It's Bad

 

IT’S BAD AND OTHER RAVINGS

So, the right-wing ultra conservative majority on the Supreme Court of Rethuglicans have overturned Roe v. Wade.  I have been boiling over all weekend.  This morning I am simmering, bubbling under the surface of calm.  The decision, to me, is not just about abortion.  It’s about a woman’s fundamental right to decide what to do with her own body.

I am a mother by choice.  I am also pro-choice.  Personally, I would not have an abortion.  With my second pregnancy, there was a false positive test and several doctors and nurses encouraged me to have amniocentesis within the time limit to have an abortion.  I think then it was at 20 weeks or so.  Anyway, I refused.  My baby was born healthy but my first husband and I were prepared to care for her whatever her situation was.

Having said that, this is a very personal decision for any woman.  It’s not my place to advise a woman against it, as my cousin (a staunch Catholic) used to do.  She would join others picketing health facilities that performed abortions.  She asked me to join her and I refused.  I thought she was wrong but she felt compelled to be “prolife”.

I put “prolife” in quotes because it’s a false claim anti-abortion protesters use as if they’re inspired by God.  These are mostly so-called Christians.  I say so-called because although they proclaim to be Christians, by their works and words they show they do not follow Christ.  Example: “Prolife” Rethuglican politicians consistently vote against any legislation that would help a parent feed or educate their children once they’re born.  They are only interested in forcing a mother to bear a child, even if it puts her life in danger.  After that baby is born, the attitude of the Rethuglican party is “you’re on your own now, honey.”

I am old enough to remember back before 1972 when a woman truly was a second-class citizen because she could not get a credit card on her own, have her tubes tied without permission from her husband, and even talk to a doctor by herself about her own health!  The husband had to be there to listen in.  As far as I’m concerned, women are still treated as second-class citizens in many ways.  We still can’t get an Equal Rights Amendment passed.

That brings me to the real danger of this decision. “Justice” Clarence Thomas said it publicly.  Overturning Roe v. Wade should also have them considering removing the right to contraception, the right to consensual sexual acts, same-sex marriage, and even interracial marriage.  With these five thugs in place as so-called justices, we may very well see rabid “Christian” and other right-wing groups bring cases before the Supreme Court arguing against these protections.

After that, who knows?  Is Affirmative Action protected?  What about the 1973 Rehabilitation Act and PL94-142?  What about civil rights?  What about our right to vote?  Now that the downward slide has begun, where does it end?

Vote blue!  That’s the answer, yes, but we have this other agenda by the Rethuglicans and that is to discredit and interfere with our elections.  Witnesses and members of the January 6^th investigative hearing have warned us repeatedly that there can be more cheating and more violence if Rethuglicans lose.  The interference is already happening.  Judge Luttig wrote in a tweet that he spoke methodically and slowly, measuring each word, not because he had a stroke or other disability.  He did it to emphasize just how serious the situation is.  He spoke slowly but he said a lot about what’s really going on. https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2022/6/18/2104941/-Judge-Luttig-explains-why-he-spoke-slowly-carefully-exactingly-and-deliberately

So, what happens if the Rethuglicans win either by cheating or by insurrection?  We will have a government but it won’t be democratic.  Rethuglican legislators are already discussing how they’ll punish dissenters of Almighty tRump.  They not only want to take away the rights I mentioned earlier, they’d also like to take away social safety nets like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.  They are lying when they claim these are “entitlement” programs.  I paid into Social Security with my wages for over 20 years, as did other recipients.  It is OUR money, not the Rethuglicans’.

There are a lot of issues to deal with.

Over the weekend, it came up in family conversation.  Younger members claim there’s “always been violence” in this country and that is true.  But here is the difference: it was tempered in the last 50 years and more by programs proposed by FDR, JFK, LBJ, and OB (name sign for President Obama) addressing people’s need for work, for food, for the retirement years, for civil rights, and for health care. 

All of that is changing because tRump brought white nationalists out of the dark where they’d been lurking those years.  They are mostly white men and women, but there are mysteriously people of color supporting them as well.  So, if they overthrow an election in 2022 and 2024, what kind of world will we be left with in the formerly united USA?

I am more and more tempted to apply for dual citizenship in Ireland and getting a passport for my husband.  I don’t want to live in a country run by those evil people.