On this date in 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, as well as 2019, “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day posted profiles of the current U.S. House Representative for Missouri’s 4th District, Vicky Hartzler, who returned to politics in 2010 after taking about a decade off to become one of the most rabidly anti-gay activists in the United States, if not the globe. Hartzler campaigned for Missouri to pass a law to outlaw same sex marriage, once upon a time, has compared same sex marriage to incest, and railed against the repeal of “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell”, suggesting that the United States military should house gay soldiers in separate quarters from the straight ones. After the Obergefell v. Hodges ruling, Hartzler released a statement that she would “continue to champion marriage as the union between one man and one woman so every child has the opportunity to have both a mom and a dad”, indicating she doesn’t understand that parenting is something gay people can do, as well.
Hartzler has also gone on social media to call climate change a hoax, has repeatedly perpetrated the myth that the Affordable Care Act would lead to “healthcare rationing”, went on record to say she has doubts about President Obama’s birth certificate, furthered the Center for Medical Progress’ crusade against Planned Parenthood by insisting the organization was “selling baby parts”, creating the false history that our Founding Fathers were pro-life, and has warned Americans that China is spying on us by hiding secret microchips in our toasters. Because that doesn’t make her sound like a paranoid whack-job, right?
Now, on a day-to-day basis, the United States is currently at the mercy of whatever brain-addled decision Donald Trump makes, and his own Cabinet and advisers often seem surprised when he’s pushed in a direction politically by whatever he sees on Fox and Friends, social media, or the last person in the room who talks. That’s a part of why military advisers were baffled when Donald Trump announced a ban on transgender troops back in July of 2017. But what motivated him to suddenly come up with such a policy? Most guessed it might have been Vice President Pence in his ear, but after some digging, it was determined that Trump was getting a lot of pressure from Congresswoman Hartzler to ban transgendered troops, as she lied (and continues to lie to the public) about “excessive medical costs” of sex-change surgery, because she just loathes anyone who isn’t straight.
“I think we raised the awareness for people all across this country of this failed Obama policy that had been inflicted on our military last year and the dangers to both our readiness as well as our ability to spend our precious defense dollars to meet the threat.”
This came on the heels of Rep. Hartzler having released a statement in June of 2016 where she compared transgendered soldiers to ISIS, North Korea, and Vladimir Putin, calling our own LGBTQ service members a “domestic threat”:
“At a time when we should be focusing on the threats from North Korea, and Putin, and ISIS, we’re having to deal with a threat here at home — a domestic threat — of allowing transgenders in our service, which is a real problem because it impacts their readiness, and it’s a huge cost for our military.”
In 2018, Hartzler won re-election with 64% of the vote to her House seat for Missouri’s 4th District thanks to its +13 Republican lean in the Cook Partisan Voting Index. She was so brave that she decided to skip out on having actual town halls with her constituents, and instead, has taken to having aides screen phone calls from chosen supporters who were allowed less than three minutes to ask a question, and absolutely no follow-up questions.
Other than her determination to be a homophobic and transphobic bigot, her voting record is still despicable:
- January 22nd, 2019: Hartzler cannot be arsed to bother to vote against HR 676, which would prevent Donald Trump from doing the unthinkable and walking away from our allies in NATO to appease the Russians.
- January 23rd, 2019: Rep. Hartzler also passes on voting for HR 648, completely uninterested in ending the longest government shutdown in history.
- February 28th, 2019: Vicky Hartzler 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. Hartzler 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: Vicky Hartzler 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: Hartzler votes against The Equality Act, which would have prevented discrimination towards Americans based on their gender identity or sexual orientation.
- June 4th, 2019: Rep. Hartzler can’t be arsed to vote for the Dreamers Act, because he’s too xenophobic and partisan to care about immigration reform.
- July 16th, 2019: Vicky Hartzler 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. Hartzler ignores her 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.
Vicky Hartzler is currently gearing herself up to follow in the footsteps of Phyllis Schlafly, arguing against current efforts to revive the Equal Rights Amendment by making bizarre claims to tie it towards abortion or gender identity. We don’t know at what point Missouri’s 4th decides that maybe they would be better off voting for someone who does little to nothing for them, and only seems to get excited when it’s time to do whatever harm she can to the LGBTQ community… but we hope it’s some time around 2020.