Remember that old saying about “when the rubber hits the road”? Its import was that, when the rubber hit the road, it was time to act, to decide…Well, given overwhelming evidence of the GOP’s attempted coup, the neutering of Congress by use of the filibuster, and the morphing of the Supreme Court into a religious tribunal, it’s fair to conclude that the rubber has indeed hit pavement, and a failure to move quickly to recapture the institutions of American life will turn this country into a place most of us won’t want to inhabit.
In the wake of the Court’s ruling in Dobbs, The Guardian was especially blunt. In an article headlined “How the Christian right took over the judiciary and changed America,” it reported–quite accurately-
The supreme court decision in Dobbs v Jackson Women’s Health Organization, which reverses the constitutional abortion rights that American women have enjoyed over the past 50 years, has come as a surprise to many voters. A majority, after all, support reproductive rights and regard their abolition as regressive and barbaric.
Understood in the context of the movement that created the supreme court in its current incarnation, however, there is nothing surprising about it. In fact, it marks the beginning rather than the endpoint of the agenda this movement has in mind.
At the core of the Dobbs decision lies the conviction that the power of government can and should be used to impose a certain moral and religious vision – a supposedly biblical and regressive understanding of the Christian religion – on the population at large.
Let me just repeat that last paragraph:
At the core of the Dobbs decision lies the conviction that the power of government can and should be used to impose a certain moral and religious vision – a supposedly biblical and regressive understanding of the Christian religion – on the population at large.
How did this happen? How did White Christian Nationalists effectively take over a major political party and the courts? As the Guardian article notes, answering that question requires looking back at the history of the Christian Nationalist movement, and how it “united conservatives across denominational barriers by, in effect, inventing a new form of intensely political religion.”
Christian nationalists often claim their movement got its start as a grassroots reaction to Roe v Wade in 1973. But the movement actually gelled several years later with a crucial assist from a group calling itself the “New Right”.
Among the many things the New Right opposed were feminism and the civil rights movement. One thing that they were not particularly angry about, at least initially, was the matter of abortion rights. A primary concern was that the Supreme Court might end tax exemptions for segregated Christian schools, but they knew “Stop the tax on segregation!” was unlikely to be an effective rallying cry for their new movement. They needed an issue that could be used to unify the various, disparate elements of the New Right, an issue that could draw in the rank and file.
In many respects abortion was an unlikely choice, because when the Roe v Wade decision was issued, most Protestant Republicans supported it. The Southern Baptist Convention passed resolutions in 1971 and 1974 expressing support for the liberalization of abortion law, and an editorial in their wire service hailed the passage of Roe v Wade, declaring that “religious liberty, human equality and justice are advanced by the Supreme Court abortion decision.”
On the other hand, abortion brought conservative Catholics into the movement with conservative Protestants and evangelicals, and allowed the New Right to blame abortion rights for all manner of perceived social ills of the age – especially women’s liberation .”The issue became a focal point for the anxieties about social change welling up from the base.”
In recent decades, the religious right has invested many hundreds of millions of dollars developing a complex and coordinated infrastructure, whose features include rightwing policy groups, networking organizations, data initiatives and media. A critical component of this infrastructure is its sophisticated legal sphere.
Movement leaders understood very well that if you can capture the courts, you can change society.
And so here we are. The Courts have been captured; the Congress (thanks to gerrymandering and filibuster Joe Manchin) has been neutered. Over 100 state candidates running for the right to count our votes are “Big Lie” proponents.
The rubber has hit the road. Americans must turn out in massive numbers this November to dislodge the theocrats and begin the process of reclaiming America.
All available research shows a majority of Americans strongly opposed to the Christian Nationalists who have assumed control of our no-longer-so-democratic institutions. All voting history shows that a disastrous number of those Americans won’t bother to vote.
If that doesn’t change in November, the America we know is over.
Too damn late. The unrestrained slide into Fascist Theocracy is well underway. The empire known as the United States of America will soon become a thing of history.
