Did you ever stop to think about how difficult it must be to be a conservative fact-free jackhole? In the face of every bit of evidence to the contrary, you have to cling to nonsense like being sure that Barack Obama was born in Kenya during the faked moon landing. It must be exhausting…. Tennessee Congressman Marsha Blackburn (nope, not a typo, as she insists upon the term)…has got to be plumb tuckered out with her recent Herculean efforts to deny the reality of a recent Vanderbilt poll. Seems that the comsymp babykillers at Vanderbilt University had the goddamn gall to ask people if they liked stupid unnecessary liberal medical things like cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and counseling, and breast exams, and do they want the state to provide funding for those things? Whaddya know? At least two-thirds of the fine Tennesseans surveyed by Vanderbilt were actually in favor of throwing sweet sweet taxpayer cash at those things if you don’t point out they happen at Planned Parenthood.
Imagine living in a world in which your continued relevance (and employment) depended on your willingness and ability to stick to an approved narrative, to push an agenda that very likely has no basis whatsoever in reality. Imagine having to represent an ideology whose raison d’etre is about dishonesty, prevarication, and a complete and utter lack of integrity.
If you can imagine those things, you’re probably a Republican congressperson already doing the Devil’s handiwork. Rep. Marsha Blackburn (R-TN) seems to have her panties in a bunch because the godless Liberals at Vanderbilt didn’t spell out that all those “stupid unnecessary liberal medical things like cancer screenings, birth control, STD testing and counseling, and breast exams” are done at Planned Parenthood clinics. Blackburn KNOWS in her heart of hearts that if the good people of Tennessee polled would have been provided that crucial information, they would have demanded an angry Conservative White Christian male immediately shoot the place up. For ideologues like Blackburn, the truth isn’t about what’s real, demonstrable, and provable; it’s about what you can convince the American Sheeple to hate and fear.
The poll didn’t specifically ask about the abortions provided by Planned Parenthood, though, and because it didn’t, U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., accused the university of trying to advance a political agenda.
“I am disappointed that an institute such as Vanderbilt is publishing a poll that has such a thinly veiled agenda. Vanderbilt has a responsibility to educate women, men and children about access to quality health care,” Blackburn said in a statement to The Tennessean.
I’m not sure what “thinly veiled agenda” Blackburn is so very afraid of, but the fact that the godless Liberal Vanderbilt pollsters didn’t mention Planned Parenthood with approrpriately dark and scary organ music playing in the background seems to be enough for her to discount the poll’s validity. Because how can you reasonably hope to have a rational discussion of women’s health care issues unless you’re screaming, “PLANNED PARENTHOOD!!!” every time you ask a question?
Here’s the thing, though: Vanderbilt’s godless Liberals did go on to mention Planned Parenthood…and, much to Blackburn’s chagrin, the answers of those polled didn’t change all that much:
It seems that most good and decent people actually don’t mind having their tax dollars used for things that actually help people. Unfortunately for Blackburn, she now has to figure out how to spin a poll that shows Tennesseans actually approving of spending money to help care for women’s lady parts. When you inhabit a world in which Planned Parenthood is defined as the very nexus of baby killing evil, the truth can be a terrible, horrible, very bad thing.
For Blackburn, it seems she’s living in a world in which truth is fungible and prone to manipulation based on the ideological needs of the moment. Hey, why deal in the realm of truth and reality when you can just make shit up as it suits you and your agenda?
