News Miner 28

Maher and Sengenberger on the elections, the Global Strategy poll, the failure of public schools, Polis with Bill Maher, emergency orders, Catholics and LGBTQ students, and Oltmann (again).

Kelly Maher on the Elections

Good for Kelly Maher:

Maybe it’s just me, but those still participating in this process now seem to have honed a bitter edge I've never seen before. There’s a cruelty that has developed since I started, where it’s more important to “own” the others than rise to the occasion. . . .

Ultimately, I think we [Republicans are] all to blame [for Republican losses], and this loss should be owned by us all. Somewhere along the line, we confused contrasting our ideas on how to govern with yelling at and about people. We thought the cruelest amongst us were the most principled and fighting the hardest. We let our anger eat at our souls.

I became a Republican because I love economics and believe that a free market and a restrained government make for a wealthy society. I didn’t become a Republican because I hate Democrats.

I hope other Republicans take note.

Sengenberger on the Elections

Jimmy Sengenberger says, “Whether it’s the stolen election narrative or the abortion narrative, Republicans either threw fuel on the fire or failed to counterattack.” This makes it sound as though merely the “narrative,” and not the substance of Republican beliefs and stated views, was the problem.

The Global Strategy Poll

A poll associated with the left-wing Progress Now Colorado tells us what we already knew—if we were observant and honest: “Abortion, Trump, and election denial doomed the GOP ticket.”

The poll results state:

When we asked people to name the most important issues to their vote in an open-ended question, abortion and the economy (either inflation/cost of living or the economy and jobs generally) were, unsurprisingly, the two dominant issues,with 37% citing abortion as one of their top two issues and a similar 37% citing inflation or the economy. Importantly, 8% of voters picked both. . . .

By a 61–33 margin, voters said that they couldn’t vote for a candidate who wanted to ban abortion even if they agreed with them on other issues like the economy. . . .

By a 57% to 39% margin, voters agreed that “Republicans have embraced Donald Trump, Lauren Boebert, and MAGA extremism so much that I will have a hard time voting for them inthe future.”That includes an overwhelming 63% to 33% margin among unaffiliated voters, while even 18% of registered Republican voters agree.Meanwhile, by a sizeable margin voters thought Republicans cared more about pleasing Trump than doing what’s right for Colorado—but did not say the same about Democrats and Biden.

The Failure of Public Schools

Van Schoales of the Keystone Policy Center says it’s “incredibly horrible” that, as the Colorado Sun summarizes, “In two-thirds of Colorado school districts, less than 14% of Black students meet or exceed grade level benchmarks.”

The obvious solution to this failure of the public schools, the article implies, is to throw more money at those public schools. Color me skeptical.

See my own articles on the topic:
* Test scores show many Colorado students struggling
* It’s parents who are most important for a child’s education
* Colorado schools leaving many students behind

Polis on Maher

Jared Polis joined Bill Maher:

Polis said Democrats “are the more pro-freedom and pro-liberty of the two parties, but it’s a low bar.”

Interestingly, Polis said that some “Democratic elder statesmen” tried to pressure him out of running for Congress and governor because they thought his homosexuality would be a political liability. But the voters didn’t care about that.

Hyperventilating about Emergency Orders

Heidi Ganahl recently retweeted a comment by Karl Dierenbach to the effect that Jared Polis supposedly is an “authoritarian” who is implementing “fascism” by expanding an emergency health order to include respiratory illnesses other than Covid.

As Colorado Pols points out:

If you read the executive order issued by Gov. Jared Polis last Friday, you’ll quickly discover there’s nothing “fascist” about it. Polis is responding to this year’s very large outbreak of Respiratory Syncytial Virus (RSV), as well as what’s forecast to be a nastier-than-average flu season due to these illnesses’ resurgence after the lifting of COVID restrictions. There are no public health restrictions, mask orders, lockdowns, or any other such measures in this order–it’s about allowing hospitals filling up with sick kids to function under staffing shortages and ensuring emergency room patients aren’t ripped off by surprise billing.

Here is one section of the order:

Due to staffing shortages facing hospitals related to COVID-19, RSV, influenza, and other respiratory illness hospitalizations and an associated decrease in capacity, including pediatric intensive care unit capacity, and to allow clinical staff to focus on patient care by reducing staff time associated with completing utilization reviews, I direct the Colorado Division of Insurance, pursuant to authority in C.R.S. §§ 10-1-108(7) and -109, to promulgate emergency regulations to reduce the administrative burdens associated with discharging, transferring, and caring for patients by temporarily suspending those utilization review requirements necessary to protect insured patients, including any or all prior authorization and preauthorization requirements.

Now, I don’t think the governor has any proper business ordering hospitals around. But largely the order is about relieving hospitals of certain government-imposed regulations.

Calling the order “fascist” is silly—and par for the course for Republican “leaders” these days.

Catholics and LGBTQ Students

The Denver Post sensibly opines:

The leaders of northern Colorado’s Catholic schools have the freedom to believe that being transgender or homosexual is a sin, and the Denver Diocese can order schools to discriminate against transgender students, including by refusing enrollment.

But all discrimination is wrong, and those schools should be held accountable by every organizing body in this state and nationally for choosing to refuse to enroll students who are openly transgender and for excluding same-sex parents from school activities.

To this Jeff Hunt retorts:

The Denver Post continues its open hatred of Christians with latest editorial calling for Christian schools to be kicked out of Colorado High School Activities Association for holding to Biblical values of human identity and sexuality.

Ridiculous. Barring transgender students from your school is “open hatred.” Calling for others not to tolerate such open bigotry is the correct position.

Incidentally—not that this should matter in terms of public policy—it’s not even clear that the Bible takes a position on transgenderism, as Eliel Cruz writes. (See also a write-up by the Human Rights Campaign.) True, Deuteronomy 22:5 says, “A woman must not wear men’s clothing, nor a man wear women’s clothing, for the Lord your God detests anyone who does this.” But, as Cruz points out, that does not aptly describe transgenderism. Anyway, isn’t the New Testament supposed to wipe away the silly restraints of the Old?

More fundamentally, do we really want to take our morality from an ancient book of mythology? Deuteronomy 22 also commands some outright silly things: “Do not wear clothes of wool and linen woven together. Make tassels on the four corners of the cloak you wear.”

And it openly commands murder:

 If, however, the charge is true and no proof of the young woman’s virginity can be found, she shall be brought to the door of her father’s house and there the men of her town shall stone her to death. She has done an outrageous thing in Israel by being promiscuous while still in her father’s house. You must purge the evil from among you.

If a man is found sleeping with another man’s wife, both the man who slept with her and the woman must die. You must purge the evil from Israel.

If a man happens to meet in a town a virgin pledged to be married and he sleeps with her, you shall take both of them to the gate of that town and stone them to death—the young woman because she was in a town and did not scream for help, and the man because he violated another man’s wife. You must purge the evil from among you.

A reasonable person concludes that a source that openly endorses murder probably is unreliable when it comes to other moral matters.

Oltmann on Lake

Joe Oltmann, who suggested the governor be executed, now believes the Arizona election, in which Kari Lake lost, was “stolen.” Because of course he does. Vice reports:

Joe Oltmann, a conservative podcaster from Colorado and major pusher of 2020 election conspiracies, announced a plan on his podcast on Monday night to“shut down” Arizona while demanding a complete redo of the election.

“We are putting everybody on notice, this is peaceful, this is a redress of grievances,” Oltmann said on the podcast. “If you are going to steal our voice and institutionalize slavery, then we as the people should have the opportunity to say no.”

That Oltmann is a fool does not make him less dangerous.