I’m not big on political labels or other labels for that matter. They are used as a shorthand to tell us how think. You know, you hear “the progressive think tank, The Bookings Institute…” and you think, OK I’m oriented now, I know how to frame this discussion. Anyway, I could go on and on about that, but that’s not the point of this posting.
I pre-babbled so as to lay the foundation for my main point, which is that I judge politicians on their ideas, not the letter after their names. You have good ideas, ideas that help, and I’m happy to support you. What follows is an example from the small mind subset.
I was watching Olbermann’s Worsts tonight and heard about this guy who is a state senator in Colorado. The gentleman’s name is Dave Schultheis from Colorado Springs. I won’t state his political affiliation in an attempt leave you disoriented, although I suspect you’ll figure it out before you get to the end of this post.
This man says he won’t support a bill requiring AIDS testing for pregnant women because AIDS is caused by sexual promiscuity and she shouldn’t be rewarded for bad behavior. He goes on to say that the baby being born with AIDS is in essence a good thing because the mother will feel guilty about her choices. She and her child would be an object lesson for anyone else considering fornication.
Mr. Schultheis, “We can’t keep people from being raped. We can’t keep people from shooting each other. We can’t keep people from jumping off bridges. People drink and drive, and they crash and kill people. Poor behavior has its consequences.”
OK, he doesn’t think people should be rewarded for bad behavior and bad choices. Never mind that many people who have AIDS didn’t get it as a result of promiscuous behavior, at least not their own. I guess that means these women and their fetus’ are just collateral damage. Their husband (boyfriends wouldn’t count because sex with a boyfriend would be promiscuous) would just have to feel guilty because his wife and kid(s) have AIDS.
It makes one wonder what kind of moral compass this gentleman has. What else should we do to make people feel guilty so as to change people’s behavior? Maybe we could film cases that exemplify the other choices he sited. We could make everyone watch them before each meal so we could make sure people get the message.
For example, you get in an accident because you made some mistake, even a stupid one (kind of the definition of “accident” by the way). You’ll be filmed screaming in agony and have to get yourself to the hospital, because “poor behavior has consequences.” We shouldn’t pay for services such as fire, police or ambulances for people who make bad decisions or behave badly. No soup for you!!
It’s good to know we have people like this in elected offices. He’s a conservative (a label meaning people who identify as “Christian”, anti-abortion, say they want smaller government, but are oblivious to the fact that governing people’s homes is antithetical to small government, and that’s about it. Even they don’t know what they stand for any more), which is something they really like in Colorado Springs. I just hope the good people of Colorado Springs adopt Mr. Schultheis’ tough love approach to teaching people to make good choices. They can save a lot of tax dollars because there should be no need for any pubic services or programs considering we all make poor choices from time to time.
Of course, it takes some maturity and humility to admit that we all make mistakes and poor choices and need help from time to time. Helping people when you don’t have to and when they don’t deserve it is grace. I am not holding my breath that Mr. Schultheis will figure that out before he receives his final judgment from the only one who matters. Nevertheless, I fervently hope he does figure it out before then. It’s a shame to go through life with his judgmental attitude.
