The Real Mark Obenshain: What his daughter Won’t Tell You

The Mark Obenshain we know is the one we see in his TV ads. He is the nice guy, with the nice family and a nice suburban home. He has an attractive wife and a cute daughter who is always defending him from the evil opponent who issues lies about him in his campaign. She accuses the opponent of not protecting women and flashes a bill reference number to prove it (although it disappears from the screen so fast I still don’t know what the bill is). And the media-produced Mark Obenshain is the one that appears to be in a dead heat with his opponent Mark Herring as the last hours of the campaign tick away.

But there is another Mark Obenshain. That is the Obenshain his daughter won’t talk about. That is the Obenshain who has consistently voted for right wing conservative legislation. That is the Obenshain who has earned the endorsement of many right wing conservative groups and low scores from progressive groups. That is the Mark Obenshain you need to meet.

Mark’s Supporters:

Let’s take a look at the groups that support Mark Obenshain:

Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia: The Caucus has endorsed Obenshain’s candidacy. As it describes itself, “the Republican Liberty Caucus of Virginia exists to promote individual liberty, limited government, and free enterprise within the Republican Party.” The national Caucus represents the extreme right-wing of the Republican Party, favoring reduced government intrusion, lower taxes, elimination of federal agencies, less regulation, a strong national defense with fewer military bases abroad, and no foreign aid. The Republican Liberty Caucus is working to make the Republican Party even more conservative than it already is.

National Rifle Association Political Victory Fund: The NRA-PVA has endorsed Obenshain’s candidacy based on the votes and positions he has taken while in the General Assembly. The NRA-PVA has also endorsed Obenshain’s running mates Ken Cuccinelli and Earl Jackson.

Family Foundation of Virginia: Based on his voting record, Obenshain has received a 100% rating from the Foundation. For those who are not familiar with the Foundation, I quote from one of my earlier posts:

As for the Virginia Family Foundation, its website indicates that its “vision is to establish a Commonwealth of strong families who are guided by faith and protected by a principled government.” The Family Foundation’s five-year plan seeks to 1- Establish Virginia as the most pro-life state in the nation. 2-Protect the institution of traditional marriage. 3-Reinforce the rights of parents to make life-altering decisions in their children’s lives. 4-Limit the undue burden placed on families by state government. 5- Reestablish Virginia as the national model for religious liberty. In the area of education, the Virginia Family Foundation favors tax credits for families “that choose non-public schools.” 1

To receive the 100% rating from the Foundation, Obenshain had to vote the right way on all 20 pieces of legislation that it supported. So Mark voted (for brevity I have omitted some of the votes):

a- in favor of HB321 in 2012, which gave a tax credit to corporations and individuals who contributed to scholarship programs that financed poor children attending private schools;

b- in favor of HB462 in 2012, which requires a woman to undergo ultrasound imaging before undergoing an abortion.

c- in favor of SB349 in 2012, which allows a private adoption agency to refuse to participate in an adoption that violates its written religious or moral convictions.

d- against SR27 in 2013, and thus against the confirmation of Judge Tracy Thorne-Begland.

e- against HB2313 in 2013, which created a new funding mechanism for transportation projects in Virginia. (The Foundation opposed because it resulted in a net increase of taxes).

f- in favor of SB1074 in 2013, which allows student organizations at state colleges or universities to discriminate on the basis of religious, political or philosophical beliefs.

g- in favor of an amendment to HB1900 in 2013, which prohibited insurance companies participating in exchanges under the Affordable Health Act from providing abortion coverage.

h- against SB701 in 2013, which prohibited discrimination on the basis of sexual preference.

i- in favor of HB1112 in 2012, which would repeal the requirement of vaccination against human papillomavirus for female children.

j- against HB62 and SB826 in 2012, which would have repealed the provision of law that allows state Medicaid funds to pay for an abortion when a doctor certifies “that the fetus would be born with a gross and totally incapacitating physical deformity or mental deficiency.”

k-against SJ130 in 2012, which would have ratified the Equal Rights Amendment to the United States Constitution.

l- in favor of SJ287 in 2013, which would amend the Virginia Constitution to authorize “prayer in private or public settings, on government premises, on public property, and in all public schools” The amendment would also require the display of the Ten Commandment in all public schools.

American Conservative Union: Obenshain received a 100% rating from the Union which describes itself in these words:

“For more than forty years, ACU has served as an umbrella organization harnessing the collective strength of conservative organizations fighting for Americans who are concerned with liberty, personal responsibility, traditional values, and strong national defense…As America’s premier conservative voice, ACU is the leading entity in providing conservative positions on issues to Congress, the Executive Branch, State Legislatures, the media, political candidates, and the public.”

The Union is the host of the annual CPAC conference.

Marks Opponents:

These are some of the groups that oppose Mark Obenshain:

NARAL Pro-Choice Virginia: Obenshain received a 0% rating from this organization.

“Our mission is to develop and sustain a constituency that uses the state-level political process in Virginia to guarantee every woman the right to make personal decisions regarding the full range of reproductive choices …”

Virginia Education Association: Obenshain received a 0% rating from the VEA.

