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The further a society drifts from truth the more it will hate those who speak it.
George Orwell
Everything about the left is perception, manipulation, and lies. Everything. Everything is 'Wag the Dog.' Everything is a structured deception.
Rush Limbaugh
Men Cannot Be Women
From the beginning of the Colorado 74th General Assembly, it was clear that the road forward would be rocky. On Day 1, a Republican in the House dared to put up another Republican for consideration of becoming Speaker of the House. The silencing and shaming of the minority began early on but hit a new low in early March as they considered a joint resolution to commemorate the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) to the US Constitution.
Interestingly, the Senate passed the resolution (SJR23-006) without any fanfare. No Republican spoke against it. All the Senators voted for it, including these Republican Senators: Baisley, Gardner, Kirkmeyer, Liston, Lundeen, Pelton (Byron), Pelton (Rod), Rich, Simpson, Smallwood, Van Winkle, and Will.
When it got to the House floor the next morning, several House Republicans weren’t having any of it. They saw through the farce. The fourth paragraph in the resolution stated, “WHEREAS, Jennifer Weiss-Wolf, the Brennan Center's Women and Democracy Fellow, noted that the ERA would empower Congress "to enforce gender equity through legislation and, more generally, the creation of a social framework to formally acknowledge systemic biases that permeate and often limit women's daily experiences".”
The push to revive the ERA of the early 1970s is a thinly veiled ploy to federalize transgender and abortion rights as fundamental. Four brave conservatives (Reps Bradley, Bottoms, DeGraaf, and Luck) tried to amend the resolution to reflect the truth and right the record. The left summarily ignored the founding generation’s commitment to equality and the progress towards achieving it during the twentieth century.
It was when Representative DeGraaf, a man, brought an amendment to address the problem with affirming an unquestionably dead proposal for a Constitutional Amendment that the fireworks began to erupt. Representative English condescendingly spouted, “The world has evolved. Here we are fighting for equal rights for women and men still think they know best.”
Representative Luck confronted the issue head-on, gently chastising her colleagues, “If you’re going to add an amendment to the Constitution, let’s abide the Constitution and Article V provisions as to how it’s changed. It should not be partisan and it absolutely should not be an impugnment on the character of my colleague that by raising this valid issue he should be dismissed simply because he is male. That does the exact opposite of what the ERA was initially intended to do – ie: understand that men and women have equal value.”
Representative DeGraaf responded in his usual cerebral manner when he quipped, “I appreciate your tolerance of my inferiority before the law on this issue as a heterogenic mammal.” The majority wisely decided to drop the issue.
In an attempt to acknowledge the original meaning of the ERA, Representative Bottoms’ amendment, in part, inserted, “That the ERA should be strictly interpreted to the original intent of the words as understood when first introduced; and notwithstanding, should not be interpreted to include a right to abortion nor to expand the definition of “sex” to include anything other than the originally understood distinction between biological males and females.” Consternation from the left erupted when the conservatives began talking about chromosomes. Representative Bottoms started it off by saying, “There will always be xx and xy. So, you are either xx or xy. We want to defend the ability for women to be women. Regardless of how society plays the game.”
Representative Holtorf got into the fray and Speaker Pro Tempore deGruy Kennedy tried to rein him in during this exchange: “My daughters all competed in athletics. Many of them played on state championship teams and won. They played against other biological females with the chromosomal makeup of women. {Speaker Pro Tempore interrupts and warns Holtorf to ‘tread very lightly’} …But I think it matters. We want to talk about an Equal Rights Act for women then let’s be very careful how we try to redefine what a woman is biologically, genetically, and chromosomally {Speaker Pro Tempore interrupts again, ‘This is your second warning’}.”
The conservative hit a nerve – exposing the true intent of the resolution.
The wrath of the transgender legislator came the next morning through soft-toned statements laced with not-so-subtle condemnation of comments made the day before: “Whether you believe me or people like me should exist, I do exist,” and “The facts still remain that what was said yesterday was dangerous rhetoric that harms people and encourages bullying.” Speaking the truth has now become dangerous rhetoric and feelings have been elevated above physical reality.
