Is conservatism a mental illness? We catch up with Missouri ConservaLoon Cynthia Davis

Doesn't anyone worry about the well-being

of this woman's seven children?

by Ken

Last June Howie introduced us to State Rep. Cynthia Davis, describing her as "the Michele Bachmann of Missouri." It was sort of like the old joke format where A says, "Senator So-and-So took a strong stand on hunger," and B says, "For or against?" Count our Cynthia squarely in the "for" column on hunger, as she declared that it "can be a positive motivator."

"For" hunger, and definitely "against" the government spending anything to deal with hunger, which in her view isn't really a problem anyway. She allowed as how, even though there's no hunger in her district, maybe there were a few folks someplace else who were hungry, and she offered them tips, like educating parents to provide nutritious meals rather than "waste hard earned dollars on potato chips, ice cream or Twinkies"; encouraging laid-off parents to "adapt by preparing more home cooked meals rather than going out to eat"; and making sure people know that "if you work for McDonald's, they will feed you for free during your break." And voilà, no more hunger!

This might be pretty funny, except that the woman chairs the Missouri House Special Standing Committee on Children and Families. Hunger, it appears, isn't on her radar as an issue for Missouri children or families. And apparently not much else is. In fact, the only issue she seems to have any interest in, children- and family-wise, is abortion.

Most recently, Cynthia -- who's term-limited out of her House seat and is challenging fellow Republican Scott Rupp for his State Senate seat -- is in the news for turning a deaf ear to the family whose three-year-old, according to the St.Louis Post-Dispatch report, "died in February 2009 from a non-accidental head injury, while in the care of a babysitter," and is supporting legislation that "would block unlicensed childcare providers from continuing to care for children if criminal charges are pending against them" and "would also direct the Department of Health and Senior Services to investigate those childcare providers."

“There was a tragedy, but realistically, we can’t pass a law every time there’s a tragedy,” Davis said.

Davis said she opposes the bill because it could have negative consequences for the state’s childcare providers.

“I have a lot of sympathy for the family, but I don’t have the confidence that making government intervene more in people’s lives will bring back the child.”

Davis also said her committee’s main purpose is to deal with abortion issues and that Sam’s Law might have been better off if it had been referred to a judiciary committee.

The plight of victimized children doesn't interest Cynthia, so what does? I mean, besides abortion. Well, in the face of the menacing onslaught of energy-efficient light bulbs, she recently introduced a Missouri Freedom to Own Lightbulbs Act, and her heart is known to go out to pharmacists who are traumatized by having to fill prescriptions for emergency birth control:

Pharmacists whose consciences will not permit them to dispense emergency contraception need to be protected by our government. We all must answer to God, and it is not appropriate to ask people to perform acts that will traumatize them. Our government needs to secure the rights of people to stay true to a higher law.

Of course we not only ask but expect people sometimes to perform acts that may traumatize them. I'm not aware of any law that has been written with a "non-traumatizing exemption" -- something that really is beyond government purview. As a society, we really have no control over what may traumatize individuals. Hunger, for example, can be extremely traumatic. I would argue, indeed have argued, that becoming a pharmacist involves acting as an agent in the government's control of controlled drugs -- nobody forces you to become one, especially if aspects of the job may traumatize you.

We do know that our Cynthia has trouble with the ins and outs of the law, for example when it comes to using campaign funds for personal expenses, which is strictly forbidden by Missouri law. In 2005 the Missouri Democratic Party filed an ethics complaint against her alleging that on a series of occasions in 2002, 2003, and 2004 she did indeed pay property taxes and other personal expenses with campaign funds.

And then there's this: Here we have Cynthia Davis, grand vizir of all issues of faith, family, health, and conscience, mother of seven, Missouri's leading expert on the causes and cures for hunger as well as all matters relating to the family. Let's flash back to Easter Sunday 2006:

Easter Eggs in the Median? The Hard-Knock Life of Cynthia's Kids

Rep. Cynthia Davis (R-O'Fallon) claims to be devoutly religious, regularly invoking tortured theological reasons for introducing anti-science and regressive legislation. Yet even on the holiest day on the Christian calendar, she apparently doesn't value the safety of her own offspring enough to keep one from wandering around her town's busy streets.

Police in the town of O'Fallon reportedly responded Sunday to a call regarding a female child wandering aimlessly on and around Highway K. Motorist passersby, it seems, thought it unusual that a youngster would be wandering the busy roadway by foot, alone on Easter Sunday, and called the authorities to look into the matter.

When police arrived on the scene, they identified the child and determined where she lived and who she was. Reportedly, the state Department of Social Services also became engaged in the matter, since it involved the safety and welfare of a child. When the relevant agents looked into the situation, they also learned that the absentee parent responsible for the child's safety was none other than rabid "family values" proselytizer Cynthia Davis.

Wouldn't you say that whoever had the gall to install this woman as chair of a committee on children and the family has some explaining to do?

I should note, in case you haven't followed all the links, that most of them are to a blog called Fired Up! Missouri, which I'm pleased to say has taken a personal interest in our Cynthia as she has worked so hard to make herself a clear and present danger to Missouri children and families. I'm sure she regards the blog's chronicling of her crazinesses as left-wing persecution, but of course that's how right-wingers always react when anyone has the indecency to simply report what they've said or done. In the unreality-based community, this is considered unconscionable negativity. (Remember "Borking"?)

I got a chuckle when I first heard about Cynthia Davis and her belief in the inspirational value of hunger. I'm not laughing anymore.

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