Opinion: Pandemic Exposes GOP Hypocrisy On Republicans’ Signature Policies

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There are no more identifying issues Republicans claim as their own than being fierce pro-life advocates and as being champions against government interfering with businesses. However, over the past few months during a nasty resurgence of the dreaded COVID-19 plague Republicans have belied their adherence to those signature policies for political gain.

No doubt many Americans are aware of the typical Republican hypocrisy when it comes to, say, blowing up the deficit to provide tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, and then reversing course when Democrats want to spend to help the American people. But the Republicans’ flagrant disregard for living, breathing American citizens and attempts to control private businesses for political gain is a direct result of the pandemic.

Last week a prime example of Republican hypocrisy came from a prime example of a hypocritical malcontent who ardently believes religious Republicans and religious employers have the religious freedom to make medical decisions for women regarding their reproductive health.

Cruz was talking about vaccine and mask mandates put in place to protect public health, not women’s reproductive rights. But his assertion that medical decisions constitute an individual freedom issue between an individual and their doctor are prescient in exposing his blatant hypocrisy. He told CNBC during an interview:

“I believe in individual freedom. I believe in individual responsibility. So I don’t think anyone should make you take the vaccine. I don’t think the government should, and I don’t think your employer should. I think you ought to have the choice to make your own medical decisions with your doctor. “

Cruz was making the precise argument in support of a woman’s right to choose her own reproductive health; an argument the religious Republicans claim is a non-starter regarding women’s reproductive rights because religion.

Contrast that statement to one Cruz made during an interview with Catholic news network EWTN in 2016. He said:

“I am unequivocally pro-life, I believe that every life is a precious gift from God that needs to be protected from the moment of conception until the moment of natural death.”

If a zygote life needs to be protected, as Cruz claimed in 2016, then why in dog’s name is he fighting tooth and nail to ban mask and vaccine mandates that exist solely to protect actual breathing, living beings; especially school-age children that actually breathe air and meet the biblical definition of a living being?

And, if he ardently believes in individual freedom regarding an individual making medical decisions with one’s doctor, then why is he so intent on eliminating that “freedom” from women when it comes to their reproductive health?

Of course the answer is he is a flaming hypocrite who throws around “individual freedom” when it suits whatever horrible policy he thinks will win him electoral support. It is likely that Cruz cares as little about individual freedom as he does children’s lives.

It isn’t just Cruz who betrays his so-called “pro-life” bona fides. In Florida and Texas, the Republican governors who believe that “all life is precious” and warrant government protection for a single-called zygote are purposely endangering school children with bans on mask mandates in schools.

In regard to Republicans’ so-called belief in the laissez-faire economic system where businesses are allowed to operate without any interference from the government, both Texas and Florida’s governments abandon that signature issue when it benefits them politically.

Both states are punishing corporations for not toeing the Republican line that no entity can boycott Israel for any reason, and Florida’s governor has taken the interfering with business to a new level.

DeSantis attempted to ban a cruise ship from requiring passengers to wear masks and have vaccinations prior to boarding the ship even though the requirements were purely to protect passengers’ health and lives; actions that had no impact on the COVID-spreading governor or Floridians.

DeSantis’ action was purely political and appropriately struck down by the courts. His actions were also contrary to the Republicans’ stance that government has no business or right to ever interfere with private enterprise. DeSantis is as hypocritical as Cruz.

It is too bad that being a hypocrite, like being pathological liars, is not banned in the Constitution or punishable by the criminal justice system. However, these flagrant examples of gross Republican hypocrisy will come back to hit them square in their hypocritical faces if advocates for women’s rights and enacting regulations to protect the public remember how Republicans reacted during the pandemic.

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Rmuse

Audio engineer and instructor for SAE. Writes op/ed commentary supporting Secular Humanist causes, and exposing suppression of women, the poor, and minorities. An advocate for freedom of religion and particularly, freedom of NO religion.

Born in the South, raised in the Mid-West and California for a well-rounded view of America; it doesn't look good.

Former minister, lifelong musician, Mahayana Zen-Buddhist.