A Post from a Purple State

Our first submission for a Blue Girl, Red State story hails from the great Purple State of Montana. Sadly, shortly after sending me this I heard that the great Red State of Colorado has similar monkey business in the works. More on that later, but for now, news from Montana!

"I know that this site is for red states, but I am from Montana which was red, and still sometimes has some very red moments (more on this below). Montana is the proud color of purple. We have Ds representing us in the Senate and the Governor's office. We sadly have Rs misrepresenting us in the House (1 very fierce seat), and our state legislature. While the State Senate Ds held on to a lead by one tiny seat, the State House went to the Rs with a bonus. Montana was the first state that elected a Constitution Party member to a State Legislature -one Rick Jore.

Mr. Jore hates women so much that he wants Montanans to vote on whether they value a zygote, embryo or fetus more than women. No joke. Jore wants to rule your womanly parts. He said on the House floor that he envisions that women that have miscarriages will be investigated and treated like criminals, their doctors too. Also he thought that doctors should do everything they can to save the embryos that implant in fallopian tubes despite the very real danger a woman would be in by performing these types of operations. Embryo over woman. That means, no more privacy in the gyno's office ladies. Cops in the birthing room? Yes. Oh and birth control is now murder. It is these types of laws that can be used to punish women who are "pre-pregnant" for smoking, drinking or drug use because they could harm their future babies. Creepy? Yes.

They are going to keep the focus on abortion. People shut up as soon as you say that word. It is way more than abortions at stake here, he wants you to start cranking out babies and if it doesn't work out - to the slammer for you! ,Left in the West points out that there are official vagina inspectors to make sure women aren't having illegal abortions in places that have laws like this. Also these laws don't reduce the number of abortions, they just make them very dangerous, but then again, Mr. Jore doesn't care about women, he just wants to rule their uteruses.


It is so disgusting that this old man politician spends so much of his time and energy thinking about my eggs, fallopian tubes, uterus and vagina.

So what can you do? In Montana, write letters to your editor let the people of Montana know that signing their petition means taking away women's rights to medical privacy and reproductive rights. Outside of Montana - join organizations like NARAL Pro-Choice Montana or the NARAL affiliate in your state to make sure that there are resources to fight this type of invasive politics from coming to your uterus - I mean state."

Color-red-o

So, we here at Blue Girl, Red State have been engaged in strategery as of late. While Idaho, the red state nearest and dearest to the blue cockles of our hearts, is our primary focus for now, we are planning on rolling out some new states very soon. Since native Idahoan J. Helen currently resides in Colorado, it only seems natural that the home of Tom Tancredo, Marilyn Musgrave, and Wayne Allard should be the next target in our blue sights. However, working on this new design has given J. Helen a new appreciation of the distinctive Idaho borders. In other words, Colorado is boring. Observe.








Yawn... I mean, we might as well just slap the Blue Girl over a Microsoft Word autoshape and be done with it. Bo-ring. Still, we have some ideas about making the Colorado design distinctive enough to avoid confusion with other square states. We may need to include some of Colorado's iconic features such as the Rocky Mountains or the statue of Mike, the Headless Chicken in Fruita, Colorado.


No word on whether the statue of Mike will be running for Senator Allard's open seat or challenging Marilyn Musgrave to an open debate (our money's on the statue), but we'll keep you posted. In the meantime, find out more about Mike the Headless Chicken and the festival that continues on in his name to this very day. We would post a picture of the actual Mike, but it's a little unsettling. Viva Colorado!

Girls... That All I Really Want Is Girls.

As I sat in my junior high classroom in November of 1988, our principal made a special announcement over the intercom proclaiming that George Bush had defeated Michael Dukakis in Idaho's presidential election. The boy behind me let out a whoop of victory and made a "fingerguns" kind of gesture. I turned around, grabbed the two front legs of his desk, and heaved my classmate onto his back. Thus began my life of political activism forged by being a blue girl in a red state. Being a blue dot in a sea of red can lead to a sense that nothing can be done to alter the course of our gerrymandered existence, but without taking up the challenge of restoring balance to the political scene, we resign ourselves to staring down the barrel of Republican fingerguns at every election. Here's to Democratic fingerguns held proudly aloft by Blue Girls in red states.

Sometimes it can be hard to loft Democratic fingerguns when the Blue Team hasn't scored a victory for a while. Hard to believe, but Idaho used to elect Democrats. Some good ones, at that. We're thinking that it's time we slew the gerrymander.

So let's hear your Blue Girl, Red State story. Be ye in Idaho, Colorado, Texas, or some other state that could use a dash of blue, drop us a line. Let us know about your actions, be they direct or completely passive-aggressive. The Blue Girls never judge.