Representative Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) once served in the notoriously corrupt Illinois state legislature with then Illinois state senator Barack Obama (D), both representing Chicago, "the most corrupt city in the nation." Although both have moved on from that less than august body they were among the many who contributed the philosophy and the votes that have given the state of Illinois the dubious distinction of owning the worst credit rating in the nation.
As a long time close associate of Obama's, who is now Chief Deputy Whip of the House Democrats, her thought processes and outlook are quite similar to Obama's. Discussing Obama's mandate that health insurance offered by employers must offer full contraception coverage, no matter their beliefs, she explained on The Ed Schultz Radio Show
"There's no controversy around contraceptives. There is a few, in the, some in the Catholic church and maybe some other Evangelical churches, I don't know, that think that it's wrong but NONE of the American people follow that."
So, deeply religious people of any faith sincerely following their theology, or those opposed to compelling employers to offer a service that is against to their core religious beliefs, or first amendment believers trusting government cannot override a religion are, by her definition, a tiny minority in this country and definitely not Americans. Tell that to her many American constituents who "follow that."
Schakowsky's misunderstanding of the pluralism of religious (and incidentally not all of the opposition to this mandate is religious) thought in this country, her failure to acknowledge the diversity of interpreting all aspects of the first amendment regarding religion and government and her ignorance of multi cultural America and Americans echoes Obama's infamous statement about small town jobless residents and their attitudes towards gun, religion, immigrants and trade.
You go into these small towns in Pennsylvania and, like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration, and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate and they have not.
And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy toward people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations.
Barack Obama. Jan Schakowsky. America is a big country--get out there and meet the people in all our diverse, pluralistic and multi culture glory. Believe it or not we all have a right to express our opinion, have input into the law. And whether we agree with you or not--we are Americans. All of us.
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