Hypocricans in Fine Form

by Ruth A. Sheets

It is not possible to overestimate the fear and loathing projected by the Hypocricans in Congress these days.  This week they have stepped up their efforts to eliminate women’s right to choose.  They also continued their assault on the poorest among us.  Their terror of immigrants, particularly those from Mexico and points south raised its head again.

The Hypocricans in the House of Representatives voted to outlaw abortions at 20 weeks gestation, criminalizing women who choose to terminate pregnancy beyond that point.  Some didn’t even want to make exceptions for rape, incest or health of the mother.  Do these mostly white men really care that much for the offspring of those pregnancies?  Not really.  If they did, these same Hypocricans would not have voted to lower funding for the food stamp program.  One would think they would be increasing all kinds of support to families in poverty.  They would at least double the money for family planning and contraception to keep such unwanted pregnancies at a minimum. 

So what is going on here?  You know!  The war on women progresses.

Hypocricans say they are fiscal conservatives.  That is an interesting claim.  Let’s check it out.

Just so they don’t have to pay for food stamps and other programs to support folks in poverty, they will continue direct payments to farmers, even if they don’t grow anything.  How do these things connect?  Well, the Farm Bill was up for a vote this week.  The Democrats, against their better judgment, compromised to lower payments for food stamps a little.  It wasn’t enough for the Hypocricans, who rejected the whole bill.  This means that the current farm subsidies will remain in place, money not spent wisely.  Hypocricans couldn’t stick it to those lazy poor people, so the whole bill goes down.

Next these “fiscal conservatives” pinned an amendment to the immigration bill demanding a level  of border security impossible to achieve.  This will cost billions of dollars.  Even though few immigrants are coming from Mexico these days, the proposal is to double the number of border guards and build more fences.  Their fear of the Latinos is evident since there is no proposal for fences and walls on our border with Canada.   Hypocricans then tie the “path to citizenship” for undocumented immigrants to the insane border requirements.  The Hypocricans actually believe in their heart of hearts that such blatant racism will win them Latino votes.  Really!

The scary part for me is that a lot of Americans support the Hypocricans.  Fear and loathing are such easy emotions and can be mined at little cost.  It takes little effort to convince people that someone is out to get what they have.  With facility, people can be persuaded that danger is around every corner, that evil lurks behind every door.   Who is presenting these threats:  women who want control over their own bodies, people sneaking over the border, indolent poor who prey on the rich.  And, of course, we all must be protected from them.

Perhaps, instead of the witch hunts they are instituting, Hypocricans should look in the mirror to find the evil they seek.