All that is true, but as I wrote above, there was Republican pushback as a result of what Reagan and Bush Senior did. Back then, and before, the Republican Party at least paid lip-service to the idea of fiscal responsibility. Even if the base never really cared, the people in power, and the people who put those people in power, certainly cared.
And as I also wrote above, in the last two years, the Republican Party has done a complete 180 on things that most people couldn’t even imagine them doing. As a result, at some point in the future, when it becomes clear to those in power that, absent electoral shenanigans, it is impossible for the Republican Party to win electorally, the party will either collapse in upon itself or it will change.
The problem will be what will happen if they keep pulling off those electoral shenanigans without paying any penalties for it. They certainly are acting in the “if I can get away with it, I’ll do it” mode right now.
The reason the prison industrial complex and the military industrial complex are alright by the GOP platform is some percentage racism, but it’s also just plain greed. They put money in wealthy private hands and “that’s good!” Tax cuts for corporations do the same. Tax cuts for the poor and social programs move money into the public sector and the poor people and “that’s bad!”
What they want is feudalism, trickle up economics, concentration of power in their hands, etc. The entire platform is consistent in that lens in terms of what they actually do. Rascism, guns, and abortions always struck me as more of issues they can co-opt to further their actual agenda. Those are issues, but it’s a low to the ground problem while the economic policy is what’s going to let them drown the government and set up their little barony’s.
That kind of reminds me a bit of the notion that the GOP overturning Roe v. Wade is actually a red herring. Note that I’m not saying we should ignore the possibility of it being overturning if Kavanaugh or anyone with similar views end up on the Supreme Court, but that the possibility may be overblown. The theory is that by merely promising to overturn it, it gets their base that are single issue abortion voters to go along with them no matter what other crap they may be proposing. Therefore, ironically, actually overturning Roe v. Wade would actually hurt the GOP because it would possibly make those single-issue voters start looking at other issues and realize how they’ve been hurt by the GOP’s other positions all along.
Racism and guns also could fall into that same category. The moneyed interests in the GOP may or may not actually give a fuck about those issues, but they know so long as they can be manipulated to their benefit, they can use them to get single-issue voter useful idiots to play along with them.
There are quite a lot of legal scholars who agree that the GOP will never actually overturn Roe v. Wade for the reasons you point out.
Instead, the Supreme Court will basically just weaken it enough that it becomes trivial for states to make it impossible to get an abortion, not outright ban abortions entirely.
I wonder if private individuals would be able to somewhat subvert that if it were to happen.
If abortion ends up being a state by state thing, for example, let’s assume that Mississippi makes it virtually impossible to get one whereas New York upholds the status quo as it is today. Would it be possible for a private organization to help Mississippi residents who want one to go to New York to get one if they otherwise can’t afford it?
Okay, now this is giving me a bit of an underground railroad vibe… and I don’t think it’s a good thing to have any sort of underground railroad action going on for this or anything else, really.
Gun rights were originally a lefty thing. Gun restrictions in the US originally came out of preventing free black people from owning guns and mounting resistance in the post civil war era. The idea of gun control being a bad thing was co-opted from the left and used against us. That idea of an armed populace being important to the resistance against oppression is an inherently leftist idea. I really believe that convincing all but the most radical left that gun control = liberal is one of the biggest and most successful con jobs the conservative movement has ever pulled off.
“That rifle on the wall of the labourer’s cottage or working class flat is the symbol of democracy. It is our job to see that it stays there.”
-George Orwell
“The whole proletariat must be armed at once with muskets, rifles, cannon and ammunition… Under no pretext should arms and ammunition be surrendered; any attempt to disarm the workers must be frustrated, by force if necessary.”
-Karl Marx
Pretty much. They will steal your issues in whatever way will keep you divided. What they’re slightly afraid of (though they have options to turn it either way) is the public realizes that oh my fucking god, we’re all for feeding children, education, and healthcare. Those are not partisan issues (for most people).
There’s more to the Abortion debate than whether a woman decides to carry a fetus to term. A lot of time there a complications to the pregnancy where the fetus is stillborn and the Mother’s life is in danger. However the procedure to end the pregnancy is considered an abortion, so the hospital’s hand are tied. I remember a Rand Paul during a debate saying “Health of the Mother” with the most contempt possible and in that moment I was “Fuck that guy and the party he rode in on.”
Something something United Nations something elections in November probably won’t be fair so maybe we’ll annul them something something better have my guy on the Supreme Court to make the annulment stick.
Very very true. Personal story, but I actually was there for when someone very close to me at the time had a miscarriage and among all the options presented to her to deal with/recover from it, the one presented as the safest was basically to “abort” the miscarried fetus. I fully supported her decision without hesitation and I shudder to think what could have happened if she was forced to go with a riskier option because this one was banned/restricted/etc.
Anyone should be able to, at no cost, privately get an abortion at any time for any reason (or without giving a reason).
Very young people (e…g, 16 or younger) at most should get a consultation with some sort of government professional to examine the circumstances and/or notify parents in some situations, but even then the actual abortion should be a given. No one should be able to tell them no.
