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Speaker of the House Boehner Announces Resignation
halfEvilTech writes: House Speaker John A. Boehner announced Friday morning that he will resign at the end of October. The Washington Post reports: "The resignation will end a nearly five-year reign as speaker, allowing House Republicans to approve a short-term government funding bill that will avert a shutdown of federal agencies. Boehner's hold on the speaker's gavel had grown increasingly unsteady amid threats from more than 30 Republicans that they would force a no-confidence vote in his speaker's position, which would have forced him to rely on Democratic votes in order to remain in charge. Several GOP members told The Washington Post that Boehner would step down from Congress Oct. 31."
He might have been Republican in name but seemed to vote more like a democrat.
Jesus was a compassionate social conservative who called individuals to sin no more.
Finally, he can devote more time to those A.A. meetings. It's both good for him and America.
Life is not for the lazy.
So which corporation will now fork over the board positions and stock bonuses that they've been promising? It's called cashing in. Politicians are doing it younger these days so that they have more time to enjoy their ill gotten wealth.
The only thing worse than a Democrat is a Republican.
Remember the 2012 midterm, when all the pundits declared that the Republican establishment had defanged the Tea Party? Bwaahahaha! They run the circus now.
Sure, the Teatards will destroy the Republican party, but they'll do enormous damage along the way. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
that this will leave the insane tea partiers in charge of the asylum that is the House of Representatives. It's like the last adult is leaving the room.
Does it matter? They'll be just as crazy as the rest.
Reid has already announced his departure. Too many career politicians. We need new blood.
Expected outcome: End to gridlock, new era of bipartisan cooperation, intelligent debate, and compromise.
Nobody expects that. The reason he is being pushed out, is that he is perceived by the right as compromising too much.
I look forward to our new, even less reasonable speaker.
It's Friday. A slow day for nerds, news and stuff that matters. Political news junkies are having a field day.
Boehner is a devout Catholic.
Boehner invited the Pope to speak before Congress.
During the Pope's address to the Congress, an address that specifically rebuked many Republican stances* Boehner has supported, Boehner was visibly crying.
The day after the Pope's address, Boehner announces his resignation.
We should wait and see what he actually does next following his resignation, but a part of me can't help but hope that he saw the light finally, that he saw the discrepancies between the faith he claimed, and the party he was part of for so long. One can hope.
(*yes I know he chastised both sides)
The guy who said the election was rigged won the presidency with the second-most votes.
I'd be scared shitless right now if I was a moderate Republican.
All the moderate republicans are running as democrats, Clinton, Biden...
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
Oh, wait. His replacement might be worse and the House of Representatives may get even less done. Now, it'll be interesting whether Boehner has lined up a job with an existing lobbying company or will form his own company. He'll likely make many millions, if not tens of millions, of dollars per year no matter what he does.
In a time of universal deceit, telling the truth is a revolutionary act. George Orwell
Tea Partiers grinding their gears really grinds my gears.
Reagan also cut more taxes than anyone in history (dangerous facts)
No president has ever cut taxes or raised them. That's the responsibility of Congress. The President can suggest tax policies and can veto them but ultimately it is up to Congress to actually affirm or deny them. Now admittedly the President does have substantial influence on tax policy but saying Reagan or any other president raised taxes is technically incorrect. You could correctly say that he supported a tax increase or opposed one and that would be factual.
Great. So the new guy elected Speaker either does the same out of the necessity to keep the government functional at any level, or completely destroys the Republican brand with a new completely unnecessary shutdown which only ends when he capitulates anyway.
We've seen this before, and it won't work. Boehner was right to get out now.
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
His replacement might be worse and the House of Representatives may get even less done.
Is that actually possible? Seems like the only thing they do is have repeated pointless votes to repeal the Affordable Care Act and de-fund Planned Parenthood along with periodically trying (and even succeeding once) to shut down the federal government over the spending cap.
I probably wouldn't agree with Boehner 100% on a lot of issues, but is was pretty clear he didn't believe lots of the nonsense that came out of the far right wing of his party. I think it became too much for him to deal with.
Great. So the new guy elected Speaker either does the same out of the necessity to keep the government functional at any level, or completely destroys the Republican brand with a new completely unnecessary shutdown which only ends when he capitulates anyway.
