Utah puts up with Orrin Hatch because the Mormons beleive that they have a prophacy that some big event is going to hqppen when a Mormon becomes President of the United States. They have been grooming him for this position since I lived there in the 80’s.
He said on a radio program at that time that every woman who has an abortion ends up regretting it and women who choose to have thier babies don’t. I spoke with one of his staffers about how stupid I found this remark haveing been a social worker protecting abused children, I was told he really didn’t mean “all” women in either case. Whatever.
The OP makes a good point about how the Mormon religion, with its even wackier and even more easily disprovable tenets than other religions, causes fundamental cognitive dissonance in its adherents. When one’s whole life is built on mutual acceptance of obvious falsehoods and a cult/theocracy-like climate of terror, there’s no way it COULDN’T affect the political culture of a state and the sort of behavior that the leaders produced by such a culture exhibit.
I think that is more on the money than many would think.
As I have been involved in many climate change discussions, one of the scientists I like to check is Barry Bickmore, from Utah (BYU), Republican, Mormon!, and he admits that he was originally taken by the climate change deniers but he managed to get better.
It has been interesting seeing how he has communicated with Hatch and he has had some success on getting him to change some bits on Hatch’s official position, a position that is the usual tune of the Republicans nowadays to deny the science but Hatch is still letting irrationality take control.
Knowing what Brickmore and the super majority of expert scientists say about the issue that deserves a :rolleyes: for Hatch.
Blaming geographical areas inside the U.S. for their representatives isn’t sound imo. It’s not like there’s much of a choice or a line of causality connecting the people to the person. There are two factions offering their pick, one will win no matter what. Ditto for POTUS. Just blame the specific person or their party and media backers.
Well, one corporate jet “expert” claims the revenue from eliminating this particular loophole would bring about $3billion over 10 years. So, because it’s only about $300million a year, it’s a really silly loophole to be focusing on.
Mm hmm
Planned Parenthood cost the federal government about $300million a year, too. But Republicans spent months, literally SCREAMING at us about how “we can’t afford” that kind of money because “we’re broke.”
Mm hmm
As to Orrin Hatch being the lyingest liar in the Senate, maybe, maybe not. I don’t need to make comparisons to think he’s a scumbag who doesn’t really give a crap about this country or what’s right for it, but is merely playing party politics for his own selfish ends. Why do I conclude that?
But now that Democrats and President Obama have embraced it?
“Sen. Orrin Hatch, Utah’s other Republican senator and a former sponsor of the act, skipped the vote to attend a grandson’s college graduation but said in a statement that he would have voted against the bill, calling it a ploy by Democrats to gain favor with their base voters.”
I can’t tell if you are serious or making a parody of the hard-line individual responsibility meme coming out of the right these days.
After all, you are applying individual responsibility to the heart of representative government. The people select this guy to go to Washington and speak for them. It isn’t merely a function of two factions offering up two choices- there is the primary system and of course the general consensus of the population.
And it isn’t like Hatch is a maverick politician like say Scott Walker (Surprise, everybody!!! We’re gutting the unions) who very well may get impeached after his first year. Hatch has been at it since 1977. Saying, “You can’t blame Utah for Orrin Hatch” strikes me as a little, well… I don’t know, it is strange.
OTOH the parties, media, rich people and shenanegans do all play their part.
