Rick Snyder, the Republican governor of Michigan, set the Flint water crisis in motion by implementing his deeply-felt beliefs (I infer from his behavior, always the best evidence) that spending tax money, or exercising government regulatory power, for the benefit of poor people–especially poor black people who probably vote wrong if you let them grow up–is a moral offense.
He is also a very strong (not the strongest/rape-and-incest) abortion opponent, and we don’t have to infer, because he’s on the record about that. It turns out he and his gang of vicious, reckless, subordinates committed the biggest mass abortion episode in US history; lead in Flint’s water not only damaged thousands of little kids for life, but killed hundreds in utero.
Nice, Rick.
marcel_proust says
Perhaps, but Kevin Drum, who has been on the lead-beat longer than most, is skeptical.* He thinks the timing is wrong and the estimated effect too big, and wonders why fertility in Flint responded then but not in earlier years when lead content was falling.
*I think it fair to consider him one of the founding fathers with regard to this issue, perhaps a lead-beat dad.
aajax says
It's just too delicious not to blame it on evil Republicans.
name_taken says
Whether this particular effect was caused by lead in the water, there is no denying that the lead in the water was the result of policies instituted by "evil Republicans", against the will of the voters of Flint.
byomtov11 says
No need for the quotation marks.
wscholine says
There are plenty of things to blame on evil Republicans without diluting the evidence of their evil by including things that are not plainly their fault. If you really hate them, don't give them the easy out of being able to say "See! They make shit up too!"
name_taken says
Drum wraps up his analysis:
So, this is a plausible theory. It is not "making shit up".