Monday, September 5, 2011

Rick Perry: Anti-Government...Except When He Isn't

Rick Perry's campaign for president is built on his dedication to small government. He brags of his budget-slashing accomplishments as governor in Texas, holding them up as an example of what he would do as president. He wants to get the budget under control, which, to him, entails getting rid of government safety nets like Obamacare. He is disapproving of Social Security, and his budget cuts in Texas have resulted in wide spread job loss for teachers.
However, there is one area in which Perry is staunchly in support of government intervention. Abortion. Ironically, the same group of Texans which is so against healthcare, is completely in support of laws which limit abortion rights. The latest bill in Texas is one which requires women to receive a sonogram 24 hours before having an abortion. Under the law, doctors would also be required to describe the fetus in detail to the mother, and have her listen to the baby's heartbeat if possible. This law is supposedly to ensure full awareness to the mother of what exactly she is having done.
To me, this law implies that women are incapable of reaching informed decisions on their own, and inconveniences the mothers unnecessarily. Luckily, at least for now, the more offensive parts of the bill are not in effect as it is reviewed by the Justice Department.

4 comments:

Jacob Friedman said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Jacob Friedman said...

This is not as hypocritical as you might think. Perry and his constituents value only one thing above "love of country," that being God. Perry has never said that he would support an increase in government size or power if that increase would contradict what God directly told him in The Bible. The anti-abortion law is an obvious ploy of the Christian-right which preserves life above all political beliefs. I agree that religious belief should have nothing to do with politics(and so does Ron Paul), but we must always take the policies of politicians with a grain of salt when they have a strong religious background.

PatrickG said...

I pretty much agree with the irony stated in the post. The Texans in support of abortion laws are going against what they routinely say on television...NO GOVERNMENT INTERVENTION!!! I don't see how they can say that government should not interfere and then turn around and say that government should interfere in abortion. For me, the only logical answer is that they are letting their religious beliefs get in the way of their own thinking, which is something that Thomas Jefferson tried to eliminate in the early days of our country (see his tombstone it's written on it). I am not saying that religion is bad, but I am saying that it has no business in government. Abortion should be up to the mom or both the mother and father, not up to law. Besides, morally, wouldn't it be better to prevent a baby being born into the possibility of a living hell? I may be going way to far in this comment but I feel like it needs to be said.

PatrickG said...

Once again, the one directly above is mine.