Much has been written in the last few months about two Texas Republican congressmen -- Louie Gohmert (1st Congressional District) and Steve Stockman (36th Congressional District). Both have issued a plethora of idiotic statements -- and they seem to be competing for the unofficial title of "stupidest Texas congressman".But it seems that their idiocy is a cause for jealousy with a couple of other Texas Republicans. And they have made up their minds to show the world that Gohmert and Stockman haven't cornered all of the stupidity in the Texas GOP congressional delegation.
The first of these is Michael Burgess (26th Congressional District). He is pictured in the top photo to the left. And he has come up with a unique reason for opposing all abortions after the 15th week. He thinks they should be banned because 15 week old male fetuses masturbate -- and he says he knows that because he has seen it. Evidently the 15 week old female fetuses don't engage in masturbation, because Burgess hasn't seen them do it. Here is his actual (idiotic statement):“Watch a sonogram of a 15-week baby, and they have movements that are purposeful. They stroke their face. If they’re a male baby, they may have their hand between their legs. If they feel pleasure, why is it so hard to believe that they could feel pain?”
His point is that if they can "pleasure themselves" then they can also feel pain. But Burgess is a doctor in addition to being a pervert -- and he should know better. The vast majority of medical officials do not believe fetuses can feel pain until weeks later (and don't believe fetuses of either sex engage in masturbation). Add to this the fact that abortions after 3 months are very rare, and usually limited to women with serious fetal complications -- and it becomes obvious that Burgess' attitude is not just ridiculous, it is mean and disregards the health of both mother and fetus.
Then we have Kenny Marchant (24th Congressional District). Marchant (in bottom picture) has decided he doesn't want to see immigration reform, because most of the immigrants given a path to citizenship will be Hispanic and will probably vote Democratic after becoming citizens. In explaining his opposition to the Associated Press, Marchant said:
“. . .if you give the legal right to vote to 10 Hispanics in my district, seven to eight of them are going to vote Democrat.”
It doesn't seem to have occurred to Marchant that U.S. citizenship is not granted (or not granted) because of how some misguided official thinks they might vote after becoming a citizen. Citizenship has never been, and should never be, granted or denied because of any perceived political preference (which might not even be true). The truth is that Marchant, and many of his fellow teabagger congressmen, are bigots who pursue a racist and anti-immigrant policy. And they have no desire to change. They only want to please their teabagger base, so they can get re-elected. With a more inclusive policy, they could get many Hispanic votes (as moderate Republicans have in the past) -- but that doesn't matter, because they revel in their bigotry (and that of their base voters).
As a life-long Texan, all four of these congressmen make me deeply ashamed. It makes me want to apologize to the rest of this nation for the electoral behavior of my fellow Texans.
