Nelson, Munsterman Go Hard Right, Take Stage with Radicals

I had hoped Chris Nelson might hold the center and restore a little practical policy sanity to the Republican Party. I had thought Scott Munsterman might be a sensible technocrat who just might concentrate on governing and resist the Wesleyan urge for culture war. Maybe, just maybe...?

Pffft—the cast of characters for this coming Saturday's Pierre Tea Party lets the remaining air out of that flaccid balloon. Nelson and Munsterman are appearing on the same stage as the following right-wing radicals:

1. Dr. Allen Unruh, who likens federal health care reform to slavery.
2. Nancy First, South Dakota coordinator of the Second Amendment Sisters, who thinks packing heat in courthouses, bars, and kindergartens is good public policy.
3. Kitty Werthmann, who skips the foreplay and takes every argument straight to Godwin's Law. Werthmann brands everything she despises as Nazi machinations. (She probably thinks Bush's Real ID plan is part of the Nazi plot as well.) Her all-purpose policy solution: "buy more guns." Werthmann fronts the South Dakota branch of Eagle Forum Schlafly radicalism.

So, any of you Dems still thinking of backing Nelson over Herseth next year? Think hard—really, really hard—about whether you want to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with characters like Unruh, First, and Werthmann.

With their choices of political appearances, Nelson and Munsterman are making clear they are not moderates. They are standing with and seeking the votes of the hardest right-wingnuts we can find in South Dakota.

"Nothing Threatens the Future of the Next Generation More Than" Unruh's Rhetoric about Abstinence Education

Dr. Allen Unruh falls into his usual pattern of hyperbole, absurdity, and misunderstanding of political reality with a screed on his wife's Abstinence Clearinghouse blog. He opens with this exaggeration:

Nothing threatens the future of the next generation more than defunding abstinence education.

Unruh likes threat-maximization rhetoric. Recall how he addressed a July Tea Party in Sioux Falls:

Nothing threatens our freedom more than the government taking over health care because it will never be reversed.

Or this Dakota Voice essay from Unruh in 2005:

Decades of judicial activism have made the Supreme Court the greatest threat to American Freedom.

(Note to Allen: greatest is a superlative. Like in Highlander, there can be only one.)

Step one when you know you have a weak argument: inflate the danger to unparalleled proportions. Forget that your own actions demonstrate you don't believe what you're saying. After all, if the Unruhs believed that defunding abstinence education was the greatest threat to our future, they would have poured time and treasure into state ballot measures that would have promoted abstinence education, not abortion bans. Never mind that. Just stoke the emotions of the moment.

Unruh's "argument" only gets worse:

The principles of teaching abstinence are the only proven and tested ways to promote a life of success, health and happiness.

I really don't recall abstinence education forming the bedrock of my education at Madison HS. My curriculum revolved around an axis of arts, science, free and creative expression, and healthy doses of butt-chewing from tough teachers who kept my nose to the grindstone while keeping their noses out of my sex life (which really wasn't all that lively in high school). And here I am, twenty years later, feeling successful, healthy, and happy.

Unruh doesn't just commit logical fallacies: he embraces them:

Let’s look at the slippery slope.

The good chiropractor proceeds to associate a lack of abstinence education with drug use, divorce, depression, suicide, and gangs. (If he'd have just thrown in nuclear war, he'd be ready for a high school policy debate round.) He can never draw the actual links between this one minor education policy and all those massive harms. He simply avers that only abstinence education—only!—can offer kids "hope... freedom... a future... reality." Only abstinence education can warn them away from ruin and improve their lives.

Forget all that bunk about good nutrition, plenty of sleep, competition, sports, and better teacher pay helping our kids learn more. Fund abstinence education, or we will all die!

As gravy, Unruh also says single parents, who in his world probably didn't pay attention to their abstinence education, are unfit to raise kids:

over 60% are raised in a single parent home before they are 15 years old leaving them with a skewed view of relationships and emotional depression.

In other words, single moms, how dare you put your self-gratification above the well-being of your children? If you're knocked up, get married! Stay married! If you don't have a husband, we'll all die! (At least I think that's the subtext here. I could be wrong.)

I won't go so far as to claim that Allen Unruh's rhetoric is the single greatest danger our children face. But pumping them full of bad science and illogical arguments certainly won't prepare them to be intelligent, responsible citizens... unless, of course, they have teachers who can effectively use Unruh's rhetoric to train the kids to tune their B.S. meters.