That is the Republican brand now: get elected on a platform that consists entirely of refusing to do your fucking job. This applies to Congressmen, and all the way down to county clerks.
"... amid threats from more than 30 Republicans that they would force a no-confidence vote in his speaker's position..."
Wow! I never knew politics could be as exciting as a Star Wars movie!
I mean, yeah, the most boring part of the most boring one, but still...
Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
A large and increasing portion of Americans realize that their financial health is threatened by immigrants and their very existence is threatened by Muslim terrorists.
Please elaborate on exactly how "Muslim terrorists" constitute an existential threat to America. More people die if bathtub falls and choking than die in terrorist attacks.
Many smaller, less stable countries deal with far larger rates of things like suicide bombings without their societies being destroyed. Is America that fragile?
I would cheer but you know there's just another warmonger in an expensive suit standing behind him to take his place.
"All those moments, will be lost in time...like tears in rain..."
He learned just a one cannot herd cats, one cannot reason with the outright psychotics that the Teabagging Koch Brothers, et al loosed on the Republican party (and the entire country).
Kim Davis is a Democrat.
Show me one Democrat (aside from her) who is defending her choice to not carry out the duties of her office.
Boehner to Pope: "Holy Father, I can't take this anymore."
Pope to Boehner: "Life is short, my son. Dump these idiots and learn to drive a truck."
Take it easy, Charlie, I've got an Angle...
That is the Republican brand now: get elected on a platform that consists entirely of refusing to do your fucking job. This applies to Congressmen, and all the way down to county clerks.
On the plus side, at least they're telling the truth while campaigning now. I still remember W campaigning on a platform of "fiscal responsibility, trustworthiness, and no nation building". Then we got the deficit, WMD in Iraq, and, well, Iraq.
Not that democrats are perfect, but when they say they'll try to raise taxes and increase social spending, they ain't lying.
But I'm amazed at the people who are mad that Boehner didn't singlehandedly dismantle Obamacare/taxes/immigration/the Kenyan Dictator. He didn't have the votes, so it turns out he couldn't. The new guy won't be able to either. I wish the people who wave the constitution would occasionally read the damn thing, and that includes most of the constitution-wavers on Slashdot.
"The resignation will end a nearly five-year reign as speaker"
Translation: "The resignation will end a nearly five-year reign as a lame, inept, orange-colored buffoon who couldn't get his own fucking party to back his loopy ideas."
His "leading by resigning" strategy follows that of Sarah Palin and Scott Walker.
Just cruising through this digital world at 33 1/3 rpm...
Republican "brand"...am I the only one that sees a problem with that term? Bush used it on Colbert a few days ago and it completely shut me off from what he was saying. Companies have brands. Politicians should have platforms...
We simply have this again, albeit not by Obama
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
I wish the people who wave the constitution would occasionally read the damn thing
The same goes for the Bible, but I wouldn't hold my breath if I were you.
He wasn't as bad as Pelosi, but he came pretty close.
This is the best thing he's ever done for this country, and he could do us an even bigger favor by resigning his congressional seat as well.
-jcr
The only title of honor that a tyrant can grant is "Enemy of the State."
A large and increasing portion of Americans realize that their financial health is threatened by immigrants and their very existence is threatened by Muslim terrorists.
Please elaborate on exactly how "Muslim terrorists" constitute an existential threat to America.
Their evil clock kinda-maybe-bomb-like devices will kill us all! Or at least kill the people with bad heart conditions and worse brain conditions.
For that matter, how is our financial health threatened by immigrants? By all reasonable studies, immigrants improve the economies where they live and work, and deporting all of the illegal immigrants would cause a major hit to our economy.
My own financial health is far more threatened by outsourcing, H1-B visas, and the threat of removing my affordable healthcare than immigrants (those people this country was built out of), and the Americans in the cars around me each day are many hundreds of times more likely to kill me than any Muslim terrorist. America suffers more Christian terrorist attacks every year than Muslim terrorist attacks within our borders, but since Christians are the majority in this country, the news refuses to phrase it that way.
Goodbye House, Welcome Solarium!
so it's gears all the way down?
