May 19, 2012 09:12 PM UTC

How Republicans Treat an Independent Thinker: Nikkel Bullied Mercilessly

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• by: ProgressiveCowgirl

An interesting FOX31 story details a bullying campaign targeting BJ Nikkel before and after her courageous vote to move Senate Bill 2 forward.

After she cast her vote in favor of civil unions two weeks ago, Nikkel was shouted down by religious protestors at her church in Loveland the following Sunday; and the next week, as the bill continued to move through the legislative process, a rickety old pickup truck circled the Capitol carrying homemade billboards advising “Nikkkel” – yes, it was spelled with three “k’s” – that she was going to hell for her vote.

Mind you, this is the party so averse to “political correctness.” Maybe it’s time to redefine that term. After all, most things to which the phrase currently refers–gender neutral language, avoiding hate speech, etc.–are simply “correctness,” with nothing especially political about it. A counter-proposal follows:

Politically Correct [adj.]: A vote, buzzword, action, or concept deemed by the GOP establishment to be a moral obligation of all Republican representatives, above and beyond their own consciences and capacity for independent thought. A Republican who refuses to vote according to this “politically correct” ideology will be shamed, bullied, harassed, threatened, intimidated, and told she is going to Hell. She will be bullied in church, at home, and at work, until and unless she falls back into step with the far-right leadership.

There, now. Isn’t that much better than confusing “correctness” with “political correctness?” Not being a racist is correct. Voting to keep your own gay son a second-class citizen so that Frank McNulty doesn’t make a mean face at you is politically correct.