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| Indiana Governor Pence |
Indianathema
Governor Rauner’s “role model.”, according to Crain’s
editorial board, is Mitch Daniels. He told them so in March of 2014. In addition
the private equity manager/governor of Illinois has hired the chief legal
counsel from Indiana (Jason Barclay) in order to have the same man who
whispered in Mitch Daniels’ ear, murmuring in his.
Wisely, Rauner is careful in emulating his idol Daniels, now
the president of Purdue University, where the past governor has been battled
for his attempts to remove Howard Zinn’s works from the curriculum…and now, for
too swiftly moving the university’s professorial staff into a standardized
corporate style testing of students’ growth per year – one linked to
performance measurements for them and teachers.
In the last week, Indiana passed into law a religious
objections bill, one that has come with some rather unexpected
opposition from corporations and businesses that realize isolating and then
condemning a particular segment of a population is not wise fiscally (and,
perhaps, morally?).
You might also remember that candidate Rauner was careful to
avoid any response to the equal marriage law that passed in Illinois, although
he later quietly admitted that he would have vetoed it.
His idol Daniels responds to the passage of last week’s Indiana’s
religious objections bill just as ambiguously.
“Well,
I’m not going to take any position on it, consistent with Purdue’s policy of
not doing so in issues like this,” Daniels said. “You’re within your rights to
ask the question, but not for me to answer.”
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| "I'd have vetoed it." |
I haven’t seen any questions to our new governor on the
subject of Indian’s religious objections bill.
The answers would be enlightening, but probably not unexpected.
The Indiana bill, signed into law by Republican governor
Mike Pence, will allow companies and services to refuse or decline doing
business with individuals who “ask for materials or assistance” which the
business might find objectionable on religious grounds.
Hmmm… Most basic
religions contain so many taboos - from
food, alcohol, associations, menstruation - that I can’t imagine myself able to
shop or purchase services easily in my own little town in Illinois. But let’s be honest. This bill is not written for those exotic and
esoteric religions in, of all places, Midwestern Indiana.
“Indiana Right to Life President and CEO Mike Fichter
praised the new law, saying it would give abortion opponents legal recourse if
they are pressured to support the procedure.
The organization circulated an online petition to thank Pence for signing
the bill.”
It isn’t often that you find a government legislative body
willing to provide the legal elements for one group of its citizenry to hate
another, but welcome to the state that is “kickin’ our tail” – Indiana. The state Rauner emulates.
While supporters of the religious objections bill are quick
to cast the bill as an attempt to prevent any government from compelling an
individual or business owner from having to do something religiously
unacceptable, the inherent and likely application of the law will likely be
detrimental to an already marginalized minority of gay or same-sex
couples. In essence, then, the state of Indiana does not boldly claim to
discriminate – more sinister – Indiana creates a tacit permission for its
citizens to discriminate based upon self-described “religious” principles. If anything, this entire ethos is
antithetical to the teachings of most if not all religions, especially
Christianity.
While Rauner has not yet built the kind of support and
majority in the GA that would assure this specious singling out a particular
group for punishment under the guise of “religious freedom,” he has already
clearly outlined his unrelenting abhorrence of all things collective
bargaining.
In Rauner’s on-line diatribe The Illinois Turnaround Agenda, he outlines in a bullet-point
simplicity just what he plans to do:
It’s not pretty – and its not discreet.
Promise: “With voter empowerment, Illinois can become
a great state, a competitive, compassionate state again.”
We’ve seen the extent of our new Governor’s compassion,
especially for the vulnerable and the marginalized in our state. If you’d like an unsettling and open list of
just how he would marginalize you (compassionately?) for being part of a union
or collective bargaining unit, read his agenda here:
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