Kim Davis is a batshit crazy superstitionist who allowed herself to be elected to a position she wasn't, and isn't, qualified to hold. Identifying her as a "Democrat" or "Republican" is about as relevant to what she's been up to as identifying a serial killer as a stamp collector.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
On the contrary; the only real threat to America and freedom is bigoted idiotic cowards like you.
"[Regarding the 'cloud,'] ownership was what made America different than Russia." -- Woz
Right, and Mike Huckabee and Ted Cruz flew down for photo ops in support of her liberal ideology.
"Our two-party system is like a bowl of shit looking at itself in a mirror." - Lewis Black
It isn't even a compromise when you won't even fight for what you say you will fight for, but instead throw little temper tantrums and noise while rolling over and doing nothing at all. "We're gonna lose so we aren't even gonna bother trying"
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
The Constitution hasn't been enforced in a long time.
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
A large and increasing portion of Americans realize that their financial health is threatened by immigrants and their very existence is threatened by Muslim terrorists. They also realize that Democrats are encouraging these dangerous things. Tea Partiers, Republicans generally, and anyone not suicidal or delusional will vote for the most pro-America, pro-freedom candidate they can find.
A large and increasing portion of Americans realize that their financial health is hardly threatened by fruit & vegetable pickers and that their very existence is scarcely threatened by terrorists of any ilk. They also realize that fear-mongering Republicans are encouraging these calculated lies. Your day of reckoning is rapidly approaching.
Sacred cows make the best burgers.
Awww. No more "Boner" jokes... :P
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Remember the old "You don't have to be a brain to be boss, just an Asshole." story? The Republicans apparently adopted that as gospel truth... For those of you unfamiliar with it:
THE BRAIN SAID : Since I control everything and do all the work I should be boss.
THE FEET SAID: Since I carry man where he wants to go and get him to do what the Brain wants, I should be boss.
THE HANDS SAID: Since I must do all the work and earn all the money to keep all the rest of you going, I should be boss.
THE EYES SAID: Since I must look out for all of you and tell you where danger lurks, I should be boss.
And so it went with the Heart, the Ears, and the Lungs.
Finally the Asshole spoke up and demanded that he be boss. All the other parts laughed and laughed at the idea of an asshole being boss.
The Asshole was so angered that he blocked himself off and refused to function. Soon the Brain was feverish, the Eyes crossed and ached, the Feet were too weak to walk, the Hands hung limply at his side, the Heart and Lungs struggled to keep going.
All pleaded with the Brain to relent and let the Asshole be boss, and so it happened. All parts did the work and the Asshole just bossed and passed out a lot of shit.
MORAL: You don't have to be a brain to be boss, just an Asshole.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
News for Nerds. Stuff that Matters.
It matters to slashdotters. We have a huge conservative majority here; they need to know that Boehner is stepping down. Many of them will likely see this as a sign to run to their favorite gun shops and buy up as much ammo as possible, as this certainly will bring about the end of our government.
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Of course she's qualified to hold that position... her family has ALWAYS held that position! That's how things work in a monarchy, titles are always passed down to one's descendants! The Davis's were CHOSEN BY GOD to lead Rowen County!
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
Wasn't her son the only one of the assistants in the office who continued to refuse to sign marriage licenses?
Well, it's not like we didn't see this coming. Poor guy.
Kim Davis is a Democrat.
Not any more!
That's too extreme. Even politicians occasionally do something good. Some of them even frequently try to represent their constituency.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
One right winger down the bowl is not enough. We need to flush all of them down the bowl. On top of that the jerk is almost the same color orange as Trump. It makes me wonder if one lies enough does one turn orange?
The Constitution hasn't been enforced in a long time.
As originally written? Damn good thing, too. Slaves counting three fifths of a person, no women's suffrage, no birthright citizenship, appointed Senators, poll taxes: the original constitution was a fucking shambles, and took quite a few amendments to get functioning properly as the foundation for a modern government.
Writing was on the wall.
He will resign *AS SPEAKER*.
Nothing I have read so far has said he will leave his job entirely.
I think that's very misleading, since without the qualifier, "will resign" means he'll leave the job.
All I read was "House Baratheon announces resignation".
There will finally be a gummint shutdown, freak out & piss off every indifferent voter dependent on gummint checks, freak out the commercial sector that depends on the gummint and banks to deliver a quarterly profit, JUST IN TIME for national elections in November!
Go Tea Party!
