Maya Angelou said that. Pretty solid stuff.
Bill Parcells, 2 time Super Bowl winning football coach, famously said something maybe not intended to be quite as deep, but nonetheless very true and instructive.
"You are what your record says you are"
Hmm, you are what your record says you are. I like that.
With the republican convention days away, maybe it's a good time to start taking advantage of all that good, free advice.
A few days ago, Todd Akin was kind enough to remind us exactly who the republicans are, to the abject horror of just about every other sentient human in their party (best guess, roughly 50% of them).
Now, it's not like I didn't have a really, really super awesome idea before that who they were and what they represented.
But, when somebody that is running for one of the most important positions that this country can bestow starts talking about "legitimate" rape, that alerted me to the fact that maybe my ideas about them were not as deeply informed as I had thought.
Going forward, we need to start taking deadly seriously what these people say, what they put down on paper, and what they do. We have run out of time to try and convince ourselves that they can't really mean the outlandish and crazy things they say, and then even more foolishly try to reason with them.
You are who you say you are.
The GOP party platform says that there should be no abortion exceptions made for rape, be it legitimate or otherwise.
You are who you say you are.
They are putting forth the idea of a "personhood" amendment, which would extend to a fertilized egg all the rights of a person. This would even threaten birth control as we know it.
You are who you say you are.
Paul Ryan just told us the other day on that campaign plane that Mitt Romney's position on abortion was "a good start".
A good start. That begs the question, a good start for what?
If you believe Mr. Romney (OK, suspend your disbelief for a second), who says he supports the exceptions for health of the mother, rape & incest, by inference Mr. Ryan obviously isn't quite on board with those exceptions. And this is the guy who is going to be a heartbeat away from the presidency.
You are who you say you are.
You are what your record says you are.
I don't know about you, but that "party platform thingy" that supposedly nobody never, ever, ha ha ha, takes seriously, oh sure, it's really just there to satisfy the fringe elements of the party but nobody really expects any of it to really happen?
I expect it to happen. And you should too.
And now you know why.