Ashcroft Flabbergasted by Modern Life

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Jay Ashcroft, Missouri's current Secretary of State and a GOP politician steeped in puritanical religious intolerance, is very unhappy with the US Senate's passage of the "Respect for Marriage Act," a bill, which among other things, officially repeals the federal "Defense of Marriage Act" that defined marriage as being between one man and one woman.    The 2004 "Defense of Marriage Act" was ultimately deemed unconstitutional by Obergfell v Hodges, a. US Supreme Court decision in 2015 which held that the Fourteenth Amendment requires states to license and recognize same-sex marriages.

When the Supreme Court overturned the Roe v Wade this past summer, a decision that once again empowered state legislatures to deny abortions to their citizens, Justice Clarence Thomas remarked that perhaps the Court should revisit Obergefell as well, a move that could conceivably allow states to once again begin banning same-sex marriages.  Congress quickly drafted the new "Respect for Marriage Act" in an effort to thwart a potential judicial attack on gay marriage.  The new bill is also crafted to protect interracial marriages, a not-so-subtle pushback at Justice Thomas who is himself a partner in an interracial marriage.

When Missouri's Secretary of State Ashcroft noted that one of Missouri's two Republican US Senators, Ol' Roy Blunt, was supporting the "Respect for Marriage Act," he became incensed and decided to take action. Ashcroft tried to reach Blunt by phone, but was unable to get through, so he issued a letter to the senator reminding him that the Missouri constitution has language declaring marriage to be between a man and a woman (a provision since rendered unconstitutional by Obergefell).   (Efforts to remove the now unconstitutional marriage language from the Missouri constitution have been repeatedly rebuffed by Republican members of the state legislature.).  In remarks about Senator Blunt, Ashcroft said:

"Frankly, I was flabbergasted that he would do this to the people of Missouri.  It is not how he has run.  It is not how he has portrayed himself.  And it is not what the people of this state want."

Roy Blunt, for his part, is retiring from the US Senate and will soon be a full-time lobbyist living and working in Washington, DC.  His days of kowtowing to fundamentalist morons are over - and he likely no longer gives a rip about Jay Ashcroft's opinion on anything.

And Jay Ashcroft, for his part, is struggling to create an electable persona for himself as he jockeys for position to become Missouri's 58th consecutive white, male governor two years from now. 

Praise Jesus and pass the potato salad.