There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM and AT&T and DuPont, Dow, General Electric, and Exxon
Many smaller, less stable countries deal with far larger rates of things like suicide bombings without their societies being destroyed. Is America that fragile?
Yes?
Fanatically anti-fanatical
If you fail to see how Islamic Terrorism is an existential threat to freedom and democracy worldwide, there isn't a post in Slashdot that will change your mind.
I'm more inclined to see people like you as an existential threat to freedom and democracy worldwide. The terrorists are able to kill hundreds of people a year, while the dickless cowards insist we need to strip the rights from billions of people to stop them.
Simply because there haven't been successful attacks for a while on our home soil, does not mean there aren't real threats that need to be addressed around the world that threaten our interests.
There are certainly real threats, but threats to "your interests" are not the same as "your life" and I consistently find it's evil men who seek to confuse the two.
Fanatically anti-fanatical
"people like me"?
You don't know anything about me except that I feel that Islamic fundamentalism is a threat that should be addressed. Notice I have never said what steps should be taken to address it or what freedoms need to be limited.
I find your post to be poorly thought out and internally inconsistent. You may want to consider reading your posts before posting them, and trying to figure out if they make any sense.
Damn, beat me to it.
It's a failure of the president to negotiate, but thats not how the media plays it.
OB: Tom Toles.
Awesome fucking timing on that one.
Didn't we have a whole group of democrats dothat in Wisconsin to prevent Scott Walker's bill regarding government benefits?
Yeah, it really makes me wonder why she was registered as a Democrat. How many other policies of the Democratic party did she support? Was it few enough that a couple of Republican nutjobs coming to her defense was enough to make her change her affiliation?
Expected outcome: End to gridlock, new era of bipartisan cooperation, intelligent debate, and compromise.
Nobody expects that. The reason he is being pushed out, is that he is perceived by the right as compromising too much.
QFT. The only people happier about this than the far left, are those on the far right. That should more or less tell you what you need to know. Shit is probably about to get worse, not better.
Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines.
You probably think Bernie is a "moderate democrat".
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
It isn't even a compromise when you won't even fight for what you say you will fight for, but instead throw little temper tantrums and noise while rolling over and doing nothing at all. "We're gonna lose so we aren't even gonna bother trying"
LOL, the Republicans tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried and tried to repeal Obamacare, but they just couldn't do it.
But I guess 56 unsuccessful attempts to repeal a law doesn't count as enough effort for you. How many times would you have tried?
Now that the far right gets what they say they've wanted for years... who will they select to lead them?
The tea partiers won't accept anything less than one of their own as the new Speaker of the House. But since they don't have enough votes to acheive their objective, they'll simply shut down the voting process. I suspect we're going to have to live without a "second in line to the Presidency" guy for a while.
Eh, he's a sheepdog, keeping the 'hippie' money in the democrat corral. He works the machine like Lieberman did, to keep out independents that don't play ball. But yeah, the real race between republicans and democrats is being run within the democrat primary, but the Duck Dynasty Party still has to be considered unfortunately. It would be so easy just to turn our backs on the insanity, no matter how much money they spend.
“He’s not deformed, he’s just drunk!”
You don't know anything about me except that I feel that Islamic fundamentalism is a threat that should be addressed.
Well, we do know you feel a little more strongly than that. Something about an "existential threat to freedom and democracy worldwide"?
Anyone with a modicum of critical thinking skills realizes that terrorism is pretty far down the list when it comes to things a westerner should be afraid of. GP's point is well taken. A little shrill, but well taken.
Good riddance.
https://www.youtube.com/c/BrendaEM
Good riddance. You won't be missed.
Slaves counting three fifths of a person
For purposes of enumerating during the census to reduce the power of the slave-states in order to guarantee slavery's eventual elimination.
But don't let the complexity of historical conext get in the way of your narrative (or myth-"thinking").
And that eventual elimination was actually agreed-upon as a desired goal by the original authors, including the representatives of those southern states since at that time slavery was a necessity to many places--globally--not an optional exploitation so a few people could have it easier: hence why starving+warring African tribes were capturing and selling each other out of their homelands to ease pressure on their resources during hard times by the way.