The notion that opposition to abortion rights is simply based on the Christian right taking over the issue and government institutions like the SCT seems off target. I’ve been around people who express pro life views most of my political life. Most opponents of abortion do not base their opposition on their religious beliefs. They instead see the fetus not as a blob of cells, but as distinctive human being. That’s why they feel the way they feel about abortion. There are plenty of atheists who oppose abortion rights and plenty of Christians who support those rights.
I am supremely confident, that after a tumultuous start, the state legislatures will eventually reach reasonable compromises on the issue, most which will look like the Mississippi 15 week ban. Roe was bad law and even worse politics because it drew the line way too late. Most Americans do not support the second trimester abortions that Roe expressly says was a constitutional right.
You don’t know what you speak Mr. Paul.
How about getting outside your bubble and realize your penis privilege.
You are so consistently brilliant, articulate and lucid Sheila, it amazes me. I so wish you could be transplanted to the Oval Office to advise our slightly-bumbling-but-trying POTUS.
Some of the blame is to be laid at the feet of those who were too complacent to bother to vote in recent elections. People need to wake up to the danger of the ascendency of the Trumpublican fascists.
Anyone know where I can get a voodoo doll of Clarence Thomas, Sam Alito, Steve Bannon, and Moscow Mitch?
Well, most “Christians” fail to embody and follow the most basic tenet of their “faith”: Jesus simply offered: “Love one another”. Everything coming from Christian extremism counters that tenet. These right-wing ideologues are, instead, wallowing in our original sin of slavery by rejecting civil rights. They also have turned their backs on other parts of the Constitution giving women equal rights.
Next will come the court’s vomiting against same-sex marriage. They will deny people who are “loving one another” no rights that are bestowed by their own churches. Yes, marriage is a church-invented philosophy designed to allow males to control their females. Heck, even Abraham had several active wives before he “got religion”.
The reason people won’t want to live here is because of not only the above departures from decency, the degradation of half the population, the exploitation of labor so corporate/banking moguls can buy more yachts made in Norway and the willful destruction of public education, but because the hypocrisy of the religious nationalists will crush their spirits. Every great society has failed because of idiot ideologues destroying the basis for the society’s existence.
I’m glad I’m old.
Trump’s Executive Order No. 13798, May 04, 2017
“By the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, in order to guide the executive branch in formulating and implementing policies with implications for the religious liberty of persons and organizations in America, and to further compliance with the Constitution and with applicable statutes and Presidential Directives, it is hereby ordered as follows:
Section 1. Policy. It shall be the policy of the executive branch to vigorously enforce Federal law’s robust protections for religious freedom. The Founders envisioned a Nation in which religious voices and views were integral to a vibrant public square, and in which religious people and institutions were free to practice their faith without fear of discrimination or retaliation by the Federal Government. For that reason, the United States Constitution enshrines and protects the fundamental right to religious liberty as Americans’ first freedom. Federal law protects the freedom of Americans and their organizations to exercise religion and participate fully in civic life without undue interference by the Federal Government. The executive branch will honor and enforce those protections.”
Is it this Executive Order by Trump, one of the countless such orders, which gave his personal Executive Branch of evangelicals the wrong “right” to load SCOTUS with Catholic Judges to assure Roe vs. Wade be overturned? We all knew the vote was coming, no matter who won the 2020 presidential election. The “leaked” order warned us and the action was taken before President Biden’s nominee could be seated; could/would the vote be changed had it been postponed? We will never know but Amendment 1 gives us, We the People, the freedom “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.” Primarily due to “Democrat” in name only Manchin, Trump’s minority Senate with McConnell still in power, any legal petition for redress of our strong grievance against overturning Roe vs. Wade and voter suppression “rubber” will never hit the road to democracy, Rule of Law and upholding the Constitution.
The White Nationalists have their “RINOs” continuing to support Trump, they also have our “DINO” Manchin working with them.
Time to put the blame for this mess where it belongs. It wasn’t those who didn’t vote, but rather it was those who did vote and voted for Trump despite knowing what he was. And among that number there were those who turned their religion into a political movement of vast scale and did so knowing full well that if they got their way they would destroy the country. It didn’t matter because in their minds they told themselves that they were being led by their god (aka ego ) to do his work. In fact, they really just want POWER!