The issue is not a person’s existence. For the Marxists, it’s not even whether a man can become a woman. For them, the issue is always the revolution – which is the overturning of our Constitution.
At the end of the day, despite its illegitimacy and destructive implications, the following Republicans voted for the ERA Resolution: Representatives Bockenfeld, Bradfield, Catlin, Lynch, Pugliese, Soper, and Weinberg, and Senators Baisley, Gardner, Kirkmeyer, Liston, Lundeen, Pelton (Rod), Pelton (Byron), Rich, Simpson, Smallwood, Van Winkle, and Will.
Language Manipulation
For some time, the left has been trying to redefine words and use language to reshape culture, but the manipulation hadn’t made its way into the legislature, until now. After rebuffing the truth by affirming that a man can become a woman and claiming that saying otherwise is denying a person’s existence, the left continued to try to shame the minority into complying with their manipulation of language.
A good example of this was during the debate of HB23-1202 Overdose Prevention Centers a week after the ERA Resolution passed. Representative Willford, one of the sponsors of the bill, began the debate by instructing her colleagues to, “Be thoughtful about our word choice to describe people who use drugs. And to not use stigmatizing language. We are not here to stigmatize people; we are here to talk about life-saving solutions. Instead of calling somebody an addict or using another derogatory term, I would invite you to use the term ‘substance use disorder’.”
Representative Holtorf was first up and after being chastised for using the word ‘addict’ replies, “I know it’s late and some of us want to try and redefine the English language, but I’m going to be very careful and use words that are in Webster’s Dictionary.” He then ventures into new ground when he uses the dreaded ‘S’ word, “There is nothing about wellness that is being afflicted with chemical dependency and addiction. In fact, I correlate this to what I call chemical slavery. Many of us loathe the word slavery. But when you are enabling those individuals to be enslaved day after day after day by this chemical addiction you are in part participating in this very tragic and terrible activity.”
The hackles of the sponsor were raised, and she couldn’t help but correct this perceived slight when she responded with, “I recognize that this is going to be a very robust and full conversation and one that I’m definitely looking forward to but when we started out this debate, I very, very specifically asked that we not, that we not stigmatize people who use drugs or substance use disorders. And so I would just ask colleagues that as we continue this conversation that we not try to redefine the English language. Slavery, slave as it’s outlined in the Oxford Dictionary is a person forced to work for and obey and is considered to be someone else’s property. Slavery: the act of being a slave. And we are not talking about slavery. We are not talking about being a slave. We are not here to redefine the English language.”
Notice that she refers to the Oxford Dictionary, not Webster’s, which does not include in its list of meanings the one Holtorf referred to: “a situation or practice in which people are entrapped and exploited.” So, who is redefining the English language?
The reaction of the left is not complete until the claim of being a racist is mentioned and they did not disappoint. The words of the minority were called discriminatory and the implication was they were racist for not using the prescribed words. (For some reason calling someone a racist is not derogatory but speaking the truth about women is.) Representative Bottoms summed it up, “I do appreciate the fact that either side of the aisle can come up to this podium and request coerced speech or something like that. I think we have that freedom. I’m not going to pay attention to it, but I think we have that freedom. But what we don’t have the freedom to do was to call the entire Republican caucus racist. And I’m not okay with that, Mr. Chair.”
And It Goes On…
The manipulation didn’t stop on the House floor. The minority in the House was shut down during committee hearings as well. The purpose of a legislative committee is to extensively vet bills before being debated by the full body. During the 2023 legislative session, committee members in the House were essentially gagged. Committee chairs limited the number of questions or the time allowed for committee members to ask questions of the bill sponsors or the expert witnesses who came before them.
The public, too, was subject to time constraints especially as the session winded down. Even more egregious was the way the members of the public were treated when legislators didn’t agree with them. During one committee hearing, a legislator made a mom who testified to her experience living in a socialist country cry. Her crime was pointing out the truth about how destructive a bill would be to the fabric of the family.
This silencing, this manipulation, this coercion is the means of murdering our republic. The only way to stop it is to never give up speaking the truth and to never stop exposing their lies.
Are you ready? The legislative session begins on January 10th and your voice is needed. The 2024 election is just around the corner. Never forget what they have done!
