Welcome to what is the 852nd original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing the U.S. House Representative from Alabama’s 4th Congressional District, Robert Aderholt, who has served in Congress since 1997. Aderholt is the son of a part-time minister and district court judge who served for 30 years in Alabama, Bobby Ray Aderholt, so you might expect that the guy might be conservative.
Hoo boy, is he.Robert Aderholt has a rating of 0, yes, ZERO from the Human Rights Committee because of his record on LGBTQ Rights. This has something do with him being closely aligned with the anti-gay hate group, the Family Research Council (who give him a 100% rating), that he has sponsored amendments to legislation to try to allow adoption agencies to deny gay couples adoptions based on their “religious beliefs”, and that he reacted to the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling with “a heavy heart” and fears that it would be a threat to his own religious freedom if gay people could get married.
On abortion, Rep. Aderholt is radical enough that on two occasions, he has tried to defund Planned Parenthood, and has called upon Mitch McConnell and the GOP-controlled Senate to overturn the filibuster to that they can move the same legislation through the Senate.
And, taking a look at his belief on climate change, yes, Robert Aderholt denies it exists, calling the current significant rise in temperature a part of a “normal warming cycle” and assuring everyone that a cooling cycle is coming right behind it, based on historical precedents that seem to have been pulled directly out of his anus:
“I fall into the second group of people who believe, as do many very credible scientists, that the earth is currently in a natural warming cycle rather than a man-made climate change. Many scientists believe that natural cycles of warming and cooling have existed since the beginning of Earth. If we take the current models of climate prediction and apply those same models to what actually happened in the last thirty years, the models are shown to be very flawed. In addition, what knowledge we do have of a warming period in the Middle Ages cannot be explained by current models which are focused on greenhouse gas reductions.“
But what’s quite concerning is seeing a Fundamentalist like Robert Aderholt bend over backwards to make his twisted view on Christianity even more broken by singing the praises of Donald Trump. Aderholt places Trump’s Christian values to be on par with Ronald Reagan’s, and somehow ahead of both Bush 41 and Bush 43. He’s aligned himself fully with Trump’s white nationalist agenda, insisting we need a border wall because migrants are “smuggling drugs” across, defended Donald Trump’s incoherent rages, even if they’re directed at former Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions, and has claimed the extraordinarily craven Trump would win a fist-fight with Joe Biden, because yes, Aderholt is that much of a toady.
But let’s review his legislative career, if anyone had any doubts about him being a partisan tool:
- March 21st, 2005: Rep. Aderholt votes for the Terry Schiavo Incapacitated Persons Protection Bill. This despite the fact that a large majority of the country polled at the time felt that the government preventing a person’s plan to die with dignity was an overreach.
- July 18th, 2006: Aderholt co-sponsors and votes for a resolution towards creating a constitutional amendment to ban same-sex marriage.
- December 6th, 2006: Rep. Aderholt co-sponsors and votes for the "Abortion Pain Bill”, which would create an unconstitutional ban on abortion at 20 weeks.
- July 31st, 2007: Robert Aderholt votes against the Equal Pay Bill.
- November 7th, 2007: Robert Aderholt votes against ENDA, allowing the continued discrimination of LGBTQ citizens based on their sexual identity in the workplace.
- July 24th, 2008: Rep. Aderholt votes against funding for the prevention of AIDS, malaria, and tuberculosis.
- January 9th, 2009: Aderholt votes against the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act.
- April 29th, 2009: Robert Aderholt votes against the Hate Crimes Expansion that would provide protections to LGBTQ citizens.
- July 31st, 2009: Aderholt votes against the widely successfuly “Cash for Clunkers” program that helped save the American auto industry.
- June 30th, 2010: After Wall Street bankers taking unnecessary risks nearly imploded the global economy in 2007, legislation finally comes forward to prevent the same behaviors from being permitted in the future. The signature piece of legislation to prevent another financial meltdown was Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform, which Robert Aderholt voted against.
- July 30th, 2010: Months after the Deepwater Horizon Oil Spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a bill comes to the floor to better regulate off-shore drilling. Aderholt is apparently alright with ecological disasters continuing in the future, as he votes against it.
- December 8th, 2010: Rep. Aderholt votes against the DREAM Act.
- December 15th, 2010: Aderholt votes against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”.
- January 5th, 2011: Rep. Aderholt votes the first attempt by Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act. He has voted for almost every attempt to do so since.
- On February 18th, 2011, Robert Aderholt votes to defund Planned Parenthood.
- March 17th, 2011: Rep. Aderholt votes to cut funding to National Public Radio.
- September 15th, 2012: Rep. Aderholt votes for the “No More Solyndras Act”.
- September 21st, 2012: Aderholt votes for the “Stop the War on Coal Act”.
- January 15th, 2013: Robert Aderholt votes against Disaster Relief Funding for victims of Hurricane Sandy.
- February 28th, 2013: Aderholt votes against the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act.
- June 19th, 2013: Robert Aderholt votes against restoring $20.5 billion towards the Supplemental Nutritional Assistance Program.
- September 30th, 2013: Rep. Aderholt votes for the 2013 Government Shutdown. When the vote came up seventeen days later to re-open the government, Aderholt voted to keep it closed.
- Feb 26th, 2014: Robert Aderholt goes “all in” on the faux-scandal surrounding the IRS researching SuperPACs by voting for the “Stop the Targeting of Political Beliefs by the IRS Act”.
