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Health & Fitness

IL GOP Saws Off The Limb It Clings To

The party that couldn't think straight.

The Illinois GOP reminds me of the mafia...but instead of being the gang that couldn't shoot straight, they are the party that couldn't think straight. Case in point is their hilarious and failed effort to oust state GOP chairman Pat Brady because of his apostasy in breaking with GOP red meat culture war issues by daring to come out for gay marriage in Illinois. Brady told the Neanderthals controlling his party that they're "on the wrong side of history". What he really meant was, "We've lost every minority and marginalized voting segment in the state and together they represent the great majority of the electorate".    
 
Oblivious to Brady's spot on reasoning and desperation to salvage his party, the "just say never" claque actually scheduled a GOP Central Committee meeting for March 9 vote to oust Brady as state chairman, on the preposterous grounds his gay marriage position was not in line with he party's platform. If every officeholder was held to that standard the legislative chambers would be empty.
It took calls from top state GOP powerhouses US Senator Mark Kirk and Illinois House Leader Tom Cross to get the party dinosaurs to cancel the "Get Brady" confab. The cancellation was so last minute that one committeeperson drove all the way to Tinley Park convention center to find herself an "ouster committee of one".
 
Only one Illinois state senator voted with the overwhelming Democratic majority to pass gay marriage in Illinois. My own senator Kirk Dillard probably voted no because he's running for governor next year and a vote to give full civil rights to Illinois gays also gives him zero chance of getting past a far right GOP primary challenger. My state rep Sandy Pihos votes next and is now officially on record as a no vote due to her assessment that a majority of her constituents are against granting full civil rights to their gay brothers and sisters.  She also indicates she is willing to continue dialoging with her constituents on this issue. Rather that dialoguing, I suggest that Rep. Pihos study the Constitution and American history. Civil rights is simply not subject to majority rule. If that were the case, blacks in the South would still be bending over "colored only" drinking fountains.

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