The Dallas Morning News is asking, “Hear the one about Wendy Davis going to hell?” At an event held at a Tex-Mex restaurant in Frisco, Greg Abbott was introduced by apparent jester-in-chief, state Rep. Pat Fallon.
Fallon didn’t have any desire to address the issues. Instead, he thought he’d just make fun of Abbott’s opponent in the upcoming elections, because she’s a woman and, you know, that’s how Republicans treat women, as objects of ridicule.
Here is the video:
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As Wayne Slater of the Dallas Morning News describes it:
The first grader asks Davis how many people could fit in the stomach of the whale. Davis says none, the whale’s throat is too small. But the boy asks about Jonah, wasn’t he swallowed by a whale?
When Davis repeats that nobody could be swallowed by a whale, the boy declares that when he gets to heaven, he’ll ask Jonah personally.
Fallon then quoted Davis, “Well, what if Jonah went to hell?” drawing groans from the supporters at the rally.
“Then the little boy said, ‘Well, Ms. Davis, you can ask him,'” Fallon quipped.
As you can see, the joke went over well. Slater points out that, “Abbott, who was next to Fallon, laughed and the supporters clapped and cheered.”
Oh yeah, good times in Texas.
It is typical of Republican reactions to PR blunders like this that “Abbott campaign spokeswoman Amelia Chasse distanced the GOP nominee from the joke,” claiming, “While clearly intended to be humorous, the comment was inappropriate and should not have been made.”
That does not change the fact that your candidate laughed at that inappropriate joke. There are no backs. You can’t retroactively distance Abbott from something he clearly enjoyed.
Well…not in a world where reality matters. And there’s the rub, as we have seen from Republican candidates trying, belatedly, to pretend to be pro-choice.
The Republican Party loves to portray the choice between conservatives and liberals as a choice between heaven and hell, but if, as they claim, conservatives have a lock on the afterlife heaven, a worldly paradise under their governance escapes all but the wealthy.
They also know a thing or two about bringing hell to earth. The condition of citizens in Red States, where thousands are destined to die due to inadequate healthcare, where poverty rates are the highest in the nation, proves this, and everywhere Republican governance has been tried – Michigan, Kansas, Wisconsin, and other places – it has failed catastrophically. In fact, Texas and hell under the Republicans have become synonymous.
The so-called Texas Miracle is a myth concocted by a governor facing abuse of power charges who thinks he can pray away drought, and the state’s job growth is based on minimum wage jobs. The 1 percent have it great. The rest of the population? Not so much. Assuming you can feed your family – hardly guaranteed – If you want an education for your children, Texas is not the place for you.
Which only bestows great irony on the fact that the Greg Abbott thinks the idea of Wendy Davis going to hell is hilarious. With Perry as governor, she has already been living there, and if Abbott wins, she’ll still be living there, and so will millions of other Texans.
If Perry somehow escapes prison and gains the White House, all of us will be living in Republican hell. And we did not need to deal with an imaginary whale to get there.
Hrafnkell Haraldsson, a social liberal with leanings toward centrist politics has degrees in history and philosophy. His interests include, besides history and philosophy, human rights issues, freedom of choice, religion, and the precarious dichotomy of freedom of speech and intolerance. He brings a slightly different perspective to his writing, being that he is neither a follower of an Abrahamic faith nor an atheist but a polytheist, a modern-day Heathen who follows the customs and traditions of his Norse ancestors. He maintains his own blog, A Heathen’s Day, which deals with Heathen and Pagan matters, and Mos Maiorum Foundation www.mosmaiorum.org, dedicated to ethnic religion. He has also contributed to NewsJunkiePost, GodsOwnParty and Pagan+Politics.
