Has Bachmann Written-Off Utah?

by Pa Rock
Citizen Journalist


Congresswoman Michele Bachmann, a Minnesota welfare recipient and de facto Grand Dragoness of the Teabagger Party, has signed a kooky pledge in Iowa vowing to ban pornography and gay marriage.  It is unclear how she plans to accomplish those dubious goals given her loud support of the Constitution - especially when that document protects her rights to be as outrageous as humanly possible.  The Constitution speaks to the right of free speech, and the Supreme Court, the arbiter of what the Constitution does and does not permit, has been very cautious in placing any limits on what we can or cannot say or view.

And would Ms. Bachmann, a loud supporter of states' rights, really want to ban gay marriage nationally by a Constitutional amendment, placing yet one more Federal restraint on states?

But back to Michele Bachmann's porn problem.  Surely her campaign manager, Ed Rollins, has told her that if she seriously goes after pornography, she can kiss the delegate votes of Utah goodbye.  Utah, as has been pointed out in this space before, has a very high online rate of pornography usage.  In fact, a report by Benjamin Edelman, a Harvard Economics professor, cited the state of Utah as being number one in online porn subscriptions.

The report was entitled "Red Light States:  Who Buys Online Adult Entertainment?"   It was published in a 2009 edition of The Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Ed Rollins is a very seasoned political operator and he undoubtedly knows of the report's existence and findings.  That leads to the inescapable conclusion that by coming down foursquare against porn, Ms. Bachmann must be conceding the home state of the Mormon Church to Mitt Romney and Jon Huntsman.

Politically, that could make sense if it weren't for another significant finding of Professor Edelman:  porn subscriptions are more prevalent in states that have enacted conservative legislation on sexuality.  By coming out against pornography, Bachmann may have inadvertently declared war on a significant portion of her base!

Michele, those good ole boys and girls out there in Red Meat America may whoop it up and wave their flags whenever you're spewing your usual nonsense, but if you start messing with their porn - watch out - or their sticky dollar bills may stop flowing into your campaign coffers!