in one of the bigger surprises on Tuesday night, Vicky Hartzler defeated 17 term veteran Ike Skelton in Missouri's 4th district. Skelton had been a master of pork, bringing billions over the years to an army base in the district.
Hartzler had made a name for herself as a state legislator earning a reputation for her anti-gay agenda, her conservatism and her deeply held religious views. In 2007 she wrote a book called "Running God's Way" which I assume isn't about physical fitness. Mother Jones magazine suggested she might be the most anti-gay candidate in America. Quite an achievement in these times.
It's the 'reading the bible' part that most bothers me about her seeing as her book is "designed to encourage and equip more people with integrity to get involved in the political process."
Part of her campaign was to cut spending and keep government out of our lives. She and her husband run a farm that according to government records has received about $774,000 in agricultural subsidies over a 14 year span from 1995 to 2009 with, I assume another check this year. Government spending is okay as long as it is spent on her.
I assume she left that bit out of her "God is my campaign manager" primer, which brings me back to the bible. Jesus was quite outspoken about hypocrisy in the bible. In Matthew 23 he lays it all out, describing four types of hypocrites. One type is the 'pusher' who forces others to do what they are not doing. She obviously doesn't want the government to spend money on others in her district but happily takes it for herself.
Noting her advice for ethical campaigning and her obvious hatred for gays and their rights, she may well have read Matthew 23 and felt blissfull pious without a whiff of recognizing her own hypocrisy.
Apparently Ike Skelton barely campaigned. Maybe he should have. He had the ammunition.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment