matters, the party is out of touch and behind the times. Almost one-third of Republicans supported legalizing same-sex marriage in a 2011 Gallup poll. More importantly, our future leaders are way ahead of their bed-snooping elders. Over 70 percent of 18- to 34-year-olds support legalizing same-sex marriage. This is up 16 percentage points from 2010.
I can remember when the Republican Party was a different party. In 1980, I was a delegate to the GOP Colorado convention and we were so proud that we were successful in keeping anti-choice zealots off the floor, knowing they would divide and destroy the party. The question for the state of Montana in 2012 is how much cultural distractions and the debacle of the 2011 legislative session decide this election?
Blocking action
The party has painted itself into a corner on cultural issues. Ideologues have closed the door and hung out “Not Welcome” signs blocking centrist or center-right candidates who can’t pass narrow litmus tests on cultural issues.
Even if such candidates could pass through the ideologues’ fine-filter mesh, could they win a general election, given the current cultural war that the Republicans have positioned themselves to lose? Do Americans want a Republican controlled Senate in Washington, D.C., to mimic the extremism and dysfunction of the Republican controlled House? How will this dynamic affect the Rehberg vs. Tester Senate race?
How many Montanans realize they were duped when 2010 Republicans with a strong economic message turned into 2011 Republicans stirring up fear and polarization? Will this finally be the end of the crazy Republicans and the return of the thinking Republicans? We can only hope.
*****A.J. Otjen of Laurel teaches business courses at Montana State University Billings. She is Montana coordinator for Republicans for Environmental Protection and was an unsuccessful 2008 GOP candidate for the House seat held by Denny Rehberg.*****
It’s worse than that based on the information below!
Nov 19, 2010
http://montanafesto.wordpress.com/tag/ken-miller/
“Gubernatorial candidate Rick Hill picked up an endorsement from liberal Republican Agnes Otjen this week. “AJ” Otjen ran unsuccessfully (as a self-described “Teddy Roosevelt Republican”) for Montana’s GOP nomination for congress earlier this year, gathering just 6% of the June primary vote.
Otjen may be best remembered for her 2008 vote for Democrat Barack Obama. She agreed that this was the very same reason she voted for Barack Obama, who ironically enough has been described recently as “too far left” by European leaders.
Hill has told friends that several Democrats have been encouraging him to run for Governor in 2012, because he “would be the moderate in the field”, although Hill’s more recent statements have attempted to court conservatives. About Hill, Otjen said “I believe Rick will build a broad coalition and focus on the things with which we can all agree.” Hill has joined former state senators Ken Miller of Laurel and Corey Stapleton of Billings in what is expected to be a crowded field for the open seat. Democrat Brian Schweitzer is barred from running again due to term limits.”..
Facebook A.J. Otjen: "Is progressive a bad word? Not if it means science and technology and playing by the rules. Lets make being a Teddy Roosevelt Republican mean equal rights, conservation, and free and fair competition."
Post 21 and 22 supports it.
Romney should bravely run right up the center now! The door is wide open! The thinkers are in charge! Ideology is out! The litmus tests are gone and the golden age of an olympically run economy is waiting for it's champion!
A teacher who can't spell.
LoL that was my goof!
Newt is keeping Mitt after class -- making him repeat over and over conservative ideals....
I hope that the thinking Republicans will speak up in response to the non-thinking side of the party represented well by Ms. Otjen. What is she complaining about anyway? The non-thinking wing of the party got their man apparently. Everyone knows that Romney’s conservative stands are for show only and not to be taken seriously. Certainly, he doesn’t take them seriously.
Lie.
You nailed it right there. There are plenty of men and women out there who have families just for the celebrity status of it. THen enters a pop artist in the bar, and, all of a sudden, everyone hates wife, kids, husband and all that, ready to trash it all and show boobs for 5 min of fame with a con job - who sometimes feels disgusted and appalled by the behavior of his or her own fans by the way.
These people of the media, these woodstock hyppi worshiping artists HATE , and they HATE themselves first and foremost for being "part of the family" and not some groupie ring circus of celebrity.
Karl Marx was such individual. THey will moan and cry as to why they do not have the best wife, but, yet, they are totally "bored" and unresponsive to the kind of values that bring up humbly such wealth.
It's totally amazing how the "narcissistics of satanics" works. It's as if Satan enters the room and looks at himself through the eyes of fans possessed by him or her in the bar. It reminds me of the character in Red Draggon who puts mirrors in the stead of their eye balls before killing them for not admiring him.
THese people are not normal. It is scary and they are all around. Hollyweird works like that, maintaining a fan base while keeping them away with whips, and the fans love the "not worthy" crap.
I think the Romney strategy will be to occupy a political position slightly to the right of Obama thinking that people will vote for him because he is smidgen more moderate than Obama.
But Newt said republicans don’t read.
As the indians say, “She smoke too much kinikinik and colon back up into head.”
“ADA act is open season for any lawyer who wishes to attack a business”
And just who was the Senator who was most responsible for its passage?
To quote ol’ Will:
“The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars — it is in ourselves”...
It is surprising this collosus of brilliance was unable to win her congressional race.
Also, as has been commented lumping all those states together is also inaccurate. The Idaho law for instance, simply required the women to have (not even look at) an ultrasound. It had nothing to do with mammograms or contraception.
If states doing this action are evidence for ‘unthinking’ conservatives, shouldn't Romney be the most ‘unthinking’ conservative of all since in his state the state government completely controls the health-care system. Are we only unthinking for standing for morality, but thinking if we stand for more government control as long as we let the unborn be murdered?
Indeed, it’s a bait. Hitler invented the term the “thinking german worker”. This is horse crap fascist socialistas language.
From the get go the Tparty was all about economy and how Obama and the cooperating Vichy GOP RINOs were supporting its destruction.
Now their Romney steals the talking point and they reduce us to the pre-Obama election falacy that liberals are RINOs are much in touch with the economy and that people associate bad economy with conservatives.
This is the same propaganda mind shaping horsecrap.
FROM THE GET GO we had economy on the issue with the Tparty, and this is what Breitbart was all about.
In the end, this is another screed of “Obama or a strong government and leader fascist” is going to fix it. THis is BS.
Right... That explains Thailand, India, Japan, China, South Korea, Israel, Turkey, etc.
Rolls eyes.
See what voting for the (R) candidate can bring you?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.