Republican Party Comes Out Against Basic Hygiene, For Freedom

North Carolina's newbie Sen. Thom Tillis is a damned fine Republican. You can tell because of how much he hates government regulation of any kind, because that is just the government murdering freedom.

Forcing companies to follow Basic Rules of Hygiene, for example, like making employees wash their hands before serving food? He told a delightful story about explaining to some poor constituent who no doubt took a bleach bath after their encounter about how that's one of those unnecessary regulations that really should be left up to the Great And All-Knowing Free Market:  

I don’t have any problem with Starbucks if they choose to opt out of this policy as long as they post a sign that says "We don’t require our employees to wash their hands after leaving the restroom."

Cool story, bro. But it really helps to illustrate where today's Republican Party is, which is in the toilet, not washing its hands because freedom.

And that's why we have a constantly growing list of wannabe presidential contenders trying to decide whether it is safe to say parents should vaccinate their kids, or whether that is somehow a violation of the party's sacred oath to never make anyone do anything they don't wanna, ever. Like Sen. Rand Paul -- a "doctor" -- saying parents should be allowed to decide whether to vaccinate their children or else liberty something something shut up. Really. "Shhhhh" little lady reporter, stop talking now.

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And this is news because, thanks to anti-vaxxers and their Republican enablers, it's a "controversial" position:

No word yet on whether New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has made up his mind yet about whether parents should definitely or maybe not definitely vaccinate their children.

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Sure, the whole Republican Party is full of "not a scientist" types -- even the doctors, apparently -- which is why we are having an actual debate, in the year two thousand and fifteen of our lord and savior Jesus Thomas Jefferson, about whether to vaccinate your damned kids or even to wash your damn hands. And none of these people sound any saner than the poster octogenarian for Conservative Crazy Talk, televangelist scam artist Pat Robertson:

When I was a kid, we all got measles. We got mumps. They didn’t vaccinate. We just got immune. But what you had to do is stay in a dark room. You couldn’t read for a week or two. …

I’m sure that there’s some serious consequences to measles, and perhaps vaccination is the answer. I don’t think any parent should be forced by the government to vaccinate.

We look forward to seeing Pat Robertson in the GOP primary debates in 2016. He'll fit right in.

[h/t TPM / RightWingWatch ]