One of these characters is Rep. Tom Tiffany.

There is one honest Republican 

In the MAGA world of totally fact-free “true believes” it is refreshing to find an honest Republican who can change based on evidence. 

Courtney Gore was elected to the school board in a deeply red Texas county on a platform of ending “liberal indoctrination” in the public schools. After winning she immersed herself in the district’s curriculum searching for evidence and the details needed to make changes. She found no evidence of inappropriate political or social indoctrination. 

Gore shared her findings with the Republicans who had encouraged her to run for the seat. She expected them to be relieved that there was no problem, but was told her findings “...didn’t fit the narrative that they were trying to push.” 

Angry, she went public disavowing her inaccurate campaign talking points. She said her backers were using divisive rhetoric to manipulate the community’s emotions. They were not interested in actually improving education. Gore said. “I’m over the political agenda, hypocrisy BS...I took part in it myself. I refuse to participate in it any longer. It’s not serving our party. We have to do better.”

Amen sister!

Less PR fluff and more environmental protection 

Most politicians rarely miss an opportunity to be photographed “kissing babies” at community festivals and events. Rep. Tom Tiffany is a master at this kind of meaningless (and often deceptive) self-promotion as illustrated in his June 7 newsletter. 

Tiffany had on his nice-guy-public-servant costume (photo with him next to the cow costume) to inform his constituents that he served breakfast at the Marshfield Dairyfest. It would be nice if Tiffany would put this community spirit to work supporting real, bipartisan solutions for the everyday problems faced by his constituents.    

In the “Photo of the Week” newsletter feature, Tiffany waxes poetic about a picture of a “rare” sharp-shinned hawk. It is not surprising that hawks are rare and other bird populations are declining in our area. Tiffany has an abysmal environmental record. He has been a strong advocate unlimited logging of Wisconsin’s forests, which destroys habitat for many bird species. The same is true for mining, industrial agriculture and other polluting industries. 

We need less baby-kissing PR and more substantive taking care of the environment we all depend upon.

Restricting access to libraries

Why are Republicans so paranoid about children using libraries? What is the problem with a young person being curious about “adult” topics? One would think learning more about any subject (especially when motivated by curiosity) is good for kids. There are no “dumb questions” or “harmful” topics. But Republicans are busy passing absurd laws to prevent “inappropriate” learning. 

In addition to being stupid it is also a waste of time, money and political angst. Most kids are widely exposed on the Internet, social media, streaming services and via their friends to much more sexuality explicit stuff than they will find at any library. Plus most kids (like their parents) don’t read much at all and certainly not “age-inappropriate” books. 

Idaho’s new state law (the “Children’s School and Library Protection Act”) allows anyone to file a complaint about a book they deem “inappropriate” for minors (an undefined term) and requires libraries to respond by making that book unavailable for children. The law allows parents to sue for damages if the library doesn’t comply. Libraries can be subject to a $250 mandatory fine. 

In an effort to comply with the vague state law the small library in Donnelly, Idaho, is requiring a signed “patron agreement” that prohibits children from using the library without a parent being present. There is a signed parental waiver for children attending after-school programs. 

This means 16- and 17-year-olds, who have drivers licenses, may be working at adult jobs, who are biological adults and capable of breeding, are not allowed unsupervised access to a library. How stupid is this?