The Enigma Of Paul Ryan

Recently, that was heard around the world. His hardline stance on abortion landed him a dunce cap on his head that has seeking office this fall. This nomenclature of rape exposed a similar view by Mitt Romney’s running mate Paul Ryan. His stance is as cut and dry as Senator Akin’s. Mr Ryan has gone so far as to seek criminal action against a woman for having an abortion in his home state of Wisconsin. This has won him many supporters in the pro-life cadre.

The flip side of this (at least to me) is that Mr Ryan is very, very pro-gun. Pro-gun and Pro-life to me seem mutually exclusive if at least not fundamentally at odds with one another. After all, gun control advocates are less concerned with hunters poaching young game or stray bullets harming non-hunted species as they are with the safety of you and me. They are the true pro-lifers, seeking an end to the senseless random killings like those we have seen recently in Arizona, Colorado, and Times Square. All of these tragedies have destroyed the lives of victims as well as everyone for whom they have come in contact with. While my feelings on abortion are mixed, it is arguably a more personal decision that has less of a ripple effect on those around them.

Let me just say, I am not against hunting, however, I don’t know of any legal hunting that can be done with an assault weapon. They simply do not belong in the hands of the civilian population. The way I see it, an assault weapon is a weapon of mass destruction. Yet Pro-lifer Paul Ryan has opposed strengthening background checks of guns purchased at gun shows. He has backed the federal conceal-carry reciprocity law that allows concealed weapons to be carried in all 50 states. 

But there are other paradoxes to the Wisconsin Republican. This Romney –Ryan budget (Paul Ryan’s forte- if you will) cuts programs for the poor such as food stamps and the affordable care act. So in Paul Ryan’s world, a woman raped at gunpoint is forced to bring an unplanned child into the world and pay for the hospital delivery. He then takes the food out of their mouth?  Has he read his own doctrines?   I am all for people owning up to their actions and decisions but not for kicking them when they are down.