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Zorro

(15,740 posts) Sat Sep 11, 2021, 11:08 PM Sep 2021

Texas Governor Greg Abbott Pulls Ahead in Race to Determine Biggest GOP Asshole

Abbott has declared he’ll defend Texans’ “right to choose” not to get vaccinated, after signing a law effectively banning abortion.

There’s immense competition these days, but on Thursday, Texas governor Greg Abbott pulled ahead of the pack in the race to determine the biggest asshole in the Republican Party. In the same month that he signed a law disenfranchising countless constituents, and another law went into effect essentially banning abortion in his state, Abbott had the temerity, unique among conservatives, to announce that he would do everything in his power to defend Texans’ “right to choose.” Not to choose to end a pregnancy, of course, because in Texas pregnant people have no rights, but rather to choose not to get a lifesaving vaccine and help end the COVID-19 pandemic, now in its 18th month.

In response to Joe Biden’s announcement that, among other things, his administration would require all businesses with more than 100 employees to either require vaccinations for all workers or mandate weekly coronavirus tests—a move designed, per the White House, to “ensure that we are using every available tool to combat COVID-19 and save even more lives in the months ahead, while also keeping schools open and safe, and protecting our economy from lockdowns and damage”—Abbott took to Twitter to declare that such an outrageous attempt to keep people and the economy alive would not go down on his watch.

“Biden’s vaccine mandate is an assault on private businesses,” Abbott tweeted. “I issued an Executive Order protecting Texans’ right to choose whether they get the COVID vaccine & added it to the special session agenda. Texas is already working to halt this power grab.”

Obviously, the hypocrisy of claiming to be all about “protecting Texans’ right to choose,” after signing a law that would, among other things, force a rape victim to have her attacker’s child (if she misses what is effectively a two-week window offered to her by the state to make her own choices), was too great to let slide—and the Twitter reaction was swift: