Posted by antonsirius on 5/4/2011 5:09:00 PM (view original):
When the GOP is attacking the funding of PP branches that don't even perform abortions then yes, they are going to be perceived as acting in a more irrational manner than the Dems. Their attacks on PP's funding have become disconnected from their original purpose, and in a person that could easily be considered "psycho" behavior.
Hmm, how to reverse the scenario. Let's say gun control became a meaningful issue again, and there was an organization receiving a bit of federal funding - let's call them Private Protection - whose chapters would sometimes acquired retail licenses to sell firearms (among other services such as firearm safety classes - which you'd think someone interetsed in preventing gun deaths would support). An amendment was attached to a random bill in Congress by some Dems preventing any organizationfrom using federal funds to purchase guns for retail sale, so Private Protection was forced to do a bit of restructuring to make sure they complied with the Feinstein Amendment. But that wasn't enough for the anti-gun Dems, so on the state level they started going after Private Protection's funding directly, even in states where no Private Protection chapter actually sold guns.
I think it would be reasonable to classify such behavior by those Dems as crazy, or whatever synonym you cared to use.
It's an interesting scenario you bring up, but the premise is flawed IMO. Part of the flaw in the premise is that conservatives would (in theory anyway) not be as married to federal funding for the cause, so their stake in it is less. The other major difference is that in the comparison to PP, the inherent reason those who are favor of federal funding for PP are that way for the purpose of ensuring available abortions for those who demand it. (I am making this assertion based on political rhetoric - rhetoric in the pure sense). If PP is not able to stand on their own without federal funding, then by extension women's options would be limited.
In the case you mention above, I would not have as much heartache with the Dems because I am not convinced that federal funding for the program you mention is vital. Those programs can be supported privately.
That's a worldview difference between between liberals and conservatives (in general), based on what the underlying function of government is.