- July 10th, 2014: Aderholt votes for House Amendment 1040, to prevent the implementation of the dreaded United Nations Agenda 21 Treaty, that in spite of just being recommended climate change guidelines, have many conspiracy theorists within the extreme right convinced it’s a plot for global domination.
- January 22nd, 2015: Robert Aderholt votes for HR 7, an anti-abortion bill that makes even some Republicans pause before voting for it because of its language that tries to define the conditions for what “rape” is, in it.
- February 3rd, 2015: Rep. Aderholt votes for the 60th Republican attempt at repealing the Affordable Care Act. This in spite of the fact that the law is not just working, but better than experts predicted.
- March 3rd, 2015: Aderholt votes against funding the Department of Homeland Security as part of a Republican protest of President Obama’s executive orders on immigration.
- September 11th, 2015: Aderholt votes against the United States’ nuclear treaty with Iran.
- September 18th, 2015: Rep. Aderholt co-sponsors and votes for a bill with most House Republicans to defund Planned Parenthood, based on highly edited “sting” videos submitted by a Pro-Life advocacy group that have been repeatedly debunked by investigators.
- November 19th, 2015: Aderholt votes for the American Security Against Foreign Enemies Act, reacting to the terror attacks in Paris by jihadists from France and Belgium by trying to create greater restrictions to keep out Syrian refugees, of whom exactly zero were involved in those attacks.
- February 2nd, 2016: Robert Aderholt votes for HR 3762, the 61st attempt by Congressional Republicans to repeal the Affordable Care Act (which is still working better than was predicted).
- February 16th, 2017: Aderholt votes for HJR 69, to make it legal for hunters on wildlife reserves to kill several species of hibernating bears or wolves while they’re sleeping. Because… well, the logic really isn’t there as to why, it’s just awful.
- March 16th, 2017: Robert Aderholt votes for HR 1181, which would allow veterans deemed mentally incompetent to continue to own firearms, and not have them taken away without a judge’s written order. We feel safer already.
- May 4th, 2017: Aderholt votes for the GOP’s healthcare plan, that would allow 24,000 more people to die a year, give $50,000 in tax breaks to millionaires, would eliminate coverage for pre-existing conditions, and would treat pregnancy, post-partum depression, and sexual assault as “pre-existing conditions”. Oh, and a provision in the bill would make sure that Aderholt would be allowed to keep his healthcare plan as it exists under the ACA, which would be repealed for the rest of the country. He and his Republican compatriots threw themselves a beer bash to celebrate taking away healthcare from millions and then gloated about it with Donald Trump at a White House press conference, as well.
- June 8th, 2017: Robert Aderholt votes for HR 10, the GOP’s attempt to repeal Dodd-Frank financial reform, because what the country really needs is to allow the big banks to make the same mistakes that imploded the economy only a decade earlier.
- October 3rd, 2017: Aderholt votes for HR 36, the Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, that would try to create an unconstitutional ban abortion at 20 weeks (even though medical science tells us fetuses do not have the capability to feel pain until 29 weeks).
- December 19th, 2017: Robert Aderholt votes for HR 1, the GOP’s $1.7 trillion tax cut to benefit the wealthiest Americans and corporations permanently that coincidentally also removes the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate and kicks 13 million people off their health insurance.
- February 18th, 2018: Rep. Aderholt and his fellow Republicans decide that poor big businesses are suffering too much at the hands of the Americans with Disabilities Act too much, and vote for HR 620, which would strip most of the civil rights protections guaranteed by it.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Aderholt voted against HR 648, because he was gleefully enjoying the longest government shutdown in history.
- January 27th, 2019: Robert Aderholt votes against HJR 30, which was meant to express disapproval of Donald Trump not acting against Russian Federation for attack Aderholt our democracy. You see, he’s fine with our nation being sublet to Vladimir Putin.
- February 28th, 2019: Aderholt votes against HR 1112, a bill which would have required universal background checks on all firearm purchases, and close the gun show loophole.
- March 14th, 2019: Rep. Aderholt votes against HJR 46, which sane members of Congress voted for to reject Donald Trump’s “national emergency” regarding the U.S. border and his attempts to reallocate funds for a border wall without Congressional approval.
- April 4th, 2019: Robert Aderholt is one of 158 Republicans who choose to vote against the re-authorization of the Violence Against Women Act, likely because they feel the 2nd Amendment remaining absolute is more important than preventing people with a history of domestic abuse from owning a firearm (which statistics show, makes them more likely to use those firearms against women in their lives).
- May 17th, 2019: Aderholt votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Aderholt votes against the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Robert Aderholt votes against a resolution to condemn Donald Trump for his racist statements that four people of color in Congress should “go back where they came from”.
- December 18th, 2019: Rep. Aderholt ignores his Congressional duty to hold a president who has been proven to commit high crimes and misdemeanors accountable and votes against the impeachment of Donald Trump.
Robert Aderholt has advanced out of the GOP Primary, and is currently seeking his thirteenth term in office. His challenger is Rich Neighbors, a Democrat who has already lost twice in attempts to get elected to office in Alabama’s 4th, and considering Aderholt usually pulls down between 75-80% of the vote in that highly conservative district, it seems like he’s going to remain in office until he decides to retire.
Excuse me while I go bang my head against a wall for the next 23 hours.
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