Holy Fuck! Or why Perry isn’t really a virgin birth…

Poverty in America by rghitulescu via morgueFile

Apparently Perry must think that he is God (or God’s only son) based on the way he talks about how he has better judgment than the rest of the world.

In fact, after the recent filibuster in Texas, which successfully stopped a seriously anti-woman bill, Perry was pleased as punch when the bill passed, and he spoke about the successful filibuster’s author/presenter, Wendy Davis.

According to Perry, one of God’s prophets, "Who are we to say that children born in the worst of circumstances can't grow to live successful lives? In fact, even the woman who filibustered the Senate the other day was born into difficult circumstances. She was the daughter of a single woman. She was a teenage mother herself. She managed to eventually graduate from Harvard Law School and serve in the Texas Senate. It is just unfortunate that she hasn't learned from her own example that every life must be given a chance to realize its full potential and that every life matters."    

Seriously? Seriously? 

There are so many things to take apart in his statement.

Let’s start with – “who are we to say that children born in the worst of circumstances can’t grow to live successful lives?”  Well, according to the National Center forChildren in Poverty, growing up is harder for them to start with.  Only 27% have private insurance, while 11% are completely uninsured and 67% are covered by public insurance (something Perry is against…)    In addition,  according to the Children’s Defense Fund, 1 in 3 black and 1 in 6 Latino boys who were born in 2001 are at risk for being sent to prison.  

While it’s impressive that Davis, after being a teen mom, went on to graduate from law school at all and get into government, it’s not like the odds were in her favor.  The “11 Facts About Education and Poverty in America” on DoSomething’s website tells us that children in poverty are seven times more likely to be high school drop outs, and then 31% of them continue to live in poverty as adults.  In fact, less than 30% of students in the bottom quarter of income enroll in a four-year university, and of that group, less than 50% manage to graduate.  Now what’s the government doing?  Raising rates on student loans.  Because, yeah, that’ll help.  Back to the topic at hand…

But not even looking at that point, the biggest issue is that Perry, instead of looking at this and saying, “Maybe she *did* learns from her own history…maybe *that’s* why she’s supporting women’s rights,” he assumes that he knows better.  Hasn’t he ever learned that assumptions make him an ass?  And what about his own experiences?  Hasn’t he learned that it’s completely hypocritical to say that we need to “protect life” when he’s been in office for over 200 executions in the state of Texas?  

It’s sad to see women’s rights eroded, but even sadder when it happens because of idiotic men who think that they know better than women who have experienced things themselves.