I suspect that the SCOTUS Six are feeling deprived of freedom…caged even…as the result of increased security following threats, real or imagined, to their safety post Dodd.
Deservedly so. It is a cage they each have built bar by bar and one they seem determined to require for quite awhile.
I don’t visit zoos on moral grounds. But SCOTUS cages? I wouldn’t pay money, but if the SCOTUS circus train comes to town, I would certainly toss stale moldy peanuts and expired medication it.
May the karmic effect of their poorly reasoned decision bring shame upon them and their families forever. May it cause them be shunned by country clubs, service providers, and their mates. May it cause restaurants to refuse to seat them in their establishments and refuse to deliver food to them for the safety and convenience of their underpaid workers.
May the karmic effect of Dodd cause them lose the right to lie in state following their demise. May it cause their gravesites be disguised for risk, imagined or real, of repairing vandalism of a vitriolic public be too costly to bear.
As boycotts of states and corporations that support Dodd get organized and spread throughout the nation, may each look for recompense from SCOTUS.
More importantly, may their perjury and before the US Senate result in their immediate impeachment.
History is written by the victors. The names of the SCOTUS Six will live only in infamy, a permanent stain on the blotched face of a nation struggling to provide the freedom Lady Liberty promises and Lady Ruby deserves.
If you really believe that the Christian Nationalists control the GOP, I’ve got a bridge in Brooklyn that I’d like to sell. Does anyone seriously believe that McConnell believes in anything besides power? How about Kevin “make me Speaker” McCarthy? I don’t think you can even blame 45. He just funneled these “conservative” justices from the Federalist Society to Mitch. Can anyone out there point to even one Member of the House or Senate on the Republican side of the aisles who might just really believe in any religion? In the plot to take over America, the religious right has been used by the GOP.
How did right wing legal groups gain so much power???
Where are the centrist and liberal groups today??? Are they really powerless???
Peggy, no one group controls the GOP. All of those groups, Christian Nationalists, old racists, politicians, disgruntled blue collar workers, bankers and industrialists, each believes they are using the others to get their way. And they are getting their way because they are all alike in this matter, using the others for their own gain. There is zero attention to the ideal of unity for the betterment of the people…for the country. Democracy has been left out of all their plans and efforts. But on the abortion issue it has been the Christian Nationalists who have pushed that issue and organized the most.
Greed has overtaken our society.
Two points in the article stood out to me. First, “How did this happen? How did White Christian Nationalists effectively take over a major political party and the courts?” And second, “In recent decades, the religious right has invested many hundreds of millions of dollars developing a complex and coordinated infrastructure, whose features include rightwing policy groups, networking organizations, data initiatives and media.”
In other words, conservatives organized and put a funding pipeline behind it. That has enabled them to roll over a significant number of state legislative chambers, governorships, and other critical state and local offices. And they’ve leveraged that state and local succuss to at least strangle Congress if they can’t control either or both houses, or the presidency. Meanwhile, we Democrats can’t seem to get past arguing over what we want to be when we grow up.
Democrats barely mobilize. We can elect presidents while losing House and Senate races and state and local elections. We’re in a panic now over whether we can mobilize enough voters to hang on to Congress in the mid-terms. Republicans are betting that voters -those who show up, anyway- will care more about inflation and gas prices than they do about reproductive choice and other privacy rights; that voters will see abortion rights as a single issue that can be dealt with after the economy is fixed, and the preservation of other privacy rights as too abstract at the moment to generate concern. And as for the voters who show up? I can’t predict whether Democrats will show up with enough independents to block a right-wing take over of Congress, but I can guarantee you that right-wing voters will be there. They are true believers and they show up every election. Every. Election. And I can feel confident in wagering that if they do control Congress, they’ll carve out an exception to the filibuster rule to pass a federal abortion ban. They won’t care that it’ll be vetoed; if they win big enough, they’ll override it, and if they can’t, they’ll just keep passing a version of the bill every session until they take the presidency.