"The mission of the Virginia Education Association is to unite our members and local communities across the Commonwealth in fulfilling the promise of a high quality public education that successfully prepares every single student to realize his or her full potential. We believe this can be accomplished by advocating for students, education professionals, and support professionals.”

Some of Mark’s Recent Votes:

2013:  Obenshain voted against HB1907, which increased the fine for driving while texting.

            Obenshain voted for SB1335, which prohibited the disclosure of information about persons authorized to carry concealed weapons.

            Obenshain voted for SB1256, which provides that a photo-ID is the only form of identification that will permit a person to vote in Virginia.

            Obenshain voted for SB721, which required drug testing for certain welfare recipients.

            Obenshain voted against SB975, which prohibited smoking in a car containing minors.

            Obenshain voted against SB736, which requires drivers or passengers in cars to wait for a “reasonable opportunity” to open doors on the side adjacent to moving traffic.

            Obenshain voted for SB1335, which prohibited the disclosure of information about persons authorized to carry concealed weapons.

2012:  Obenshain voted for HB48, which allows a resident to use deadly force against an intruder, if the intruder commits an “overt act” and the resident believes he is in imminent danger of physical injury.

            Obenshain voted for HB940, which repealed the limit on purchasing one hand-gun in a 30 day period.

 And, so we have a portrait of the other Mark Obenshain; the one his daughter will not talk about. This is the Obenshain whose voting record has made him the darling of all the ultra-conservative groups in Virginia. This is the Obenshain who has not earned the votes of either Democrats or Independents in next Tuesday’s election. He has also not earned the votes of mainstream Republicans who want to save their party from the extremists on the right who have been controlling it for the past several years. The only intelligent choice next Tuesday is to vote for the other Mark—Mark Herring for Attorney General.

 

Armed Insurrection?

But when a long train of abuses … evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Declaration of Independence

After Thursday’s decision by the United States Supreme Court upholding the constitutionality of the Health Care Reform Act, there has been some talk from our brothers on the right that armed insurrection is the only way to deal with this development. Some of our friends on the left have responded with levity suggesting that those violently opposed to health care reform are in need of mental health services or that if they don’t like it they should move to some other country. This maven, however, cannot treat these things lightly. For one thing, advocating armed insurrection against the United States might be considered treasonous. On the other hand, perhaps the Federal Government is tending toward tyranny and we should not ignore it. After all, eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.

To sort all this out, I thought it would be useful to compare American grievances in 1776, when we actually did engage in armed insurrection (at least as the British saw it), with the grievances of today. I include only some of the British offenses set forth in the Declaration of Independence.

            British offenses of 1776                                  Federal Government offenses of today

Forced us to quarter troops in our homes	Forced us to buy health insurance
Cut off our trade with other parts of the world	Forced us to buy health insurance
Imposed taxes on us without our consent	Forced us to buy health insurance
Deprived us of trial by jury	Forced us to buy health insurance
Took away our charters, abolished our laws and altered our form of government	Forced us to buy health insurance
Suspended our own legislatures	Forced us to buy health insurance
Plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns and destroyed the lives of our people	Forced us to buy health insurance
Introduced armies of foreign mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny	Forced us to buy health insurance

Trusted reader, although it is close, I am sure you will agree that the complaints of our forebears in 1776 were slightly more serious than of those who are willing to overthrow the government in order to eliminate health care reform. So what is this totally out of proportion reaction to a court decision upholding a statute enacted by the Congress?

This maven lays the blame at the door of the Republican leadership in the Congress and their tea-drinking allies. These gentlepeople are so intent on recapturing control of the Federal Government that they will do or say anything to make President Obama appear to be an illegitimate president. Thus the accusations that Obama is not a native born American. On top of that they must show that even Obama’s legislation is illegitimate. So, after Health Care Reform passed, the Republican leadership refused to acknowledge that it was actually a Public Act, passed by the Congress and signed by the President. Immediately, they declared it not only to be terrible legislation, but invalid. They declared it to be the single-most dangerous expansion of federal power in history. They declared it to be a CLEAR violation of the constitution. They declared it to by tyranny and thus its removal as essential to the country’s survival. They declared it to be the end of life as we know it. In short, they declared their battle to destroy Health Care Reform to be Armageddon.  

Unfortunately, our Republican and Tea-Party cousins believe their own rhetoric. And worse than that, there are some pretty volatile, armed people out there who have come to believe it too. When you repeat that message over and over again, is it any wonder that people start suggesting that only armed insurrection against the Federal Government will save us?

It seems to this maven that those who opened this Pandora’s box and let the crazies out need to be the ones to recage them and lock the door. I call on John Boehner, Eric Cantor, Mitch McConnell, Rand Paul and Mitt Romney to make it clear that although they consider the Health Care Reform Act to be bad policy they do not consider it to be grounds for rebellion against the Government. Let them each announce that even suggesting armed insurrection as a solution for disagreeing with government action is not patriotic but rather is un-American. John, Eric, Mitch, Rand, Mitt it is time to call their dogs off and to declare that we are a country that resolves political dispute at the ballot box, not at the point of a gun.

