After the SCOTUS Ass Whooping, Republicans look to score in Mississippi

Published on Friday, 29 June 2012 12:55

Written by Ana Maria

And just like that, the SCOTUS brought our nation into the 21st Century as it affirmed President Obama's signature healthcare reform legislation is constitutional. A marvelous surprise!

Of course, as soon as the announcement had begun to permeate the airwaves and President Obama had given his speech on this historic occasion, Mitt Romney spoke out against the ruling declaring that government had no business getting in between doctors and their patients. Huh? That's been the position of President Obama and the Democrats all along. And with President Obama's healthcare reform legislation, that remains in tact.

However, Mitt is using language to deliberately lead us on—particularly us women. Yep, Mitt and the rest of the Tea Party Republicans are leading us on because . . . they intend to have their way with us regardless of our consent. How cliché.

Personally, I've concluded that if their lips are moving, we can bet Romney and his Tea Party Republican buddies are betraying the truth, failing to mean one syllable that they utter, and talking out of both sides of their mouths. They are without credibility in my book.

We know damned good and well that Romney and his buddies intend to get into our pants, way up inside our lady parts, and dick-tate deeply personal, private health decisions. Indeed, these Tea Party Republican leaders and their followers are hell bent on inserting themselves into the vaginas of every woman in America—and not to the mutual pleasure of us, either.

Mississippi Tea Party Republicans

From the shadows of this historic occasion expanding healthcare throughout the land, the state of Mississippi is on the brink of making healthcare history of its own. Though, rather than making history moving into the 21st Century, Mississippi's Tea Party Republicans are moving swiftly to return women and their families to the Dark Ages.

While smarting from the ass whooping the SCOTUS just handed Romney's Tea Partiers, Republicans look to score in Mississippi. Mitt and company must be rather proud that their Mississippi partners are taking the national lead to implement unnecessary and excessive government regulations to interfere inside the doctor-patient relationship when the patient is a pregnant woman. Part of that say-one-thing-do-another aspect of the Republican betray-the-truth program.

Indeed, our Republican dominated state legislature here in Mississippi deliberately passed a law this year to impose "medically unjustified requirements on physicians who perform abortions." In other words, Republicans deliberately imposed excessive government regulations to intrude into the patient-doctor relationship for the purpose of preventing women from having access to legal abortion services.

Yeah, Mississippi is now poised to be the only state in the union without a single legal abortion provider. Republicans are doing this through expanding government's role in our health care system and into our deeply personal, private healthcare decisions.

Tell me again, dear Republicans, of your concern over government interference between doctors and their patients. Oh, oh, yeah, that's right you only use that as propaganda to get your way.

And all that Republican talk about small government? Yeah, what you really mean is small enough to fit inside our coochies.

Thanks to the billionaires bankrolling the Romney Tea Party Republicans, we know we're going to hear these Republican talking points ad nauseum from now through the election in November. Interestingly, Mississippi Democrats are implementing a strategy that can thwart the impact of those dollars.

Mississippi's answer to the Billionaire bankroll election buying

The answer to ridding ourselves of these ridiculous Republicans and their cave man ideas for life in 21st Century America is for us to be politically savvy in a way that thwarts any effort that Karl Rove, his billionaire bankrolling friends, and their Tea Party Republicans come up with. Quite candidly, that means that we need to marry old-fashioned precinct level "shoe leather" neighbor-to-neighbor political organizing with modern online communications.

Specifically, that means identifying the Democrats, progressives, liberals in our own backyards, in our own circles of influence, and within our own neighborhoods. On several occasions lately, I've heard Rickey Cole, the Executive Director of the Mississippi Democratic Party, talk about the power of this kind of political organizing.

Rickey Cole Executive Director Miss. Dem Party

"Mississippi has 1876 precincts, and in 2008, Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama received votes in all 1876. John McCain did not. We need to go out and identify our Democrats in each of those precincts. We need to know who they are. We need to get to know them better and organize ourselves so that we can use all of this to build our infrastructure so that when we run for office we can turn out those voters each and every election."

Talking about rebuilding our party from the ground up, Cole continued, "We know that the barrage of billionaire funded ads is coming. The way we can thwart that is by the power of our personal relationships that we already have in our communities. When I know that John Smith down the road is voting Republican, I can talk with him about that. Because I know him personally, I can say, 'John, what are you doing voting Republican? Every member of your family is on Medicaid. Who do you think makes sure that Medicaid is there for you?!' See, I know John and can call him out on it, because of our relationship. All the slick ads in the world won't be able touch him.

"Now, we're determined to organize the Democratic Party in every one of those 1876 precincts. We either do that . . . or the Republicans are going to drive us back to 1876."

You got that right, Rickey. Rickey calls this his 1876 project. I remember hearing former Speaker of the House Dick Gephardt at some function in DC some ten years ago talking about the key to Democratic wins is "shoe leather". Like oxygen to our lungs, person-to-person organizing is the foundation that allows us to breathe political life into our values and our dreams in the 21st Century.

While Tea Party Republicans both nationally and here in Mississippi are working to push us back to 1876—three years after abortion became outlawed in the nation for the first time, Mississippi Democrats are rebuilding themselves from the ground up knowing full well that strong personal relationships is a strategic offensive position that can thwart the impact of the billionaire buying of our election.

Now, when done effectively, political organizing is an eyeball-to-eyeball, person-to-person, time-consuming endeavor that pays great dividends. Certainly the language we use in talking is crucial to how persuasive we will be. Our modern day electronic communications tools also have a critical, but supportive, role.

Under horrendous conditions, the folks over there in Egypt organized the overthrow of their dictator. They used Facebook to communicate with each other about their political activities. I would guarantee that they didn't confuse their online communication tools with the actual on-the-ground political organizing that brought about the results that they had sought. Facebook, Twitter, and other electronic communications are tools through which we communicate information about our political activities. We still must do the traditional political organizing.

If everyday Egyptians with far fewer of the freedoms and resources that we possess, can overthrow a brutal dictator then  we in Mississippi and throughout the U.S. can overthrow the puppets of Karl Rove, Grover Norquist, the Koch Brothers, and the rest of the billionaire bankrollers. This will require effort on our parts. Then again, so does bitching, moaning, groaning, and complaining. The question is where will we decide to invest our energy and the extent to which we are committed to achieving the political goals we say we desire.

Look, I'm the first to tell you, the work is not glitzy, glamorous, or sexy—but you can meet interesting people and who knows what wonderful sparks flow from that! The work is challenging, and sometimes we may feel like pulling out our hair . . . or maybe we'll feel like pulling someone else's hair, which under the right circumstances could be fun, I suppose.

The rewards we achieve will be in becoming politically savvy and sophisticated, in creating the infrastructure needed to elect our own good people to office and to do that with confidence each and every election. Electing good people in office to implement strong public policies will create a healthier, happier, and more fabulous America in which we can live, work, and play with far greater joy. Now isn't that the point of being on the planet?!