I’m Confused
Really. You say one thing, yet do other things that contradict your words.
The right wing, especially the Evangelicals fighting against abortion, have used the phrase “Right to life”, or “pro-life” to describe their anti-abortion efforts. They constantly tell us that every human, and especially the unborn, have a right to life, and that life is important enough to override the rights of the woman who keeps them alive inside her body.
In one respect, I can understand that.
On the other hand, there are aspects of this that don’t seem to fit. For instance, Evangelicals tell us that life begins at conception to justify their campaign. Even though a close reading of the Bible tells you not only that it starts at First Breath, but in fact, the book actually mandates an abortion for unfaithful wives! (And gives a formula for making that happen.)
So, that’s the first thing that makes no sense.
But a further look at what they seem to be after focuses on the rights of women. They don’t actually talk about this part, but what they’re doing seems to indicate that they want women to be second class citizens, and yeah, that fits the Evangelical position of the “wife” taking second place to hubby. I get it.
What I don’t get is that when you examine what they do, it’s obvious that “second class” really isn’t what they’re after at all.
Look, a constant problem they ignore is that their anti-abortion laws rarely allow exceptions, and yet when they do, medical professionals tell us they’re so vague and uncertain, nobody dares to try anything that even appears to fit. The result is girls as young as ten being raped and impregnated, and they cannot obtain an abortion even to save their lives, given their bodies are probably too small and underdeveloped to carry that pregnancy to term. Another result is that women who are carrying fetuses who are actually dead, or have conditions where clearly they’ll never live past birth (or maybe not even that long), are being forced to wait until their condition truly endangers their lives before anyone will act to save them.
Now, I don’t know about you, but if your position is about Life, yet your laws do little to protect all life, there’s something off about what you’re saying.
If you care nothing about the life of the mother, then you aren’t taking the position that she’s a second class citizen, but that she’s actually and truly a slave, because that’s what the slave owners before the Civil War believed and acted on. And their actions were identical in character to what you’re doing now.
Including making laws that even try to prevent a woman from traveling to somewhere she can obtain an abortion. That’s uncontitutional to restrict someone’s travel. I don’t care how “Originalist” you may be, not a single one of our Founders believed that was ok — unless you were a slave!
But, hey, that’s not all that’s confusing. Stay with me, ok? I’m changing gears.
For those of you who, in school, were taught Civics you’ll understand this next section.
When the Founders ratified the Constitution, two things that are relevant happened. The first was the insistence of the more Progressive founders that they’d not ratify it until the Bill of Rights was added. The second was that when they created that document, at first, the only US citizens with the right to cast a vote were male property owners.
Male. And owners of property. In more modern parlance, Rich White Males. Where does that “white” come from? Slaves couldn’t vote, they weren't citizens, and nobody then, in any way shape or form, had any dreams (or nightmares) that minority men could ever gain enough money to own property!
So, Rich White Males. That’s important. Don’t ever forget it.
So, they ratified the Constitution, and the country descended into politics. That went on for another, oh, two hundred years. During that time, both women and minorities got the vote. I’d guess the Rich White Men who always got elected into positions of power weren’t especially excited over those things, but at least they still were the ones getting elected, right?
Right?
Oops.
Nope, didn’t anticipate that at all. Nosirree. Gotta do something, anything, about this travesty. So, along came Ronnie. Said all the right stuff, got elected. Without going into the depths here, the one thing Ronnie did was to eliminate the Fairness Doctrine. That was the regulation that let the government force broadcasters to present both sides of issues on the news, and those had to be presented factually.
Enter Fox “News.” As Lawrence O’Donnell said last night so well, that entity has never been in the “news” business. Yes, they’re in the TV business, but as they’ve noted in more than one lawsuit, they’re in the “Entertainment” business.
Moving on.
