Ok, so Barack Obama may not be achieving the great things predicted of him in the White House, but let us get one thing clear: Mr Obama is - by a country mile - preferable to anything the Republican's have to offer. Last week saw Tea Party candidate Michele Bachmann top the renowned Iowa Ames Straw Poll with 29% of the vote. This followed July's PPP poll victory which found that 21% of national Republican primary voters desired her as their candidate. Both ballots firmly placed her as the Republican's favourite presidential nominee ahead of Ron Paul and early favourite Mitt Romney. Whilst some of you perhaps grimace, explaining rationally that surely it is up to the American people who they vote for, it is imperative that we fully comprehend the policies that this woman proposes. For enlightenments sake, I shall work through some of them:
ON ABORTION: Consistently, Michele Bachmann has spun that old Tea Party line about being "pro-life". This, by its very nature, infers that anyone who happens to support the notion of abortion - and in general, the rights of women - is anti-life and against any living species existence. Whilst many of us would admit that the current levels of abortion are somewhat alarming (annually: 42million), no sane individual would openly urge their nation to eradicate its being. It is an essential tool in our fight for human rights and allows presumably unfit mothers an opportunity to humanely remove their unwanted embryos. That aside, most anti-abortion activists commonly agree that abortion should only be permitted were an embryo to be the result of rape or incest. Yet Bachmann fails to even concede that those circumstances warrant the treatment. Instead, she insists that raising a child - regardless of whether it was wanted - or adoption are superior choices.
Her "pro-life" stance does not end there. Previously, Mrs Bachmann has contended that government should not provide funding to any institution that openly endorses abortion. She has called for the introduction of the Mexico City policy of not providing funding to groups that provide or recommend abortions, openly criticising President Obama's abandonment of the policy. Overall, her stance is similar to that of most hardened Tea Party members. However, let us not think that this is solely a Tea Party issue. Mitt Romney, considered by many to be the centrist option, has altered his views on the subject so many times that nobody actually understands what his genuine feelings are. In 2007 Romney proudly declared that he was "always personally opposed to abortion" before stating in 2008 that he would "preserve and protect" a woman's right to choose. Well, which is it Mitt? You cannot have it both ways.
ON THE CLIMATE: According to our presidential candidate, global warming is all "voodoo, nonsense, hokum, a hoax". It does not exist and is not worth worrying about. If only. In a recent survey, 97% of climatologists claimed that global warming is a very real danger and that humans are playing a major role in the gradual increase of the planets mean temperature. Nevertheless, Bachmann still states that the whole mess is fictitious. Fabricated. A non-entity. Then again, who are we to question the great scientific findings of this Tea Party prodigy? In a list compiled by ThinkProgress, entitled 'The 10 Craziest Things Michele Bachmann Has Ever Said', it was catalogued - at number six - that Bachmann claimed that "carbon dioxide is harmless". It then points you to a respected 2008 scientific study that unearthed "direct links" and a clear correlation between a rise in carbon dioxide and pollution related deaths. Her research skills and judgement are, to say the very least, a little imprecise.
Alongside Bachmann's startling global warming beliefs run her equally baffling thoughts on the need to increase off-shore oil drilling. Following the recent BP Gulf of Mexico disaster, Michele Bachmann stated that "[American] rigs need to be utilised to their fullest capacity to provide more jobs". She also expressed her disgust at the fact that foreign countries were benefiting from Obama's restrictive drilling policies: "The off-shore moratorium must be reconsidered before more rigs float away to aid other country's economies". Essentially, her argument is saying that, as long as America's economy is running smoothly, sod the planet, sod other world economies and sod the progression of alternative energy sources. With Bachmann in the White House one thing is certain; the world's green credentials will take a severe battering.
ON ISRAEL: What analysis of a presidential candidate would be complete without a thorough look at their relationship with America's good friend Israel? Bachmann's unwavering support of Israeli policy has nothing to do with her faith in Benjamin Netanyahu or her love of Jerusalem cafes. No. It is all to do with her religious beliefs. She recently stated during a Republican Jewish Coalition speech, "We have to show that we are inextricably entwined, that as a nation we have been blessed because of our relationship with Israel, and if we reject Israel, then there is a curse that comes into play". She has openly rejected Obama's current position - that Israel's 1967 borders should provide the basis for a peace negotiation with Palestine - and claimed that Israel should always shape America's Middle East foreign policy.
Coinciding with her unconditional cooperation with Israel is her hatred of Iran. Back in 2007, Bachmann went on record as stating that she knew of an agreement between Iran and Iraq that would commit a portion of Iraq as a terrorist haven. She said, "There is already an agreement made. They are going to get half of Iraq, and that is going to be a terrorist safe haven zone where they can go ahead and bring about more attacks in the Middle East, and come against the United States". This kind of anti-Iran propaganda is simply unforgivable, made worse by the fact that it was entirely fabricated and represented not one slither of truth. She has also described Iran as "a danger to every nation in the world", appearing to overlook the fact that they have attacked and invaded considerably less countries than both America and Israel. Who exactly are the real dangers?
ON HOMOSEXUALITY: This one is simple, and clearly shaped by her husband's occupation. Her husband, Marcus, runs a counselling practice that, in part, helps with the "straightening out of gay people". In fact, her outlook on homosexuality is that it is a dysfunction, a problem, a disease. In 2004 she stated, "We need to have profound compassion for people who are dealing with the very real issue of sexual dysfunction in their life and sexual identity disorders". Michele Bachmann has endorsed support for an alteration in both the federal and state constitutions banning same-sex marriage and all legal equivalents. She went further last year when she passionately disapproved of Mr Obama's removal of the 'Don't Tell, Don't Ask' policy. The 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' policy barred openly gay, lesbian or bisexual individuals from joining the US military. The original justification for this policy was that senior officials feared letting homosexuals in to the forces would "create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale, good order and discipline, and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability". Bachmann has ardently approved these sentiments.
Even more extraordinary are her bizarre claims that Disney's The Lion King is a form of gay propaganda. She declared during an educational conference that, because Elton John wrote the music for the award-winning animation, it represented an "I'm better at what I do, because I'm gay" implication. She warned that the "normalisation" of homosexuality would lead to a downfall in society; a kind of "desensitisation". This kind of stance is damaging as it alienates various individuals from civilisation. It leaves them disenfranchised from politics and resentful at the number of people who support and vote for politicians with a similar viewpoint, even though this may not be a policy they strongly agree with.
These are just four of the topics whereby Bachmann expresses ridiculous views. She condones the goings-on at Guantanamo Bay, citing the finding of Osama Bin Laden as justification for its continued use of torture and breaches in basic human rights. She was strongly in favour of invading Iraq and is firmly in support of the old Tea Party policy of providing tax cuts for the super-rich at the expense of the hard-working poor. Worse still, she is cherished by the American right who bask in her preposterous madness. She has taken Reagan, Bush and Palin's whispered dogmas and belted them out full pelt through a megaphone. She is only marginally more sophisticated than the horrible laughing stock that was Donald Trump. What is more concerning is that I thorough encourage a challenger to President Obama's reign. Let's face it, he needs competition, though not in the form of a bigoted extremist who holds an archaic position on almost every crucial subject. Come on America, you must do better than this if the world is to take you seriously once again.