Teaparty Congressman Scott Perry Talks ENDA

Scott Perry, talking with John Micek and Robert Vickers on PennLive's Politics as Usual podcast last week, tried to pull a bait and switch when asked about ENDA. 

The bill, which was passed by the Senate to prohibit workplace discrimination against sexual preference and gender identity, has been doomed by House Speaker Boehner. John Micek still asked the question though, "Will you support it?" 

Perry deferred and said he personally is opposed to all discrimination in the workplace. Good for you Congressman but not everyone works for you and would receive your gracious tolerance. 

He followed up by stating, 

"I would also say though, sometimes some of this legislation seeks to give some groups of people a higher degree of equality. That is something that seems genuinely un-American." 

Good thing Congressman Perry was not around to prevent the un-American travesty that was the Equal Pay Act of 1963, Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and many, many other acts of congress advocating equity and equality.

This kind of Republican rhetoric is not at all uncommon. The worldview is many GOP Congressmen, women and leaders share is that racism and bigotry no longer exists. It is 2013 and we have a black president after all. 

When they people at that premise every lived experience of anyone who has been discriminated against is immediately dismissed as a one-off. This rejection of the reality many Americans exist in validates Republican support for rejections of the need for further protection under the law.

This is Your Rep: Scott Perry Edition

This clip of Congressman Scott Perry (York-R) has been making the rounds recently

In it Perry compares repealing the ACA to repealing slavery, and denies that the government will shut down. He accuses Chris Matthews, the anchor of the program, and Congressional Democrats of not reading the legislation. Matthews took offense at the comment, taking it to its logical conclusion, that Matthews, a journalist, did not do his job. Matthews subsequently kicked Perry off the show. 

What this brief episode should make glaringly obvious to you and anyone who hears about it though, is that Perry is most certainly a right-wing extremist, a Tea Party Republican. 

Even though the freshman Rep. likes to affiliate himself with NoLables, a C4 organization focused on building bipartisanship there should be no surprises about Perry's policy goals. 

Perry conforms as a member of the House GOP's suicide caucus (as documented in this handy map from the Cook Political Report). Those who want Romney's agenda passed or they will shut down the government and possibly breach the debt ceiling.

A lot of Perry's insanity certainly has to do with the insanity of the way his district was gerrymandered after 2010. Perry is currently the congressman for the 4th congressional district. This is a district the until 2010 was actually on the PA/Ohio border. After the GOP redrew the district lines in 2010 the new 4th district includes all of York and Adams County, and only the city of Harrisburg from Dauphin County. This creates safer seats for all of the Dauphin County suburbs and rural areas that are more conservative than Harrisburg is.

Perry is also legitimately responding to the demands of these more conservative constituents. He has more than once been to Tea Party events and meetings. There is no question that the policy outcomes of what this small group of people wants would be detrimental to not only the almost 50,000 Dauphin County residents within his district but also the residents of the city of York, and really anyone who is not an independently wealthy doomsday prepper. 

If we want to push Perry and the very real threat of lasting Tea Party politics back then we need to organize to stop it. Even if it would be difficult to vote Perry out of office, we could make it easy for Perry to save face when he does not agree with all of the Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly watchers in his district by showing him that a sizable part of his constituency does not agree with them.