So, starting with Newt Gingrich’s term in the Speakership in the House, the GOP finally realized that since there weren’t any actual laws that governed their treatment of political opponents in Congress or the White House, and they’d suddenly noticed the presence of numerous non-whites and (gasp!) women in that august body, it was obvious that they could now be as nasty as they wanted to be, and they could lie (and Fox “News” wouldn’t reveal the lies) and nobody inside their major supporting groups would ever know! (Or complain, for that matter, even if they did know.)
Oh, it started out slowly, beginning with that stupid “contract with America” thing, but that wasn’t the first lie, nor would it be the last. Sadly, the Democratic Party failed to figure any of this out, and since many of their donors were the same ones as the GOP had anyway, nobody on that list was trying very hard to get them to see it.
After all, the GOP was still the Party of the Constitution, right? Originalism? Patriotism?
So, now we come to the current day. Trump, et. al., and the insane support that Party has given him. I say insane because to someone watching this from somewhere else, what they say, vs. what they do have nothing at all to do with each other. Their actions do not in any way seem to advance their Party’s traditional values, and for that matter, don’t even seem to be advancing the goal of Trump to get re-elected.
Yes, it’s confusing.
So, now is where I admit my title was put there to suck you in, because in reality, I’m not at all confused.
Why not? Because if you examine things from the perspectives I’ve presented here, it’s obvious. The purpose of it all isn’t to advance the GOP, or Trump. For fifty+ years, the GOP — or rather, their donors, Rich White Men — have been grooming you, and using, among others, Fox “News” to do it. Leading you to believe they are still behind those past “values” because that’s what kept you voting for them, up to and especially including that anti-abortion thing.
Oh, yeah, that. They still want you to think that this is a Christian nation, right? Of course, that’s what will keep you supporting them, right up to the point where your leaders get schooled to understand who is truly behind all this.
Rich White Men.
Yep. Them’s the ones. And by schooled, I mean when they get told in no uncertain terms at all that the one group they cannot enforce their theocratic rules on will be the Rich White Men.
The Oligarchs. Oh, sorry, did you think that if you’re richer than most of us and a white male, that you’ll be one of the ruling class? Dang, I’m truly sorry I gave you that idea. Because, you see, only the ones who’ve been running this scam, and funding it, will be part of that class. Very exclusive.
Just how exclusive, you ask? Well, I’ve got an example for you.
Russia. Yes, Russia.
Why Russia? Because that’s the dream. That’s the case study for how oligarchies work. It would have been hard to see just a couple of short years ago, to reveal this, but the Ukrainian war has done that for me.
You see, oligarchies aren’t single person ruled countries. Even Russia, where the main guy, Putin, actually gave all that power and money to his buddies, isn’t truly a single person dictatorship. Sure, it looks like one, but once the pretty camoflage starts fading and falling away, you see the truth. People with money tend to gather power, and to do that, they spread around the money. Oligarchs have plenty of money to spread around, and in a system like that, the corruption tends to gravitate downwards.
Oh, come on, you didn’t think it’d stay near the top, did you? Corruption always sinks to the bottom. Always. It’s the only way such systems work. Leave out the people on the bottom, and they’ll kill you every time. That’s human nature at work. Make a system based on greed, and greed wins, always.
So, do you get it now? For fifty years, the Rich White Men, the Oligarch Class, have been grooming their base to fail to understand their true goal — power. Not just power, but absolute power. Trust me, were Trump to win, they’d get rid him.
Why? Because he’s an idiot. He’d incite riots and fail to suppress them, and cause his handlers all sorts of trouble. No, they’d put someone in charge who is capable and above all, charismatic. But remember, they’d still be a figurehead. The real power will always be the Oligarch Class.
So, if you want an example of what the US would be a few decades after the loss of our democracy, take a good close look at Russia, with its endemic corruption, and how that has weakened what once was a world power into a third world has been.
Oh, but don’t worry, the Oligarch Class will still be rolling in the cash. Your cash, remember.
I really don’t think I need to go on, do I?
