America has core values. Those core values include helping others in need, caring for the sick, making sure that everyone is equal under the law, fairness, and making sure everyone has the right to privacy and personal liberty. This country has worked hard to advance these values over the last 230 years, but in recent years, Republicans have sought to destroy the values we hold most dear. They seek to force Americans to adhere to what they call conservative values. Well, here are 40 great examples of the conservative values Republicans seek to enslave us with.
1. “Our nation needs to stop doing for people what they can and should do for themselves. Self reliance means, if anyone will not work, neither should he eat.”
~Michele Bachmann, saying the unemployed should starve.
2. “One of the things I will talk about, that no president has talked about before, is I think the dangers of contraception in this country. It’s not okay. It’s a license to do things in a sexual realm that is counter to how things are supposed to be. [Sex] is supposed to be within marriage. It’s supposed to be for purposes that are yes, conjugal…but also procreative. That’s the perfect way that a sexual union should happen…This is special and it needs to be seen as special.”
~Rick Santorum, opposing contraception and frighteningly suggesting that he would make pre-marital sex illegal.
3. “You don’t have a right to a house, you don’t have a right to a job, you don’t have a right to medical care.”
~Ron Paul, saying that Americans have no right to have jobs and health care.
4. If we took away the minimum wage—if conceivably it was gone—we could potentially virtually wipe out unemployment completely.”
~Michele Bachmann, advocating for slave wages.
5. ”I don’t want to make black people’s lives better by giving them other people’s money. I want to give them the opportunity to go out and earn their money and provide for themselves and their families. The best way to do that is to get the manufacturing sector of the economy rolling.”
~Rick Santorum, saying that he has no interest in helping the African-American community.
6. “Now, we don’t get rid of it in round one because we don’t think that that’s politically smart, and we don’t think that’s the right way to go through a transition. But we believe it’s going to wither on the vine because we think people are voluntarily going to leave it — voluntarily.”
~Newt Gingrich, admitting that while they won’t kill Medicare outright, Republicans will try to make it wither on the vine and die.
7. “I think some of our members may have thought the default issue was a hostage you might take a chance at shooting. Most of us didn’t think that. What we did learn is this — it’s a hostage that’s worth ransoming. And it focuses the Congress on something that must be done.”
~Mitch McConnell, saying Republicans would take America hostage to get their own way.
8. “Capital punishment is our way of demonstrating the sanctity of life.”
~Republican Senator Orrin Hatch, declaring that executing people is pro-life.
9. “I’m not concerned about the very poor, we have a safety net there, if we need to repair, I’ll fix it. I’m not concerned about the very rich, they’re doing just fine. I’m concerned about the very heart of America, the 90-95 percent of Americans who are struggling, and I’ll continue to take that message across the country.”
~Mitt Romney, admitting he doesn’t care about the poor.
10. “That’s part of the problem, the overkill. And when they make it complicated, they make it expensive and so then you can no longer stay in business.”
~Michele Bachmann, telling reporters that food needs to be less regulated in the midst of food borne illnesses and the pink slime outrage.
11. “Let Detroit go bankrupt.”
~Mitt Romney, advocating for the end of the American auto industry.
12. “The single most important thing we want to achieve is for President Obama to be a one-term President.”
~Mitch McConnell, admitting what the only priority Republicans have had since 2008.
13. “If there is support for a supplemental, it would be accompanied by support for having pay-fors to that supplemental.”
~Eric Cantor, denying aid to victims of natural disasters.
14. “I love that we are one of the least unionized states in the country…We don’t have unions in South Carolina because we don’t need unions in South Carolina…And we’ll make the unions understand full well that they are not needed, not wanted, and not welcome.”
~Nikki Haley, attacking labor unions that protect American jobs and worker rights.
15. ”Yes. That’s exactly what I’m saying and I’ve been saying this for six months.”
~Mike Lee, in response to Chris Matthews who asked Lee “You want the Democratic Senate, by a two-thirds vote, to pass a constitutional amendment or you want the house to come down?”
16. “They can get married. They can marry a man if they’re a woman. Or they can marry a woman if they’re a man… there are no special rights for people based upon your sex practices. There’s no special rights based upon what you do in your sex life. You’re an American citizen first and foremost and that’s it.”
~Michele Bachmann, on whether homosexuals can get married.
17. “We need to take on the teachers’ union once and for all.”
~Chris Christie, attacking teachers and labor unions.
18. “It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in child laws which are truly stupid…These schools should get rid of unionized janitors, have one master janitor, pay local students to take care of the school.”
~Newt Gingrich, advocating for an end to child labor laws so businesses can fire union workers and replace them with cheap labor.