It’s been said here before, and it’s worth repeating because we don’t seem to get the point: Democrats fall in love, Republicans fall in line. It killed us, metaphorically, in 2016, reduced a Blue Wave to a sort of large ripple in 2018, and kept us from significant gains in 2020. It will actually kill women after 2022 if we don’t get moving, like, yesterday.
Yay, Patrick! Yes!
id say call,out the religious right into the fact they whored for trump,swaggart,mcconnel,kingrich,(didnt spell that wrong)grahm etc,for few trinkets (justifiable hate)to be divided among its followers. call out the religious right that removed freedoms.they demand the laws be changed to suit their greed,and thier inferior little world. the narritive now,they have become as a facist regime. compare them to hitler,stalin,mao. using a goverment of democracy to lawfully demand submission to their standards. mock their presence,spit on the ground they walk on for they,command we submit to a world were they, have bought and paid for with donations.
if ever there was a time when we could see what we laughed at 20 years ago,that the republicans were hell bent on taking over this country and systematically distroy our democracy to,litterrally rule us,they have near succeeded. that conspiracy you laughed at,is todays real world. when king george the first mentioned the new world order,did you laugh? lets face it,the facts have piled up, we have allowed the rich to use religion,ignorance and cheap slants,and the working class,the biggest voting block,to sucker punch us. those who laughed at the conspiracy,now what do you think? it funny to see how many whores can be so deceived to follow what will be their own demise…imagine how they will all be when the authoritarians decide they mean little but fodder…
It is as Theresa says; and who primarily makes up all of those groups she named? White men, young white men, old white men; their potency threatened by the rising numbers of intelligent women, black, brown, yellow and white, who are now in positions of power they once controlled. Fear not, all you men; we still need you to kill spiders, open pickle jars and join us to make babies but…we would appreciate it if once those babies are here you were helping us love, nurture, feed, clothe, house and educate them. But we long ago revolted against your keeping us “barefoot, pregnant and in the kitchen”. It is primarily those men who have finally forced Roe vs. Wade to be overturned with no plan to raise those babies once they are here.
We women do not make those babies alone; most invest 30 seconds in creating them and then it is up to us to take care of the results.
mea culpa! Of course my last sentence should read “most men” invest 30 seconds in creating them…
@Paul Ogden
I’ve been a Patient Advocate at Planned Parenthood for many years and can tell you that the ”late term” allowance (which the ”anti-choicers” use as their rally flag) happens so rarely you’d never notice it. UNLIKE the usual abortions, late-term happens when a fetus is dead or dying…when the woman’s health is severely jeopardized. Only 1.3% are performed in the US and they’re done surgically. (Despite her doctor’s repeated advice, my sister-in-law’s PRIEST told her it would be ”murder” to abort a dying fetus. “God might perform a miracle,” he raved. So she endured the happy congratulations and good wishes and questions of those who didn’t know her “pregnant bump” was really dead. She delivered a decomposing mess.
Most procedures are done so early that you’d never recognize what it was. These rabid ”pro-life” posters of a full-term fetus which they wave so avidly are emotional blackmail.
Patrick:
spot on. in the new world of thinking,and being told what to do,via social media,our own new need to stare into a endless glass bowl, hasnt reached a reactionary mind set yet.(eons til it does)since social media didnt exist,before the tent crusaiders,,face to race was. that good ol religious tent in the hot summer nite? replaced by a deceptive staring into a annymous world of who.someone has to write this shit. back when one might have questioned in person, what was said,and what you did say to others,amen..today when you scroll down,its into another abyss of sanctimonious bullshit supplied by that search engine,,,the fairness doctrin be damned..
now lets have a public audit where all their money goes…
Pam, my daughter’s first pregnancy resulted in the fetus dying at 2 months gestation but not discovered till no heartbeat by what should have been 5 months. Doctors performed a medical abortion to remove a “blob of cells” so severely infected, the infection was throughout her system, including her bloodstream. We nearly lost her. My granddaughter was diagnosed at 19-20 years old with a possibly fatal form of seizures; her pregnancy increased the chances of death but she wanted to try to carry to term. She died at age 24, 5 months pregnant having seizures, her daughter died with her. John Travolta’s 18 year old son, who had the best of medical care available, died of the same form of seizures 3 weeks before my granddaughter. We will never know the numbers of those who have had serious health issues which pregnancy endangered their lives who have died along with their babies due to a forced pregnancy. No need to remind anyone of the deaths of those who had botched, illegal abortions. I said before and will say again; SCOTUS is practicing medicine without a medical license, pregnancy is a medical condition which, under normal, healthy conditions, takes every mother’s body a year to recover from.
