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Rick Perry Takes A Very Personal Cheap Shot at Wendy Davis

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Republicans are enraged that Wendy Davis, a Democrat, dared used filibuster rules to preempt their attack on women’s reproductive rights. Filibustering, apparently, like religious freedom and voting rights, is something possessed only by conservatives.

Governor of Texas Rick Perry seemed to take Davis’ defiance personally, and in that homespun ignorance he shares with George W. Bush, he went on the attack in a speech near Dallas to 1,000 delegates of the National Right to Life Foundation.

I’m particularly glad to have you all here this week, of all weeks, as we witnessed the extremes the pro-abortion forces will resort to in order to further their cause. They demonstrated that, even if they lose at the ballot box, even if they come up short in attempts to stall on the Senate floor, they will resort to mob tactics to force their minority agenda on the people of Texas.

Minority agenda he says as across the country Republicans force their minority agenda on the American people. And accusations of mob tactics from the same group that brought us the Tea Party – not that they can muster up much of a mob these days.

I’m all about honest, open debate, and parliamentary tactics are certainly nothing new, but what we witnessed Tuesday was nothing more than the hijacking of the democratic process.

I take it then that Rick Perry is incensed over Republican Rand Paul’s behavior on Capitol Hill? No, not so much. In fact, Republicans tried every tactic to claim Davis had not followed filibuster rules. She was not allowed to lean on anything and being handed a back-brace, they said, was in violation of that rule.

Rand Paul? He didn’t even have to be IN the room. No, he had other Republican senators ask him questions – Ted Cruz (R-Texas), Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Mike Lee (R-Utah), and Jerry Moran (R-Kan.) – so he could sneak out to the bathroom or to get food.

Some hero.

Perry continued with his remarks:

Yes, many children are born into difficult circumstances, but there is no such thing as an unwanted child, because no life is trivial in God’s eyes.
Who are we to say that children born into the worst of circumstances can’t grow to live successful lives?

In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances, the daughter of a single mother and a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate.

It’s just unfortunate that she hasn’t learned from her own example: that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential; that every life is precious.

So since Davis was daughter to a single mother and because she herself was a single mother, all other mothers should be required to make the same choices these women made? Perry doesn’t get it.

Needless to say, Wendy Davis was not impressed with Perry, Tweeting, “Today, @GovernorPerry shamefully attacked me and my family, further exposing his belief that he knows what’s best for Texas women.”

Wendy Davis DOES get it. She gets that it is not for the government, not for some church, not for some neighbor to decide for every woman the choices they must make in life.

Later in the day, Davis said in a statement, “Rick Perry’s statement is without dignity and tarnishes the high office he holds,” and that “They are small words that reflect a dark and negative point of view.” She continued: “Our governor should reflect our Texas values. Sadly, Gov. Perry fails that test.”

Perry, for his part, continued to show that he just doesn’t get it, telling reporters,

I’m proud that she’s been able to take advantage of her intellect and her hard work, but she didn’t come from particularly good circumstances,” the governor said. “What if her mom had said, ‘I just can’t do this. I don’t want to do this.’ At that particular point in time I think it becomes very personal for us.

Personal for you? No, it’s personal for the woman in question. It is not personal for you, a bunch of hypocritical and judgmental strangers. Republicans say they want government out of our lives but they continue to force government into women’s vaginas. They say it’s not okay to be personal when it affects things they consider private but it’s everybody’s business otherwise.

Perry claims to be a defender and a champion of women.

As Planned Parenthood showed with this tweeted image, he is not:

Rick Perry says one women, following the rules and speaking out, hijacks the democratic process, but a bunch of cranky old fundamentalist Christians telling everybody else what to do and how to live their lives does not hijack the democratic process. He is going to call a special legislative session on July 1 just to prove it.

It’s pretty clear Rick Perry doesn’t get what America is all about, that the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness, is not a legal requirement to follow another person’s dictates of how to live their lives.

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Hrafnkell Haraldsson

Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen's Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.

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