Three strikes
In a move that was 50 years in the making, the United States Supreme Court reversed the Roe v. Wade decision and removed federal protection for women seeking abortions. In the future, states whose legislatures have been gerrymandered to guarantee Republican (and hence religious fundamentalist) control will decide whether their female residents are forced to obey fundamentalist Christian principles regardless of their personal religious beliefs (or lack thereof). Welcome to Afghanistan. The Supreme Court, which I was raised to believe would impose a more reasoned view on sectarian laws, has become an extension of the Republican Party and the ideologues who vote for it. We can no longer teach our children about the fairness guaranteed by the separation of powers. All three branches of government have thoroughly disgraced themselves in recent years. We’re moving toward plutocracy and theocracy at the same pace, if indeed we aren’t there already.
Throughout history, religious zealots have reveled in forcing those who don’t accept their beliefs to yield to them. During the Spanish Inquisition, people who refused to accept the dictates of the Catholic Church were burned at the stake. Muslims stone women who offend God by refusing to cover their hair. In India, Hindus killed Muslims. Colonists in Salem hanged women who were suspected of harboring the Devil. Cruelty informed by religious fanaticism is as old as time. And it’s all about control.
Is it better to be terrorized by a Christian fundamentalist than by a Muslim fanatic? I fail to see the difference. Forcing non-believers to pretend to agree is the wet dream of religious bigots. Forcing our daughters to tolerate an unwanted pregnancy because “it’s what God wants” is just bullying based on a belief system that’s divorced from reason. Religion holds believers in a steel trap, and exemplifies the Dunning-kruger effect: The less you know, the more certain you are that you’re right.
All three branches of government have been captured by the Republican Party. Thanks to the ridiculous anachronism that’s the Electoral College, we’ve installed two presidents in the last 22 years who lost the popular vote. Thanks to gerrymandering, the seniority system and other scams, the “Party of NO” has created instruments within the Senate as well as in the House of Representatives that steal power from the majority of voters. And, as of Trump’s three Supreme Court appointments, the highest court in the land is an arm of the Republican Party and the lying religious bigots who control it. All three branches of government have been usurped by money and greed, buttressed by exploitation of religious ignorance and crass manipulation of the uneducated.
The Republican Party lies, and sometimes pays others to lie. Norma Mccorvey, the Roe in Roe v. Wade, appeared in numerous Republican campaign ads stating she had become a born-again Christian and regretted having had the abortion. On her death bed, she admitted she was paid to say that (https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-abortionjane-roe/plaintiff-in-roe-v-wade-u-s-abortion-case-saysshe-was-paid-to-switch-sides-iduskbn22v33d). That’s the Republican Party you’re asked to vote for.
Kevin Mccarthy, who will represent the California 20th Congressional District, said on June 24 he would support legislation mandating a federal ban on abortion after the 15th week of pregnancy (https://twitter.com/ mkraju/status/1540390054576771074). Given 96 percent of abortions are performed before that time (https://www. acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/practice-bulletin/articles/2013/06/second-trimester-abortion), that wouldn’t affect most of the 30 percent of American women who at some point in their lives have an abortion, but it WOULD reverse 50 years of a policy that didn’t ban ANY woman from deciding her own fate. It is, like all religious bans, all about control. Do women have the right to control their own bodies, or the men in Congress? Which is it?
We’ve struck out in all three attempts to create a system based on the separation of fair and trustworthy centers of power. And there’s no indication we’re about to get any of the three branches of government under democratic control.
There are two ways to get us out of this downward spiral: A bloody revolution, or massive turnout in the next two elections. Throw out the Republican Party, or they WILL destroy your country.
Les Pinter is a contributing columnist and a Springville resident. His column appears weekly in The Recorder. Pinter’s book, HTTPV: How a Grocery Shopping Website Can Save America, is available in both Kindle and hardcopy formats on Amazon.com.contact him at lespinter@earthlink.net