Friday Follies: Climate change, abortion, discrimination
Published January 24, 2015
by Chris Fitzsimon, NC Policy Watch and NC SPIN panelist, January 23, 2015.
Tillis flip-flops on climate change
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis seems to have changed his mind about climate change, or at least whether or not it is real. Tillis was one of 98 senators who recently voted for an amendment to a bill about the Keystone XL pipeline that stated clearly that climate change is real and not a hoax.
That doesn’t mean Tillis is finally admitting that humans play a role in climate change or that we actually ought to do something about it by reducing carbon emissions etc. but he at least admitted publicly through his vote that climate change is real and not a farce as many on the Right continue to maintain.
That’s an apparent switch for Tillis. Back in April, during a debate in the Republican Senate primary, Tillis (and all the other candidates participating in the debate) responded no when asked point blank by the moderator if climate change was a fact.
Wonder what changed his mind from pandering to the right wing of his party in April to at least admitting climate change is happening in a symbolic vote in Congress?
Now if we only can get him to acknowledge that we can do something about it to save the planet for future generations.
No dissent allowed in GOP on abortion
And in case you wondering if the vote affirming climate change means that some measure of common sense has returned to the Republicans in Washington, it doesn’t, as the saga of the abortion bill and North Carolina Congresswoman Renee Ellmers clearly shows.
Ellmers is under fire from the Right for raising a concern that a draconian anti-abortion bill, which she eventually said she would support, does not do enough to consider the plight of rape victims who become pregnant.
That’s her offense that has the right-wingers on the rampage, that she is concerned about rape victims. Tammy Fitzgerald with the North Carolina Family Values Coalition told the Washington Post that her group was going to hold Ellmers accountable for questioning the legislation, which she eventually said she would support anyway.
That is simply too much for the Republican far-right base these days. No questioning of anti-abortion legislation is permitted, even when it comes to rape. You must toe the extremist line or there will be political consequences. No dissent –or questions allowed.
Standing tall in Raleigh for discrimination
And finally speaking of far-right religious extremists, despite the historic achievement of marriage equality in North Carolina the state still has a long way to go in guaranteeing equal rights for gay, lesbian, and transgendered people.
A new report from the Human Rights Campaign in Washington ranks North Carolina among the states at the bottom of the group’s State Equality Index. You can still be fired in North Carolina simply because you are gay, and efforts to pass non-discrimination employment legislation have fallen short in the General Assembly recent years.
And there’s already an ominous beginning to this year’s legislative session. House Speaker Pro Tem Paul Stam announced on the session’s opening day that lawmakers would hold a public hearing on “religious freedom” on January 28th, the next time the General Assembly is in town.
Chris Sgro with Equality NC, in a recent op-ed in the News & Observer, accurately translated that as a renewed effort to pass legislation suggested by Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger that would absurdly allow magistrates to deny marriage licenses to gay couples based on “religious freedom” claims.
Berger is still obsessed with reversing marriage quality any way he can. Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to consider a same-sex marriage case that ought to remove any chance Berger has in the courts, he and Stam and others seem to be moving ahead with ridiculous legislative efforts to allow discrimination against thousands of citizens in the state to continue.
George Wallace would be proud.
- See more at: http://www.ncpolicywatch.com/2015/01/23/the-follies-221/#sthash.lMo0B22n.dpuf
January 24, 2015 at 10:09 am
Robert White says:
Yeah George Wallace would be proud wouldn't he Chris? Oh I forgot, what political party was George Wallace in? The same party that enacted NCs worst atrocity ever with the forced sterilization laws.
Yep... Silence from people like you.
January 24, 2015 at 11:13 am
Richard Bunce says:
"... or that we actually ought to do something about it by reducing carbon emissions etc. ..."
... and what Chris means be etc. is to increase government revenues at the local, State, Federal, and International levels. Spending money is good as long as it is the government doing it... well except for Defense Spending.
January 24, 2015 at 2:48 pm
Frank Burns says:
The vote on climate change was all about the Democrats trying to trap the Republicans but it failed. Of course climate change is real but it is also true that climate change is natural and is not caused by humans. Normal people call it the changing seasons. The global warming pause continues. The satellites confirm there has been no warming for over 18 years. The polar bears are doing well and polar ice has seen gains in 2014. There are also less hurricanes and tornadoes than previously.