But I've never actually encountered anyone who rails at these things so simply who is actually a rational thinking rather than reactionary, so I won't try to address anything else here: just be warned, those of you who care for reason and truth, that this moron is simplifying and perpetuating deceptive myths for his politics.
The new Tea Party plan is to dismantle government. This has long been a strategy of small government advocates, if you shut things down or defund departments they hope that people learn that they never needed the government anyway. So they are actually doing what they think they were elected to do, no matter how irresponsible it is.
Remember that in the south, the Democratic party was the staunchly conservative party for a long time. It only changed when the Democrats as a whole refused to support segregation, so the Republicans picked up the disaffected southerners (after a brief stop in the short lived Dixiecrat party). But not all of them switched over.
Plus, it's frankly a stupid artifact of American politics that a political party is used to stereotype someone on the entirety of their political views. You are allowed to be anti-abortion and pro-union at the same time, or pro-life and anti-gun. So yes, you will find evangelical Democrats.
Time to take this great nation back from... umm... people who aren't me! Vote for me and I'll make this country great again. Not that it isn't great now, since it is the greatest place on earth, even better than Disneyland. But we can make it greater. So, I'll make this country greater again! And we'll get rid of deviants, we have to get rid of them because our democracy isn't greater enough to deal with contrary ideas.
There are a couple issues the republicans have gone so far to the right that they actually accomplished a far Left policy goal.
Politics has more than one dimension - and you can't make substantial sense out of it without using at least two. Whenever you have a confusing "so far right it's left" (or vice-versa) analysis, you're really in an at-least-two-dimensions situation. The right-left analysis has broken as a result, and an off-in-another-direction group has been misidentified as being "off the end" of the left or right side that the left-right-only "dimension-blind" analysts usually associate them with.
If you're counting "tea party" as farther right than right, you've tried to squash 2-D into 1-D and gotten it wrong. (They'd be close to center on a left-right projection, and also contain {at least} two distinct groups)
The two axes you want (both here and usually as a minimum-to-make-sense) are "economic freedom vs. control" and "social freedom vs. control" - but you can rotate the square graph 45 degrees and get a diamond, with left/right along the now horizontal diagonal and libertarian/authoritarian along the now vertical one, yielding the "Nolan Chart" of the "World's Smallest Political Quiz".
The Tea Party ("Taxed Enough Already") started out as a libertarians-in-the-republican-party thing during the Ron Paul campaign, temporarily attracted (or was infiltrated by) neocons, (they had no controls to keep anybody from calling themselves "tea party"), attracted other anti-neocon republican faction members and lost most of the neocons (as the "tea party"-identified new congresscritters attacked the neocon-dominated party establishment) along with anti-tax people from the "left" side of the isle.
Their main issue is getting the government out of your pocketbook, currency manipulation, crony-capatalist bailouts (which attracts some lefties), world-wide economic power-plays (world bank, foreign aid, ...), etc. This puts them a little right of center on the left-right axis, and way up toward the libertarian corner on the libertarian-authoritarian axis.
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
Their main issue is getting the government out of your pocketbook, currency manipulation, crony-capatalist bailouts (which attracts some lefties), world-wide economic power-plays (world bank, foreign aid, ...), etc. This puts them a little right of center on the left-right axis, and way up toward the libertarian corner on the libertarian-authoritarian axis.
More accurately, because their main issue is an economic liberty, they attract people from a broad region spread out near the libertarian-right side of the Nolan chart, and the region is big enough to include some of the more libertarian of those left-of-center - mainly those who recognize property rights or oppose crony capitalists because they're perceived as looting the rest of the people (rather than because they think property rights shouldn't exist).
Bantam Dominique roosters crow a four-note song. Once you've heard it as "Happy BIRTHday" you can't NOT hear it that way
The Republican Presidential field is a demolition derby. Nobody is coming out unscathed. Boahner is retiring at the top of his game. He will have averted his second government shutdown, probably with Democratic help. The shutdown will come with the debit ceiling crisis in December.
He enters the spring primary season at the right time, 3 months before June, fresh and ready to run. He presents himself as an honest broker. Someone willing to work with the Democrats to pass legislation. Rank and file moderate Republicans and swing voters can vote for him as a conservative who gets the job done. He kept the lights on twice. In November he runs as a centrist. Someone who can work with both parties. His only black marks are he cries in public and his orange tan. He would give Hillary a run for her money.
