A foolish Greg Abbott (R-TX) has fallen right into the trap Wendy Davis (D-TX) set for him. And I say this because there’s a particular genius Obama strategist at work on the Davis campaign, so it wouldn’t surprise me if they deliberately took the risk to roll out the wheelchair ad to get people talking about the issue, knowing that Republicans can’t resist being outraged about anything and everything as a way to avoid discussing the issues.
But as the dust settles from the outrage Republicans tried to drum up, what’s left is an ongoing debate about Greg Abbott opposing and blocking other disabled people from the same benefits he enjoyed. To make matters even worse, Republicans were frothing so hard to get Wendy Davis that they are attacking Lamar White, a law student in his final year at Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School, after he advocated for state Senator Wendy Davis at a press conference she held Monday morning.
Republicans called Mr.White a political prop and mocked him over his disability. They even highlighted a video of him being moved across the stage. Can you imagine if Wendy Davis’ ad showed Greg Abbott being carried out of his chair?
Seriously.
You see, campaign folks helped to move Mr. White’s chair across the stage when he was done speaking. Apparently Republican media has never been around someone with a disability before, because they are clutching pearls today. A bit of the ugly:
People were not impressed, because you see, he wanted to move and asked them to move him. Apparently these right wingers aren’t accustomed to alternatively-abled people moving in different ways than they do.
“I’m clumsy, and I fall sometimes. I didn’t want to fall on camera, so I personally asked them to slide me over in the chair… I asked them to move me. Because I was worried that if I stood up, I’d fall down on camera,” Mr. White explained to the Chron. “These critics have obviously never met someone with cerebral palsy before. Our movements are awkward. It’s part of the condition.”
Mr. White is having none of it, and is demanding an apology:
For the hypocrisy, Attorney General Greg Abbott got his and now he works actively to oppose ADA access complaints:
Attorney General Greg Abbott, who has said he supports the Americans with Disabilities Act, has tenaciously battled to block the courthouse door to disabled Texans who sue the state.
In a series of legal cases in his three terms, Abbott’s office has fought a blind pharmacy professor in Amarillo who wanted reflective tape on the stairs to her office; two deaf defendants in Laredo who asked for a qualified sign language interpreter in their courtroom; and a woman with an amputated leg. In that case, the state argued she was not disabled because she had a prosthetic limb.
Abbott, who has used a wheelchair since a tree fell on him while he was jogging and crushed his spine almost 30 years ago, applauds the 1990 federal law. It has helped provide the ramps, wide doors and access that allow him to give speeches and meet with constituents.
While Abbott, the leading Republican contender for governor, benefits from the ADA mandates that guide businesses, builders and cities, he believes it is unconstitutional to force the state to comply. He has argued that his duty is to protect the state’s autonomy and its taxpayers by using all legal tools available to him — including the argument that the state is immune from disability lawsuits brought under the ADA.
If Republicans gave a crap about alternatively-abled people, they would realize that access is king and without laws to demand access, few businesses would comply because profit rules. Thanks to the ADA, we live in a world where an alternatively-abled person can be independent, can fly, can go to college, can attend a sporting event…
Republicans are supposed to be for freedom, but as we all know by now, if that freedom means a business might have to spend a few dollars, Republicans are against it. This leaves Republicans in the awkward position of only being able to defend their crap policies by spewing hate at random people who dare to have an opinion that differs with theirs. And so we have the hits on Mr. Lamar White, a patriot who exercised his right of free speech, much to the chagrin of the Right, who seem to believe that disabled people shouldn’t or can’t have political opinions unless their name is Greg Abbott.
The Right is now actively mocking the way an alternatively-abled person moves, in their attempt to smear Wendy Davis for having the temerity to show a wheelchair in her ad. This leaves us thinking that Republicans are really outraged at seeing a wheelchair mainstreamed. They’d rather not discuss it, unless Greg Abbott can use it to define his character. Which he has.
Greg Abbott got his, but no one else should.
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