Welcome to what is the 847th original profile here at “Crazy/Stupid Republican of the Day”, where we’ll be discussing Jose Oliva, who has been a member of the Florida House of Representatives for District 110 since winning a special election in the middle of 2011, and is currently serving as the Speaker of the Florida House, a role he has held since 2018. Oliva spent eight long years being a toady as a legislator for former Gov. Rick Scott, where we’ve seen him support some of the Florida GOP’s more extreme bills through that time:
- March 1st, 2012: Jose Oliva votes for HB 1209, a bill aimed at prohibiting courts from basing decisions on “foreign laws” which was a piece of legislation created by Islamophobic conservatives trying to stop the spread of Sharia Law in the United States (that isn’t, at all).
- March 1st, 2012: Oliva votes for SB 98, to authorize student-led prayer in school.
- February 20th, 2014: Jose Oliva co-sponsors and votes for HB 1047, an attempt to limit abortion by changing the legal definition of fetal viability.
- April 9th, 2015: Oliva votes for HB 7111, a bill aimed at allowing adoption agencies to refuse to grant adoptions to same sex couples based on their religious need to be discriminatory homophobes.
- April 22nd, 2015: Jose Oliva votes for HB 633, a medically unnecessary 24 hour waiting period for abortions.
- February 3rd, 2016: Oliva votes for HB 163, to allow for the open carry of firearms in Florida.
- March 2nd, 2016: Jose Oliva votes for HB 43, to authorize churches to decline marriage services to same sex couples.
- March 9th, 2016: Oliva was apparently motivated by the fear-mongering by the Center for Medical Progress about Planned Parenthood, because he voted for HB 1411, to make stricter requirements on the disposal of fetal tissue.
- January 12th, 2018: Jose Oliva votes for HB 9, the prohibit local cities and governments from creating sanctuary cities for undocumented citizens.
- May 1st, 2019: Oliva, only months after the mass shooting at Parkland, votes to authorize firearms on school campuses, because the solution is always an influx of more guns.
But, where we truly realized that Jose Oliva should have no place in politics was back in February of 2019, when during an interview about abortion, he referred to pregnant women as “host bodies”:
”Well the challenge there is that there are two lives involved. So, where I believe that we should stay out of people’s lives, I don’t believe that people’s lives should be taken. It’s a complex issue because one has to think, well there’s a host body and that host body has to have a certain amount of rights because at the end of the day it is that body that that carries this entire other body to term. But there is an additional life there. And the question that we have to ask ourselves is: What is the limit to which we are going to give one person complete power over the life of another?”
This was not a one-time slip off, because later in the same interview, Oliva mentioned that he believed in life at conception, before doing it again:
”Science believes that. “I mean the only definition of science of life is something that grows. From the moment that conception occurs there begins to be growth. And so scientifically that’s what it is. But that’s not the question. The question is: What is the value of that life? And is it subordinate to the value of its host body?”
Jose Oliva is term-limited in the Florida House in 2020. We’re pretty sure that given his age, we won’t be hearing the last of him, however, and we’re expecting him to run for higher office at some point, likely in the Florida State Senate. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis might appoint him. Given the above quotes, he may have damned himself from being able to “fail up” politically, but only time will tell.
One Year Ago, April 5th, 2019: Paul Ryan (WI)… 2019 Update
Two Years Ago, April 5th, 2018: Paul Ryan (WI)… 2018 Update
Three Year Ago, April 5th, 2017: Paul Ryan (WI)… 2017 Update
Four Years Ago. April 5th, 2016: Paul Ryan (WI)… 2016 Update
Five Years Ago: April 5th, 2015: Paul Ryan (WI)… Original Profile