What's scary for me as a bleeding heart liberal, is that he would not be a bad choice. Unlike W or the race to the bottom of the current gang of candidates.
As a self-described Conservative Republican, my complaints with Boehner, McConnell et al are:
0. Boenher stated that winning Republican majorities in the House and Senate would give him and McConnell the ability to pass legislation to accomplish the stated Republican goals of repealing the ACA, forcing the President to appoint more moderate judges etc., and enact tax reform to grow the economy.
1. When the House and Senate (the Senate being the 'problem' fixed) were in fact won by the Republicans, Boehner then explained that without a Republican President, they could not get legislation signed into law, and lacking a majority sufficient to override a veto, they still could not do anything.
2. Then Boehner explained that passing such legislation as even resolutions to temporarily defund Planned Parenthood couldn't be done because to do so would likely result in a 'government shutdown', which would further tarnish the Republican Party reputation, risk the presidential election, and so result in at least four more years of inaction.
Why am I so disillusioned by this?
- If winning Republican majorities in the House and Senate results in continuing gridlock, is the solution now to control the Executive and Legislative branches outright? Is this a reasonable expectation? Mr. Boehner, your requirement that this be done so that you can in fact govern is unrealistic and frankly wrong. You have failed.
- And when given the Congressional majorities you said you needed, you failed to act. Even to send those bills we expected you to, for a certain veto, if for no other reason than to demonstrate the difference between the two dominant political parties. If there is in fact one.
- Then, if for no other reason than to at least do what you said you would, you failed to pass even minimal legislation to accomplish what your constituents and fellow Republicans overwhelmingly demand. You have ignored your pwn party faithful.
From my vantage point, Mr. Boehner acts the same way no matter the majority he has in the House, fails to act at all, and indeed continues to avoid either confronting or compromising with the Democratic Party. at least, we cannot see any meaningful action.
If he will not act, and if he correct and without the Presidency nothing can be accomplished, then does it matter who is Speaker? I say yes, it does:
> First, a new Speaker must begin meeting with Democrats. If a veto-proof coalition is necessary, form it. Find a way. OR report to us that indeed the effort was made, and so far individual Democrats refuse to consider compromise. This I doubt, but I'm unaware of even the effort by the current Republican House leadership. And no effort to show us that...
> A new Speaker must make the point that traditional efforts, such as adding amendments to budget resolutions, are not 'Republican shutdown theater', despite the claim. If the House sends this to the Senate, and the Senate also passes it, the President then can decide if he believes this or some other provision is sufficiently outrageous that he will veto the resolution, let the government shut down as much as it will, and consequences be damned. Democrats in the Congress can then choose to compromise or not, and so register their intention to let the government fail rather than pass such intolerable provisions. Eventually one side or the other will surrender.
> A new Speaker must at least try.
deleting the extra space after periods so i can stay relevant, yeah.
Yeah, it really makes me wonder why she was registered as a Democrat. How many other policies of the Democratic party did she support? Was it few enough that a couple of Republican nutjobs coming to her defense was enough to make her change her affiliation?
My guess is that she probably leaned towards the Democrats on the economic front, while being a social conservative. Similar to a Blue Dog Democrat.
However, Kim Davis's religious beliefs are so extreme that this one issue seems to greatly override the importance of any other.
That's what I thought, too, considering it was only within the past few years that she became a born-again evangelical.
As originally written? Damn good thing, too. Slaves counting three fifths of a person, no women's suffrage, no birthright citizenship, appointed Senators, poll taxes: the original constitution was a fucking shambles, and took quite a few amendments to get functioning properly as the foundation for a modern government.
The Constitution was originally written with the intention that it be changed. The rules for doing so are right in the original document. The Founders knew changing times would involve changing needs of the populace, and in no way did they feel like the Constitution should be set in stone. The 3/5s rule, women's suffrage, elected Senators, abolishing poll taxes, all of these were legal modifications to bring the Constitution in line with the desires of the populace.
However, there's a difference between changing the Constitution and outright ignoring it. If you ignore it, then there's nothing to stop legislators, officials, and the general public from disregarding the portions you happen to like along with the parts you might consider outdated.
Mmm, a Ronald Reagan "I didn't leave the Party, the Party left me" type.