Imagine if a foreign leader executed more than 100 Americans every week just to show his people how tough he was in standing up to the US President.
Imagine if that leader also humiliated American women by forcing them to undergo a medically unnecessary procedure that met the FBI definition of rape.
Imagine if that leader tried to use his country’s lack of regulations as a way to lure businesses just days after 15 of his people were killed in an explosion made possible by… lack of regulations.
Welcome to Texas, home of our nominee for Asshole of the Year, Governor Rick Perry.
In 2013, Rick Perry ramped up Texas’ War on Women with continued attacks on reproductive rights that catapulted Wendy Davis (the next Texas Governor) to national attention. But Texas also waged war on voting rights too with new laws that not only target minorities, but will also disproportionately affect women.
Never one to learn from his mistakes, it almost appeared as if the tone-deaf Perry was using the tragedy of the West explosion as an incentive to lure regulation-averse businesses to his state.
We already knew that Perry is a big fan of the death penalty. But it was his refusal to expand Medicaid—in a state with the nation’s highest uninsured population—that gave the ultimate lie to his “Christian” pro-life image. Not expanding Medicaid will kill people. Up to 27,000 nationally. And with more than 20% of those affected living in Texas, Rick Perry will be personally responsible for more than 5,400 unnecessary deaths.
If you got upset when 4 Americans were killed in Benghazi, you can now thank Rick Perry for a death toll equivalent to more than 25 Benghazis a week right here in Texas.
He’s not just an asshole. He’s Asshole of the Year.
December 28, 2013 7:20 AM