Dr. Unruh cries out for some enviro-mental-ism:

In an age where environmentalists are passing countless laws to eliminate all pollution of the air and water, why is it that pollution of the mind is epidemic and not a concern?

Au contraire, Dr. Unruh. Pollution of the mind is very much a concern. That's why I blog, to clean up the mental pollution that comes from outlets like the Abstinence Clearinghouse.

Oh yeah, and did I mention abstinence education doesn't work? Why yes I did. More than once.

Anti-Health Care Reform Rally Fizzles; Unruh Explodes in Hyperbole

Tea Party organizers said they expected almost 10,000 people at their rally against health care reform yesterday. Crowd estimates:

• KELO: "more than 1,000"
• that Sioux Falls paper: "...325 people in the grandstand for the midafternoon speeches, though organizer Dr. Allen Unruh later estimated 500 to 700 people attended at least some of the four-hour rally. Either way, the turnout was a fraction of the 4,000 at Covell Lake on April 15 to re-enact the Boston Tea Party...."
• [Update 09:45 CDT] Michael Woodring: 500–1000
  

Tea Party organizers are apparently as adept at arithmetic and prediction as they are at grasping politics. Bored chirpractor and organizer Allen Unruh offers this hyperbole:

Nothing threatens our freedom more than the government taking over health care because it will never be reversed [quoted by Erica Johnson, "Health Care Rally Against Reform," KELOLand.com, 2009.07.02].

"Government taking over health care"—Allen, what do you call a law whereby the state forces doctors to say certain things to their patients? Haven't you and your wife Leslee been advocating government control of women's health care for years? Didn't your wife gladly accept taxpayer funding of her women's "health care" facility? (Oh, wait: Washington is reversing that.)

But here's my list of things that threaten our freedom more than taxpayer-funded health insurance (which is what we're really talking about, not government "taking over"):

1. Al-Qaeda
2. the PATRIOT Act
3. warrantless wiretaps
4. decline of investigative journalism
5. abortion bans
6. medical bankruptcy
7. health insurance tied to employment
8. addiction to fossil fuels
9. global warming
10. cranks who bleat "Socialism!" and delude themselves into thinking they are fighting the Revolutionary War and the Cold War all at once while ignoring the need to come up with practical solutions for real problems

The only good thing about these Tea Parties is that they make for easy blogging. Keep pouring those fish in the barrel, Allen; I'll keep shooting.

Victory for Tea Parties: Obama Defunds Abstinence Education!

Hooray and hat tip for DakotaWomen, who give first SD press to President Obama's proposal to eliminate funding for abstinence education, which, as we all know, doesn't work. Further kudos to DakotaWomen for keeping an eye out for Leslee Unruh's inevitable denial of reality:

Leslee Unruh, President and Founder of the Abstinence Clearinghouse, said "I believe there will be a political backlash for those who oppose these life saving abstinence programs. The enemies of sexual integrity programs will feel the heat from the army of youth who have seen the light through these programs as they approach voting age" [Abstinence Clearinghouse press release, 2009.05.07].

Army of youth. Yeah. The kids I've heard expressing opinions about abstinence education aren't taking that one to the voting booth.

Alas, Leslee has no one to blame but her husband Allen*. He put on the tricorner hat, roused the rabble for that tea party, and howled for an end to wasteful government spending. Be careful what you wish for....

But hey, the Unruhs are resourceful. I'm sure they'll find some donors to bring Bristol Palin to South Dakota to keep our faith in abstinence alive.

*O.K., Allen and a majority of the American electorate.

Tax Day Tea Party: Lovely Day in the Park with Unruh Hypocrites

Mr. Powers is kind enough to extend an invitation to all taxpayers to attend the Grand South Dakota Tax Day Tea Party, April 15, noon to 13:30, at Terrace Park in Sioux Falls. According to the event's Facebook page, cranky patriots will gather "To Protest Political Pork Barrel Spending and Government Waste. See an re-enactment of the Boston Tea Party - The spark that ignited the Revolutionary War."

Hmm... are we to derive some meaning from that last phrase?

No word yet on whether organizers have obtained an environmental permit for dumping tea into Covell Lake, but you'll want to bring your high boots for this amusing combination of goose poop and bull-puckey. Leading the rally (in feathered headdress and loincloth, I do so dearly hope) is Dr. Allen Unruh, whose wife Leslee made her living during the Bush Administration on millions of dollars of federal funding for abstinence education programs that don't work.

Obviously the Unruhs can speak with great personal authority on wasteful government spending. Forward the revolution!