Ireland's Next Prime Minister Is a Gay 38-Year-Old Indian-Irish Doctor

The headline is the good news. The bad news is he's also an anti-union, anti-choice conservative obsessed with entitlements, who campaigned on the slogan "Welfare cheats cheat us all" and wants to ban essential workers from going on strike. 

CNN reports that Leo Varadkar -- the son of an Indian-born father and Irish mother -- became a doctor before first entering Irish parliament at the age of 27. He's promised to represent the "people who get up early in the morning" -- sigh -- in an effort to harness the support of Ireland's rural farmers, the middle class and elderly -- rhetoric that critics say both alienates and demonizes a large chunk of Ireland's casual workforce, who have been hit by increased austerity measures. He has also pledged to hold a referendum on abortion in 2018. So a country that is increasingly secular now has a gay leader, but one who wants to take away a woman's right to choose? Talk about one step forward, two steps back.

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