Choices, choices.
Arizona Rep. Paul Gosar, a Republican whose district includes some very conservative rural communities, says he's a "proud Catholic," so he's not going to attend the Pope's speech to Congress on Thursday. Gosar wrote in a widely condemned
editorial in
Townhall (sure, widely
adored by his batshit base) that Pope Francis's call to love and respect one another and the Earth, not money, is leftist bull. Heck, Bernie Sanders falls back on his words. The Pope should stick to scripture instead of the economy and environment, says the moon-howlin' denier from Arizona.
Gosar agrees with the Pope on abortion and same-sex marriage; our president does not but he didn't boycott His Holiness's arrival yesterday. Arizona's 1st District congressman is not there yet. Regardless of the many religious and political views he shares with the Pope, Gosar's got a bug up his behind over Francis's concern for the poor and disadvantaged, whether it's immigrants, prisoners or the 99%. Or the planet. So he's staying away, not willing to walk about 500 feet from his office in Cannon to the Capitol, and he says other House idjits will boycott too, only he's not naming names.
Tea Party pinup Paul Gosar doesn't have the interest or the time to attend a historic event: the first Pope to address the US Congress. That's notable itself, but then there's the political elephant in the room, especially with the pontiff speaking to a chamber full of bought bozos who built and sustain the unjust, earth-killing, money-sucking system that the guy from Italy isn't keen on. Rep. Gosar's not going because he doesn't want to hear about himself.
So, last year the congressman had the interest and the time to travel thousands of miles to criminal rancher Cliven Bundy's compound in Nevada. Gosar joined a knuckle-dragging gaggle of Arizona legislators like Chemtrail Queen Sen. Kelli Ward, who caravanned to the armed camp during the standoff with BLM. The Arizonans took photographs with the bigot Bundy and spoke with local media about freedumb and shit, then returned home and plastered the pictures on their websites—that is until the old coot told the world what he knows "about the Negro." Then the web photos disappeared and the reasons for going grew more nuanced, beyond standing shoulder-to-shoulder with a land abuser giving the finger to the black man in DC.
[Gosar] said he visited Bundy because he wanted to learn why the government was showing force against an individual. He said Bundy's armed supporters did not unnerve him. "I'm worried more about the paramilitary aspect of our BLM," he said.
That's right, he's less concerned with armed nativists defending longtime criminals than federal officials enforcing US law—agents who, unlike Bundy's goons, had to train for the job, not just show up in camo with a gun and "Fuck Obama" bumpersticker. Bundy has been breaking the public land leasing law for more than 20 years; he raises cattle on
our land and refuses to pay
us what every other rancher pays. He's lost every court case but won't budge.
This is the person Rep. Gosar rushed to. Not the Pope, who's playing right next door.
In yesterday's Arizona Republic EJ Montini skewered the congressman, comparing Gosar quite unfavorably to the man he refuses to see this week, because this man trusts science and Jesus. Gosar's looney tune playbook includes neither—not science's reality or Jesus's love.
Recognizing science? Promoting shared responsibility? Striving to be good and decent? That sounds like something we expect in a pope and hope for in a politician.
As opposed to one who rejects science, disregards common courtesy and sides with a lawbreaker who believes some people would be “better off as slaves.”