Is there voter’s remorse in Fiorello’s district?

A letter was published in this paper recently asking if voters felt buyer’s remorse voting for state Democrats. Short answer, no. Sure, some Democrats in Hartford have felt compelled to push for head-scratching measures that don’t pass the smell test (“Mansion tax,” anyone? Financial penalties for not voting?), but guess what? Democrats don’t vote in lock-step and historically, Dems have no problem ash-canning their own awful legislative ideas long before they might come to a vote.

But since the authors brought up voter remorse, I wonder how Greenwichites and North Stamforders feel about their freshly minted state Rep. Kimberly Fiorello? Whoever took the seat of retired legislative legend Livvy Floren was always going to have a tough act to follow, but the mostly moderate backcountry burghers who swallowed Fiorello’s tortured economic logic because they share her likeminded loathing of taxes and public services are the ones who could be asking for a doover.

Rep. Fiorello, famous for her involvement with accused election tamperers Fiscal Freedom for Connecticut, ran her campaign primarily as a spending scold and anti-tax jihadist. But even Fiscal Freedom, whose philosophy can pretty much be summed up as “get off my lawn,” is downright progressive compared with the proudly extremist General Assembly Conservative Caucus (Motto: So Extreme Even Normal Republican Won’t Talk to Us) which Rep. Fiorello was warmly welcomed into.

In an interview prior to the start of this legislative session, Fiorello said her Hartford solutions would always be “freedom based.” Freedom, actually, is the most depleted word in the Republican vocabulary, regularly used to disguise selfish, regressive or terrible policies. So then, now that Rep. Fiorello and the demon clown car of Conservative Caucus members are new besties, what kind of freedom do they wish to inflict on us?

How about the freedom to put restrictions on your right to vote? In a state with statistically zero intentional voter fraud; Fiorello co-introduced an unnecessary and racist voter suppression bill, just like those being struck down by courts nationwide. She also has introduced legislation designed to withdraw Connecticut from the National Vote Compact, a move that reinforces the obsolete Electoral College system instead of making sure all presidential votes count the same.

Now with a statewide voice, Rep. Fiorello has explored her freedom to expand her contempt for public schools by introducing several charter school, school voucher and school testing bills that dovetail well with the conservative dream of a caste-based school system while weakening overall local public education.

Does she want your town or its citizens to have the freedom to regulate guns? No, Rep. Fiorello introduced a bill prohibiting municipal regulation of firearms. But she does want you to have the freedom to make others sick with a law that would allow people to skip vaccines without consequence, and wants business owners to have the freedom to discriminate against employees based solely on their hairstyles.

But to guarantee membership with the brutes of the Conservative Caucus, politicians have to prove their culture warrior bona fides by promoting legislation that’s truly regressive and awful. Rep. Fiorello took that step by signing on to HB6293, a bill requiring minors to notify a parent before getting an abortion. Exactly the kind of repugnant, anti-freedom bill Rep. Floren never disgraced herself by associating with.

On the surface, bills like these always seem so pro-family and reasonable, but you know who disagrees? The American Medical Association, American Academy of Pediatrics, Society for Adolescent Medicine, and nearly every bi-partisan women’s health organization. Why? Because while this bill says it will “ensure that the best interests of a minor are protected when facing an unplanned pregnancy,” that’s never really the case.

That’s because even without legislation, most teens do discuss abortion with their parents or another trusted adult, but many others have great reasons not to. They fear being beaten, kicked out of the house, or otherwise abused. Many live with alcohol or drug abusing parents, or don’t live with parents at all. Laws like these are designed to punish and dominate women, the bread and butter of aspiring right-wing zealots.

Now, I don’t recall support for NRA policies, voter suppression, a war on public education, anti-vax sympathies and abortion politics being on the ballot in Ms. Fiorello’s district. But sure, it’s Democrats who should want a do-over.