Planed Parenthood and Iran

Carly Fiorina linked these two issues in the latest Republican debate, it was dumb and made her look dumb to do so, but she did it, and I am going to do it too, slightly differently though.

The House of Representatives voted along party lines to defund Planned Parenthood for a year while the government investigates allegations of illegal organ and tissue sales for profit by the organization.

The resolution has essentially no chance of passing, as it likely won't make it past the Senate, and even if it does, the President has said he would veto any such resolution. A large portion of the Republicans in both the House and Senate have threatened to force a government shutdown unless it does happen, but I am not sure Obama is going to blink first on this one.

For those unaware, the government shuts down if no funding plan is passed that can allow it to operate, this happened in 2013 when a coalition prodded along in no small part by Ted Cruz, who you may recognize as a presidential candidate this year and also headlining efforts to defund Planned Parenthood now, refused to pass a spending bill without attaching language stripping Obamacare of a lot of it's utility, this lasted about two weeks before an agreement was made to continue working.

Ted Cruz and his ilk are once again pushing the country to shutdown over a conservative talking point, and we'll find out in a couple weeks just how much influence they have over their party.

Obviously the allegations are ridiculous, the videos are obviously misleadingly edited and without context, and the organization that has released them is known for running similarly inept hit pieces pretty regularly in the past without much national exposure, but their current efforts coincide with the budget season an the neocons in government jumped at a chance to go after one of their favorite targets. Ted Cruz is a pure opportunist, and has hitched his horse to the cause not, I think, out of any actual ideology, but mostly because he thinks it will get him attention and votes from the crazier part of the base, which more and more is the most influential and motivated part of the party. Also he is quite stupid, and possibly insane.

I don't believe a lot of the GOP are true believers on some things, I do believe they are mostly evil if the word means anything at all, but more because they are power hungry maniacs rather than honestly holding beliefs they feel are worth fighting for, why do I say this? Let's look at another hot button issue of the summer, Iran.

As you may know, the Iran deal was an agreement between seven countries to allow limited relief from sanctions for Iran in return for some fairly stiff restrictions on nuclear technology development, it is quite literally the largest step towards peace in the Middle East that we have seen for generations.

Israel of course hates it, as they fear all Arab nations and Iran in particular, and not to say they don't have reason, many of those countries have outright said they wanted to destroy Israel. But the current government has been learning from the US GOP policy too well, and it seems they would reject any treaty that doesn't end with Iran being occupied and/or turned into a large patch of glass in the desert. What I am saying is Israel can suck it up and learn world politics already.
The GOP has decided that everything Netenyahu says is apparently the word of God and fiercely derided the deal, however due in part to a very well put together grassroots campaign, they have so far been unable to put enough votes together to do anything about it, and now I believe the deadline has passed for them to try.

Why do I bring it up? Compare the two issues, one is Planned Parenthood, which provides medical care and support for women's health issues throughout the country, yes this includes abortions, no, government funding doesn't include money for such, and it is a vanishingly small part of their operation anyway.
The other issue is a hostile Arab state gaining easier access (in the minds of the GOP) to nuclear weapons, possibly causing a third world war.

Which of these two issues are they willing to shut down the US government over? Hint, it isn't the one with the risk of everybody dying.

I feel like it says a lot about their priorities, and in how little regard they hold women, that they will attempt to go to such lengths to tear down support structures for them. It shows just how little they regard their own views and morals as well, they chose this fight, they chose it over the Iran deal, they chose it over any number of other issues they could try to push, it is a pure appeal to emotion on an issue they can dumb down into "dead babies" without actually having to talk about complicated things like emails or international peace treaties.

To me that says more about them than any impassioned, and lying rants by Carly Fiorina about dissecting fetuses.

The real movers and shakers in the party have no ideology, just a lust for power that cannot be satisfied, they must appeal to their base which limits the issues they can talk about, but make no mistake, they don't care about babies, they don't care about the poor, they don't really even care about the rich, they care about themselves having as much power for as long as possible as they can, and that is all. That is why they must be stopped, they have no end goal, which means it will never end.