In November 1970, age 32, I had to have my husband’s written permission to have a tubal ligation; with five children and serious “female problems”, the surgery was necessary. In June of 1972, while legally separated, I again needed his written permission for a hysterectomy. After surgery the doctor told me that I had internal bleeding he was unaware of and would probably have died had the surgery been performed 3 days later. We are now, “rubber on the road” at high speed headed in reverse to those “good old days”.
Patrick – well said.
So we have committed GOP voters – we know about them. What has their team delivered – WOW – just in the last week…
We have committed DEMS. What has their team delivered? Hmmm way back last year, PPP relief (oops, about $700B went to big corporations as it wasn’t carefully monitored). OH and “hard infrastructure”….will take years to see much and with states controlling the payout, would you be surprised if the grifters weren’t already smiling? Anything for us common folk? Or for those really poor and hurting? Same old, same old. Why vote?
And then the majority “uncommitteds”. Try to put yourself in the mind (lucky if it has about a sixth grade education) of a typical one. What has either party done for me? What has either party done for our country except fight over power and increase inequality of opportunity? Why vote?
So what’s going to happen this November? Voter tried on the “Hope” thing in 2008 and won’t fall for it again…
These words say it all: “given overwhelming evidence of the GOP’s attempted coup, the neutering of Congress by use of the filibuster, and the morphing of the Supreme Court into a religious tribunal”.
That is the fate of the first and greatest experiment in Democracy that we spent years trying to turn away.
Pay attention France. Great Britain, you are perhaps even further into the quicksand. People of Ukraine, you were called on to fight, perhaps, the final war for democracy, and the country that we were pledged to help. You must realize that we are now not that country.
Yes, John, the GOP loves its tools!
And Trump has been used by Putin, and the religious right, being so much a tool himself.
I expect that Trump thought that he was using the religionists, seen in the Oval Office photos praying over him,
but they were really preying on him, setting him up to be used.
The counterculture movement of the ’60’s so scared the conservatives, that what we are witnessing can be described as
the result of the horror it instilled in them. The Roe-Wade decision probably got their rubber to hit the road. The idea that
the culture could be run on any foundation other than the greed that Patrick mentions, even one of supposed Christian love
for others, was, and would now be, anathema to them.
Pam, you rock!
The GOP needs to suffer massive defeats in November!
I have hoped that the SCOTUS decision would serve to energize Dem voters, and I guess we will see about that.
@ JoAnn…I’m sorry about the loss of your granddaughter and the frustration of needing a MAN’S
consent to care for your own body! Believe me…I understand!
Your comments made me stop and think….will surgical ligations be restricted? After all…we have all those viable eggs….
Mitch….thanks!!
Hey Lester,
Glad to see you’re back! All is well I hope? You are in my thoughts and prayers, lol! Actually, for real… Cantankerous as ever, and very well said!
And, AgingLGirl…..
There was nothing wrong with Paul’s comment! But once again, you show your snarkiness and disdain for male opinion! And, why relate opinion to the male appendage? Envy? Just asking.
Pam and JoAnn,
Well said and insightful! Personal experience is a powerful thing, it shows the flaws of our medical infrastructure and the input of personal opinion to contradict medical professionals all the way around. The problem is, medical professionals aren’t always correct, and, preachers can’t create miracles! Is that a conundrum?
This reminds me of several threads back concerning Pride! And certain comments were eviscerated as being religious when they actually we’re from the Prides own and affiliated websites!
