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Manhattan Diary by Cahir O'Doherty

America under the Tea Party

Posted on Sunday, February 13, 2011 at 08:39 AM

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Do you want to know what America would look like under Tea Party/GOP rule? Look no further than Arizona.

Not content to wage war against health care for all it's citizens, or to menace the undocumented, lawyers for the state are now attempting to eliminate the state's domestic partner benefits.

So the basic recipe looks like this: bash the immigrants, the gays and the poor - anyone who isn't a white conservative heterosexual, presumably - and do anything, anything, to meet budget shortfalls, other than raise taxes on the wealthy, of course.

Gay in Arizona? You'll pay the same taxes as your heterosexual neighbors but you won't be entitled to equal benefits. How about that for special rights?

Although a judge ruled last year that the state must continue paying domestic partner benefits while courts decide the legality of Governor Brewer's effort to end the policy (enacted while Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano was governor) according to the state's attorneys, the benefits need to be stopped during the proceedings to help the state save money.

But you know what? The state could save a great deal more money and time if it stopped filing politically motivated lawsuits that have turned it into a national pariah.

What a reactionary and unwelcoming place Arizona is now under Governor Jan Brewer's reign. Instead of marching forward it's simply tilted to the right.

Is this what we want for America?

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dipperloop | Apr 14, 2011, 07:54 PM EDT

Oh plese stop it, The tea party are americans fed up with the goverment spending our money...Would you please interview some tea party people and stop your lying.....

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maloney | Feb 19, 2011, 10:02 PM EST

The dept of social services will tell you that you must be an American citizen to collect welfare (the dole). Yet you will see more illegals in line than blacks & whites put together. Another law not being enforced. Why would illegals ever return home when laws are broken to get their votes. Another law that's being broken.

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JimMcGarity | Feb 19, 2011, 09:15 PM EST

We have to enforce our laws. We can't pick and chose witch ones we enforce. Hit the employers with a large fine and they won't hire them. Have no choice but to return home.

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oct2447 | Feb 14, 2011, 09:43 PM EST

I live in Colorado and visit Arizona frequently as that is where my grandchildren are. The immigration issue isn't simple nor black and white. Parts of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Texas once belonged to Mexico and Mexican roots run deep in those parts.......there are US citizens there whose roots go back to Mexico generations past. Hispanics are now a minority due to the influx of white folks......if the "illegals" went home, who would clean the pools, take care of the lawns, clean the houses, take care of the kids, and many other jobs that "other" folks won't do. This is not a simple issue......not one of everybody in or everybody out........and unfortunately I don't have the solution....

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maloney | Feb 14, 2011, 08:21 PM EST

Some of the posts are siting negative aspects going on in Az. The one thing they failed to mention was the illegals were the reasons for these problems. If the problem was not caused by illegals it was the obama govt. at fault. And yes GW Bush was also responsible for the same problems.

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maloney | Feb 14, 2011, 08:16 PM EST

Jan Brewer for President. Long live the Republic!!! Come and take em.

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slainte39 | Feb 14, 2011, 11:48 AM EST

Conservatives/Tea Party people need liberals to push them along as far as they have come or else they/we would all still be living in the Middle Ages. They are like dragging a huge stone into the 21st century--but drag we must.Some people just hate change, even if it helps them.

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siobhan716 | Feb 13, 2011, 11:56 PM EST

jmchrystal-that quote is from the Declaration of Independence NOT the Constitution, something you've probably never read.

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jmchrystal | Feb 13, 2011, 08:29 PM EST

"Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Happiness", the part of the Constitution that the far right seems to ignore!

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olovely | Feb 13, 2011, 08:03 PM EST

First off, yes heterosexuals can qualify as domestic partners same as gays. The category was only invented to give gay people some of the same rights as straight couples (but not all, of course). Straight people enjoy all the special rights and greater legal privileges and entitlements of marriage. The fact that you don't know that, RoinOCork, and the fact that you call allowing poor people access to health care "socialist" means that (1) you're ignorant and (2) easy to manipulate. Congratulations you're just another clueless Fox News viewer that believes whatever millionaires like Rupert Murdoch says is good for you. Off you go and vote against your own future.

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REMITROMJR | Feb 13, 2011, 07:26 PM EST

Arizona sounds like an exemplar for ALL the states to follow, especially here in MASSACHUSETTS.

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seanomelbourne | Feb 13, 2011, 07:24 PM EST

What moderates in the fractured GOP? RobinoCork methinks you have pulled to many corks your premise for the formation of the teahadists are many.Birhters,racist(they just hate that black president)anti choice right wing nut Christians and a hatred of all things Muslim etc,etc.

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RobinOCork | Feb 13, 2011, 06:19 PM EST

Question: Are there similar rights for long-time heterosexual cohabitators? If there are, I say gays and straights should get equal treatment. If there are no such similar benefits for long-time BF GF couples, then I can't see why gays should get a benefit that straights do not. Equal taxes should provide equal benefits. Nobody's business whom you prefer when the lights are out. - And--before we damn the right and the Tea Party and the GOP, etc.--please remember that if the Dems had been even partially open to listening to some of the Repubs' moderating ideas on the super-socialist healthcare boondoggle, then the Tea Party would never have formed. When the left smugly ignored the right knowing that the left had the presidency and Congress in its pocket, naturally the right got PO'd. All the left had to do was not be such martinets about their socialist agenda, and there would be no such thing as America's so-called "Tea Party."

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seanomelbourne | Feb 13, 2011, 04:28 PM EST

Jan Brewer and her cohorts are the modern day equivalent to the inquisition.

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thomasjhennigan | Feb 13, 2011, 03:05 PM EST

I think that Tea Party policies will bring about the ruination of the U.S>

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