The Gospel of Virginia Republicans

“Teacher, which is the great commandment in the Law?”  And he said to him, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.  This is the great and first commandment.  And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself—UNLESS

1- God has created her a woman, in which case—

·         You shall treat her with contempt

·         You shall deprive her of control of her body

·         You shall subject her to invasive medical tests

2- Your neighbors are poor, in which case—

·         You shall treat them with contempt

·         You shall discourage them from voting by imposing unreasonable identification requirements

·         You shall deprive them of affordable health care

·         You shall deprive their children of quality public education by cutting state funding for public schools and by diverting state funding to private schools

·         You shall deprive them of safe and affordable housing

·         You shall deprive them of affordable public transportation to places of employment

3- God has created your neighbors homosexuals, in which case—

·         You shall treat them with contempt

·         You shall preclude them from committed, long-term love relationships

·         You shall prevent them from adopting children

·         You shall exclude them from positions of public trust

4- Your neighbors are Spanish speakers, in which case—

·         You shall treat them with contempt

·         You shall assume that they are in the country illegally

·         You shall constantly require them to prove that they are citizens or properly-documented immigrants

On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets.”

My Letter To Eric Cantor

Dear Eric,

I was so glad to get your letter. Your “Dear Fellow Conservative” salutation was a bit surprising but I guess you meant it as a compliment. I really appreciate you calling on me for help with the terrible troubles you face. As you point out in your letter, you need to stop the liberal lies of the left-wing media; you need to push your conservative agenda of lower taxes, eliminating wasteful spending and more freedom; you need to prepare for an epic battle against the liberal Democrats. As we say in Yiddish, Eric you have real tsuris. It’s no wonder you ask me to send you $1,000.

Eric, I feel for you. It is terrible that the liberal media is filled with such liars as Rush Limbaugh, Bill O’Reilly and Glen Beck. They are constantly distorting your record. And even your home-town newspaper, that bastion of Left-wing thinking, the Richmond Times-Dispatch is always opposing everything you do or say. It’s about time we showed them the door.

And your conservative agenda of lower taxes, eliminating waste and more freedom, are things that every Right-thinking American would support. They may call it “Voodoo Economics,” Eric, but you and I know that the only way to reduce our national debt is to cut taxes more severely. We have proven in the Reagan, Bush and Bush administrations that cutting taxes actually increases revenue to the Government. (Or we would have proven it if only those leftist Democrats had let the experiment run longer.) So, we’ve got to cut taxes more or else we will never balance the budget.

You are so right! Everybody knows that most government spending is wasteful. And it’s also socialist. Just look at these programs—public broadcasting, public transportation, public this and public that. If they were good capitalist programs, would they call them public? I am so glad that this week you Right-thinking conservatives cut funding for public radio and public TV. That stuff is not only a waste of taxpayer money, but it’s downright subversive. Eric, did you ever watch that Sesame thing? They’ve got all these puppets of different colors and with different accents living happily and singing about numbers and letters. Is this the kind of thing we want our children to learn? They even have this big yellow bird! Give me a break. Eric, thank you for cutting that nonsense.

Now, I know that those lying liberals will accuse you of voting for a lot of wasteful spending during those years when W was president. They will say that you voted year after year for budgets that added trillions of dollars to our national debt. But they just don’t understand. Sometimes in Washington you have to vote for things you disagree with. I know that you strongly oppose deficit spending and would never have voted for those things if you had a choice. But, you had more important things on your mind than the welfare of your constituents. After all, would you be Majority Leader now if you had voted against your Republican president during those eight years?

Your third goal—more freedom—who could oppose it? We all know that our freedoms are constantly under attack by Washington. They are always trying to regulate us. They expect us to provide safe workplaces, even to miners; they expect us to clean up our factories and farms so we don’t pollute the air or water; they expect us to tolerate labor unions. And these are just the tip of the iceberg. We need to get rid of all those Washington regulations. How can a company make a decent profit unless we get free from these meddling bureaucrats in Washington?*

Finally, Eric, there is your epic battle against the liberal Democrats next year. This one will truly be Armageddon. You say that we need to take down Obama and Pelosi, but isn’t it liberal thinking that we must really oppose? We need to fight to the finish against such liberal concepts as feeding the hungry, housing the homeless, caring for the sick, clothing the naked, protecting the powerless in our society, helping the poor or welcoming the stranger. We need to crush out the outrageous liberal ideas that we are responsible for each other or that we are responsible for leaving this world to our children and grandchildren in as good a shape as we received it from the generations that preceded us. We need to stamp out the idea that government has any valid purpose other than protecting our right to make as much money as possible.

Now, comes the bad news, Eric. You asked that I contribute as much as $1,000 to support your campaign to save America. Unfortunately, because of the state of the economy, my wife and I have really had to cut our wasteful spending. (You should be happy that we are following your example.) So, I am sorry to say that we cannot give you any money now.

In any event, Eric, thanks for the letter.


*Eric, you have to be careful with that phrase “more freedom.” You certainly wouldn’t want people to think you supported the freedom to marry who you want or the freedom of women to control their own bodies!