One side doesn’t have a monopoly on ignorance! There’s plenty to go around!
When you have to make your point using insulting language and metaphors, that shows a lack of Intellectual Acuity!
Also, this does show what is considered settled law is not ever really safe, voting rights, interracial marriage, are back in play…
Not because the power players actually believe the above listed is wrong although some probably do, but they know those that believe such things, are more fanatical in their beliefs and then tend to be highly motivated, not only to vote negatively on this but to be engaged in violent activities a
in support of their ideals.
Jack, Wwweeeeeell said!!!
Case in point, people on this very blog actually criticized this man as basically ignorant! But time and time again he shows his finger on the pulse of what’s actually going on.
The use of the cap button or punctuation and its locations shouldn’t speculate as to a person’s inferential intellectual ability.
Maybe those witty two line barbs are more palatable than the truth? I say, keep your foot on the gas Jack, figuratively and literally!
Ya know John, you have a penis so you too are blind to your privilege. I have a vagina and it done nothing but give me grief all my life. I was 13 when Roe became law and when I was 17, went to Chicago to an abortion clinic with my friend to get her pregnancy terminated. I held her hand all the way home on the bus in a snow storm. She cried the whole 3 hours. I vowed to help any woman going forward in 1976.
When I was employed at the Catholic university, I had to get a doctors note to get medication to stop my cycles to heal my reproductive organs after surgery. I couldn’t get pregnant ever in my life no matter how many doctors I went to for help. I have a vested interest in women’s healthcare because of the dismissive behavior of male doctors, that to this day, continue to dismiss me.
It make me a little cranky right now knowing that my nieces, nephews, cousins and their kids will not have reproductive freedom like I did. And, it’s all men’s fault. Because every pregnancy is caused by a penis.
Women have less body autonomy than corpses. Sorry, not sorry.
Thank you Professor for allowing free speech even when I’m cranky.
Really excellent comments today – all except from one very narrow minded person who foolishly thinks he knows more than the rest of us.
I’ve suggested before that if you haven’t had the opportunity to watch the Netflix documentary series ‘The Family’, it is worth watching. Only has five episodes. It is about a religious organization that has one goal – world domination and power. Many members of Congress are actively involved.
A friend just told me about The Network for Public Education and their work to save public education in our country. They have been battling a well-funded national move to end public education and create a system of for-profit private schools for K-12. It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to realize that Betsy Devos and many of her fellow billionaires are behind that movement.
AgingLGirl,
Now, THAT was awesome! That provides context, that is sharing deeply personal beliefs. Doesn’t it actually feel better to get that out there? It sure makes a much more powerful statement than the Penis issue!
And, I agree with you 100% on why you feel the way you do and that it is really a sad State of affairs those things even happen in a supposedly free and equal society.
And, I definitely understand about being defensive about issues that a person has directly experienced, no matter what they may be, racism, homophobia, interracial marriage, Jim Crow and voting rights, segregation, abortion, feminism, equal pay, equality in general for everyone, and whatever else you can throw in there.
Sheila’s fussed at me more times than I can count, but she hasn’t banned me yet, so that shows that she’s an extremely Fair individual. Besides, even though she’s not as old as my mom, she reminds me a lot of her.
And, I do understand that people have a lot of bad feelings about religion because men use it in a way that it was never intended in the first place. Of course that’s debatable amongst some people, but, when you delve deep into it, you can see how it was manipulated from the beginning for power brokering individuals to control a populous.
History might not always be enjoyable, it might not always align with our own personal practices, desires or our goals, but it is a window into what has been, of course, and what could be in the future, because history is always cyclical.
History is not a tail light, it’s a headlight that illuminates a path that could be, it shows you how and where those disgusting potholes are, so then, why drive with those headlights off? I would rather take the detour than drive through the “Bridge Out” sign.
So, it’s not wrong to share AgingLGirl, context is a beautiful thing, it doesn’t leave room for misinterpretation.
Thank you!
You’re welcome John. I’m also one half of an interracial marriage and just the suggestion of upending that law is also making damn cranky. Life is hard and I’m too old for this sh*t.
