December 24, 2014
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With 2014 coming to a close, it's worth remembering all the stuff we
want to leave behind as we embrace the new year. Among these things are
a whole host of outrages from the Republican Party. We present 10 of
the worst and most outrageous political acts by the GOP this year:
1. Exploiting Police Deaths To Attack Democrats: Shortly after the tragic killings of two police officers in New York City, former Republican mayor Rudy Giuliani
used the murders to accuse current mayor Bill de Blasio and President Obama of inciting the murders by criticizing police.
2. Astroturfing Minority Support: Rather than alter their policies to better the lives of racial minorities,
several Republican candidatesdecided
to use stock images of African Americans in their campaign
advertisements to create the impression that the party doesn't have a
white Christian male problem of narrowing support from diverse groups.
3. Promoting Bigotry Under Guise of Religious Freedom: Republicans in state legislatures nationwide promoted bills
they claim were designed to advance “religious freedom” but were really
about the right for businesses to use religion as a shield for refusing
services to marginalized groups like gay Americans. In most states,
these bills failed, but
one did pass the Michigan House though it was not signed into law by the Senate.
4. Waging War On Voting Rights:
As part of their 2014 push, Republicans across the country continued to
push for disenfranchisement-promoting voter ID laws and attacks on
early voting. One Georgia county
even killed early voting because officials worried it was “just a way to wring out every last vote.” It wasn't all bad news, though. In Montana
voters chose to keep election-day registration.
5. Holding Government Hostage to Deregulate Wall Street:
In a last-minute showdown over a government spending bill, the GOP
inserted a provision to deregulate a section of the Dodd-Frank rules on
Wall Street. Despite a defiant stand by Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) the
GOP's hostage-taking
succeeded as Senate Democrats folded to their demands.
6. Calling For Crippling Flight Bans to Combat Ebola: Despite protests
from virtually the entire medical community, GOP pols exploited panic
about Ebola to call for flight bans to all of West Africa. Rep. Louie
Gohmert (R-TX)
even said Obama was trying to import Ebola into the U.S.
7. Defending An Extremist Who Squatted on Federal Property:Although
much of the right is mum about today's police brutality protests, they
championed the cause of cattle rancher Cliven Bundy, whose fans took up
arms to keep the federal government from removing him from federal
property. Leading Republican politicians such as senators Dean Heller
(NV) and Rand Paul (KY)
defended Bundy's revolt.
8. Continuing to Deny Climate Change: The GOP continued its long history of resisting any change to climate policy. Louisiana state Rep. Lenar Whitney
said the whole thing was a hoax and “the greatest deception in the history of mankind.” A
long string
of Republican pols responded to questions about global warming by
saying “I'm not a scientist,” somehow believing this exempted them from
having to give an opinion on the matter.
9. Electing the Senate's Newest Right-Wing Extremist: In Iowa, Republicans succeeded in electing Joni Ernst to the Senate. She
touts
United Nations conspiracies to take Iowan farmland, believes the
president is a dictator, wants the federal minimum wage to be abolished,
and thinks states can just nullify federal laws they dislike.
What were your top GOP outrages of 2014? What do you think we will have to endure next year?
Zaid Jilani is an AlterNet contributing writer. Follow @zaidjilani on Twitter.
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