Colorado congressional candidate and sitting State Rep. Richard Holtorf ® received a tough grilling this week at the hands of local 9News anchor Kyle Clark over his apparent hypocrisy when it comes to abortion rights.
Holtorf made headlines back in January when he defended paying for his girlfriend’s abortion, despite being an adamant pro-life lawmaker and abortion critic. “Anti-abortion GOP lawmaker praises the impact of the abortion he paid for,” read the headline of a local report by Clark from the beginning of the year.
To his credit, Holtorf sat down with Clark to discuss the issue.
It’s not even a “gotcha” question. He seems to be clear that his girlfriend’s abortion allowed her to live her best life, and he supported it. So it stands to reason that if he’s voting to restrict abortion, that there must be some line between his girlfriend’s situation, which he supported, and what he votes to restrict. And asking that question is key to understanding his position (if giving him a whole HEAP of benefit-of-the-doubt he doesn’t deserve).
If he wanted to maintain any kind of consistency, he could have simply said “it’s legal right now, so it was her decision and she was able to get one, and if there is a financial burden in that I should take equal responsibility. I don’t think it should be an option, but I can’t make her choose not to when it isn’t illegal.” And that would be that. Even the “best life” thing could be squared away: “It’s never good when a life that should come into this world never sees daylight, but there are, of course, some options that are available that wouldn’t exist with a child, and she has those options. Many women have children unexpectedly and have rich, fulfilling lives, even if they weren’t what they planned. What I meant by her best life is to say she could continue on the path she found to be best, before she found out she was pregnant.”
I’m about as pro-choice as it gets and even I can come up with some shitty justifications for his bullshit hypocrisy. So it’s not just that this guy is a hypocrite, he’s also an idiot. If you’re incapable of explaining your actions and voting, you have no business running for any political position.
Repubs have difficulty with consistency and integrity because they value truth less than they value white supremacist hierarchy. It’s a tricky question for them because they all implicitly understand that the laws are only requirements for poors at the bottom of the hierarchy. They also know they aren’t supposed to say that out loud.
Nah, it’s more than that. Conservativism is about the in group obtaining and excercising power over the out group.
Blatant hypocrisy is just another demonstration of power. “Look at what I can do and you can’t do anything about it.”.