19. “The idea is that the state doesn’t have rights to limit individuals’ wants and passions. I disagree with that. I think we absolutely have rights because there are consequences to letting people live out whatever wants or passions they desire.”
~Rick Santorum, declaring that government has the right to limit people from pursuing their dreams.
20. “Don’t try to stop the foreclosure process. Let it run its course and hit the bottom.”
~Mitt Romney, cheering on foreclosures that make people homeless.
21. “One more time? We’ve done this. We’ve done this at least four times where there’s a new government program to help homeowners who have trouble with their mortgages. None of these programs have worked. I don’t know why anyone would think that this next idea is going to work. All it does is delay the clearing of the market. As soon as the market clears and we understand where the prices really are — [that] will be the most important thing we can do in order to improve home values around the country.”
~John Boehner, cheering on foreclosures that make people homeless.
22. “What I don’t like from the president’s administration is this sort of, ‘I’ll put my boot heel on the throat of BP.’ I think that sounds really un-American in his criticism of business. I’ve heard nothing from BP about not paying for the spill. And I think it’s part of this sort of blame-game society in the sense that it’s always got to be someone’s fault instead of the fact that sometimes accidents happen.”
~Rand Paul, defending BP, the company that irresponsibly caused a massive oil spill in the Gulf.
23. “[Election Day Registration led to]the kids coming out of the schools and basically doing what I did when I was a kid, which is voting as a liberal. That’s what kids do — they don’t have life experience, and they just vote their feelings.”
~GOP New Hampshire House Speaker William O’ Brien, saying college students shouldn’t be allowed to vote because they vote liberal.
24. “But, you know, I’m presiding over an institution that was designed not to work.”
~John Boehner, admitting that the Republican controlled House doesn’t work.
25. “I almost wish that there would be something like a simultaneous telecast and all Americans would be forced, forced — at gun point no less — to listen to every David Barton message.” ~Mike Huckabee, advocating for forcing Americans at gunpoint to listen to a religious fanatic and fake historian.
26. Suffering, if you’re a Christian, suffering is a part of life. And it’s not a bad thing, it is an essential thing in life … There are all different ways to suffer. One way to suffer is through lack of food and shelter and there’s another way to suffer which is lack of dignity and hope and there’s all sorts of ways that people suffer and it’s not just tangible, it’s also intangible and we have to consider both.”
~Rick Santorum, saying that Americans should suffer because suffering is good
27. “It would help the poor people who need jobs. Minimum wage is a mandate. We’re against mandates so why should we have it? It would be very beneficial.”
~Ron Paul, saying that abolishing the minimum wage would help poor people.
28. “The bottom line is, the greater meltdown over the long-term for this country is having the government inject itself into the private sector in such a huge way. Allow the capitalist system to work, and that’s what I believe in. The same thing with GM and Chrysler, they could’ve gone through a structured bankruptcy and the only difference between those two companies coming out of bankruptcy and the bailout that Obama put in place was that the unions wouldn’t have a big ownership share of the company…You pretty much would’ve had the same company, maybe even a better company, because they would’ve been stripped of even more legacy costs that frankly makes it hard for them to be competitive.”
~Rick Santorum, saying we should have let the American auto industry fail, decimating millions of jobs
29. “Planned Parenthood, we’re going to get rid of that.”
~Mitt Romney, pledging to rid the world of women’s health services.
30. “Last week, we worked on some welfare reform bills. And here, it’s kind of ironic, I’ll read you this little funny clip that we got from a friend. It says, ‘Isn’t it ironic that the food stamp program, part of the Department of Agriculture, is pleased to be distributing the greatest amount of food stamps ever. Meanwhile, the Park Service, also part of the Department of Agriculture, asks us to please not feed the animals, because the animals may grow dependent and not learn to take care of themselves.”
~Minnesota State Rep. Mary Franson, comparing the poor to wild animals.
31. “Well, higher-income people don’t have to pay taxes if they don’t want to because they can move their money somewhere else, they can move their investments. They can stop investing. They can stop working. They don’t need to work. They’re higher-income people.”
~Rick Santorum, saying rich people don’t have to pay taxes because they are rich.
32. “Life gives us many experiences. It give us the experience- or I’ve had the experience of delivering calves dead and alive, delivering pigs dead and alive, and I want to tell you, Rep. McCall, Rep. Roberts, all of us, Rep. Anderson, that have done that, Rep. Black, that have done that, it breaks our hearts to see those animals not make it. Ya know a few years ago, I had a young man come to me in our store, and it was when we were debating- talking about dog and hog hunting I believe- and at that point there was some language inserted in there that dealt with chicken fighting. And young man called me to the side and said ‘I want to tell you something.’ And y’all, this is salt of the earth people I’m talking about. Someone I would never have expected in 100 years to tell me what he told me that day. ‘Mr Terry, I want to tell you something. Tell those folks down there that when they stop killing babies, I’ll give them every chicken I’ve got.’”
~Georgia State Rep. Terry England, comparing women to livestock.
33. “Like I said, after this last election, the first order of business is pass a budget. Now, I believe that. I supported the Paul Ryan budget and sent it over to the Senate. Now I live with some Senators, I yell at them all the time, I grabbed one of them the other day and shook him and I’d love to get them to vote for it — boy I’d love that. You know but other than me going over there with a gun and holding it to their head and maybe killing a couple of them, I don’t think they’re going to listen unless they get beat.”
~Rep. John Sullivan, advocating for shooting Democratic Senators as a way to pass the destructive Ryan budget plan.
34. “If I thought that the man’s signature was required… required, in order for a woman to have an abortion, I’d have a little more peace about it…”
~Alaska State Rep. Alan Dick, saying women should have to get permission from men to get an abortion.
35. “Personally I’d like to make a law that mandates a woman watch an abortion being performed prior to having a “surgical procedure”. If it’s not a life it shouldn’t matter, if it doesn’t harm a woman then she shouldn’t care, and don’t we want more transparency and education in the medical profession anyway?”
~Arizona State Rep. Terry Proud, advocating for forcing women to watch abortions before having one.
36. “We need a candidate who’s going to be a fighter for freedom. Who is going to get up and make that the central theme in this race because it is the central theme in this race. I don’t care what the unemployment rate’s going to be. Doesn’t matter to me. My campaign doesn’t hinge on unemployment rates and growth rates.”
~Rick Santorum, saying he doesn’t care about the unemployed.
37. “All we have to do is replace Obama. We are not auditioning for fearless leader. We don’t need a president to tell us in what direction to go. We know what direction to go. We want the Ryan budget. We just need a president to sign this stuff. We don’t need someone to think it up or design it. The leadership now for the modern conservative movement for the next 20 years will be coming out of the House and the Senate. Pick a Republican with enough working digits to handle a pen to become president of the United States. This is a change for Republicans: the House and Senate doing the work with the president signing bills. His job is to be captain of the team, to sign the legislation that has already been prepared.”
~Grover Norquist, saying Republicans should elect a puppet President who will sign every destructive bill conservative extremists pass.
38. “We have no one in the state of North Carolina living in extreme poverty. We might governmentally say they are, but they’re not. Extreme poverty is that you’re out there living on a dollar and a half a day. I don’t think we have anybody in North Carolina doing that.”
~North Carolina State Rep. George Cleveland, claiming that extreme poverty doesn’t exist.
39. “There is income inequality in America. There always has been and hopefully, and I do say that, there always will be. Why? Because people rise to different levels of success based on what they contribute to society and to the marketplace and that’s as it should be. We shouldn’t have a society that has a President who envies or creates class warfare or envy between one group of people and another. We should celebrate like we do in the small towns all across American as you do here in Detroit. You celebrate success. You build statues and monuments. Buildings, you name after them. Why? Because in their greatness and innovation, yes, they created wealth, but they created wealth for everybody else. And that’s a good thing, not something to be condemned in America.”
~Rick Santorum, singing the praises of income inequality.
40. ”Well, you can make the argument that if she doesn’t have this baby, if she kills her child, that that, too, could ruin her life. And this is not an easy choice. I understand that. As horrible as the way that that son or daughter and son was created, it still is her child. And whether she has that child or doesn’t, it will always be her child. And she will always know that. And so to embrace her and to love her and to support her and get her through this very difficult time, I’ve always, you know, I believe and I think the right approach is to accept this horribly created — in the sense of rape — but nevertheless a gift in a very broken way, the gift of human life, and accept what God has given to you. As you know, we have to, in lots of different aspects of our life. We have horrible things happen. I can’t think of anything more horrible. But, nevertheless, we have to make the best out of a bad situation.”
~Rick Santorum, saying women who are raped should get over it and accept her rapist’s baby as a gift from God.
Republicans have a wicked plan for America. They plan to wipe out women’s rights. They plan to restrict voting rights. They plan to legalize discrimination against homosexuals and ethnic minorities. They plan to wage endless wars in the name of religious extremism. They plan to eliminate Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security and public education. They plan on encouraging violence through pro-gun legislation. They plan to force their twisted version of Christianity upon us. And they plan to make the poor and middle class suffer while making the lives of the wealthy more lavish. It is a frightening agenda that is entirely un-American and unconstitutional.
The current state of the Republican Party reminds me a little of ‘The Picture of Dorian Gray.” They are looking at their own reflection believing everything they do is perfect while the world sees them for the decrepit, hateful, violent, cruel, and selfish human beings they really are.
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