Nancy,
Self-deprecation, I love it! I thought you didn’t like long comments? At least that’s what you’ve expressed for quite a while, I guess, everyone else is making longer comments to express their feelings and beliefs, so now it’s okay? Even your comments, now that’s a shocker. I guess some don’t do or believe what they say…..
See? Now that’s not snark, that’s historical fact which is the borne out in this thread over the past few years!
AgingLGirl,
Awesome, and, I apologize if I hurt your feelings. Sometimes we all have that open wound so to speak. Or we tend to scratch the scab off on occasion, lol! But, your comments are very inspiring! Especially the one today.
Vernon quoted Christ as saying “Love one another,” of course the Golden Rule is do unto others as you would have them do unto you! Even Aristotle’s “Golden Mean,” which is basically the middle of the road, which I understand but sometimes things can be so bad it’s hard to be in the middle!
I know what it’s like to be in an interracial marriage as you’ve alluded to, 43 years, and it hasn’t been a walk in the park by any stretch. Our children and grandchildren have had to deal with grief because they felt they didn’t fit in or were ostracized by both sides.
Of course, the magnitude of love that is shown to our grandchildren and children, cushions some of that, and it also galvanizes the desire that individuals should have the choice to live as they choose, to love who they choose, to be what they feel destined to be, as long as it does not interfere with everyone else’s life! But, if one’s desire is to be a serial killer, a rapist, a pedophile, or a satomasochistic lunatic, that’s wrong in anyone’s book no matter the spot or stripe so to speak.
Keep on loving and keep on advocating AgingLGirl, you are doing good work. And, I might add, there really is more to this life than just existing. I hope you find that way also.
What can be done to counteract the fascist policies in our country? I don’t know, and I am also glad I’m old. However, I’m not dead yet. Specifically, I plan to keep on voting. I will contact my senators and representative about issues that concern me. I will increase my donation to the ACLU, we’re going to need them when women start being jailed for miscarriages. I will do what I can to support progressive candidates.
The notion in the Texas’ anti-abortion legislation that private citizens should report the activities of other citizens suspected of aiding someone in getting an abortion is right out of the communist playbook in East Germany. And even worse the playbook in Romania when it was under communist domination. Just thought it’s worth mentioning.
I so much admire Stacy Abrams. She has fought hard to increase voter registration in Georgia and is still fighting. And she is again running for public office, that of governor of Georgia. Talk about obstacles! This lady has faced them all and she’s still out there.
Yes, yes, yes, Sheila, Aging Little Girl, Theresa, Peggy, Nancy, Pam, Jan two, and Patrick. Thank you all. As an adoptee I have always been grateful to another ‘Lady Ruby.’ My birth mother. She gave me life. It was completely her scared 17-year-old’s choice a very long time ago. She would be proud to know. My wonderful parents gave me *A* Life. I was their choice. They were very proud to know. Win-win! Choice is beautiful and a treasure we must never EVER lose.
With elections in November a nationwide bill that is common sense could be passed. Do politicians on either side want to get together to pass legislation or just draw in more cash. What would do it? A bill that is similar to roe versus wade actually might get past if it is in the nature of roe versus wade. But the leak from the Supreme Court only brought about a bill on abortion that was for full tour term abortions which was not going to get past. You can blame anybody point the finger call people white nationalists but until we look at ourselves in the mirror as a nation we don’t know how far we have come because we are leaving women behind on the altar a political polarization. You know you could try a 12 or 15 week bill that values the life of the mother for incest rape or medical reasons to start With and allow states to extend those rights beyond that. That would be a strategic move that will probably get done. It would be the law of the land and not based upon a few people in a quart which is the way our constitution was written. Then with that law passed a Supreme Court would have to overturn that law. I also would give guidance to each and every state to pass a law similar to it.
Joe Biden back in 2006 even said that abortion should be rare and it was also called a tragedy by him. Instead of him leading by his own thoughts he is being led and it is very clear that the bill that was put forth would be what he would sign if it was passed which was a full term bill .
Too much politics and not enough common sense