Let me start this with a hypothetical. Trust me, it’s important to the context. Cast your mind back to your youth, especially your 20’s and 30’s.
At one time or another, we all wanted something. And we didn’t just want something, we were ready to do anything to get it. Call it a gonzo home entertainment system, or a car, you had to have it.
And you were willing to do anything to get it. You stayed home on Friday and Saturday night, instead of going out and trying to get laid. You worked overtime like somebody trying trying to pay for cancer treatment with no insurance. You bought sawdust generic hot dogs, and ate a shitload of boxed mac-n-cheese.
And then you got it, the proudest day of your life. You had finally attained your dream. But what happened after that? Well, you started going out on the weekends with your friends. And you bought Ball Park hot dogs. And you wouldn’t buy a box of mac-n-cheese if it meant triple frequent flier points. It was time to make up for lost time.
Welcome to the mental thought processes of the GOP in 2022 after the release of the Alito first draft striking down Roe v Wade. There are two drastic consequences to this that the GOP should have already seen coming and planned for. But like with spending a decade running on overturning the ACA, I don’t think the GOP ever actually thought it would come true.
The first one is the one you’re already seeing on your television screen. Mass popular protests nationwide against the absurd Alito draft ruling. And the Democrats are taking full advantage, appearing in front of every camera they can find, and urging even more people to the streets to make their feelings known. And they’re advocating a mass flooding of Capitol Hill and state and district offices to express their opinions to their Senators to protect reproductive rights. And it’s only going to get worse.
But there’s a second, more subliminal reason that the GOP should have seen, and it ties directly into my hypothetical situation at the top of the article. Since the 1973 Roe v Wade ruling, the GOP has spent 50 years motivating their Evangelical base with the fight to overturn Roe. They ran on it, and they fundraised off of it, and they used it to drive their Evangelical base to the polls for every primary and general election.
But you know what? I honestly don’t think that the GOP actually thought that there was a realistic chance that it would ever happen. It was like 64 votes to try to overturn the ACA, It was a doomed effort, but it brought the suckers out to donate and vote. For proof, I give you this.
Just look at the incredible, almost unimaginable confluence of events that had to occur in order for the court to reach this alignment. I live in Vegas, and even I wouldn’t take odds on something like this.
First, it required the presence of a GOP Senate Majority Leader corrupt and morally bankrupt enough to hold a Supreme Court seat open for more than 300 days in the dream that the GOP’s candidate would win, and appoint another conservative justice.
And then it took the previously unheard of interference from a foreign government, Russia, to manage to swing just enough critical votes in critical swing districts to get the GOP’s candidate elected in the electoral college, despite his losing the popular vote. And it meant that candidate being both arrogant enough, as well as stupid enough to make the right pick.
And then it took another corrupt and morally bankrupt White House Chief of Staff to convince a sitting moderate Supreme Court justice, the ultimate swing vote, into retiring with the promise of promoting his former clerk, Brewski Brett Kavanaugh to the bench to replace him. Even though Kavanaugh was credibly accused of being a sexual predator.
And then it required a sitting Supreme Court justice, the liberal lion of the court, passing less than 60 days before the 2020 election. And it took the exact. same. corrupt. morally. bankrupt. Senate Majority Leader to reverse course from his previous position of holding a seat open until after the election, and ramming home one more highly conservative justice while Americans were already voting at the polls for the next President.
You see my point here? Just like the GOP could make 64 attempts to vote to overturn the ACA knowing it was doomed to failure, the GOP could never foresee the exact confluence of events that would actually overturn Roe v Wade. And that presents them with a major problem going into November.
Remember what I said at the top. When you really want something, you’re willing to sacrifice to get it. But if the leaked Alito draft turns out to be the final decision, then the GOP and Trump Evangelical base have finally gotten their most prized wish!Â
So, if you’re the GOP, how do you motivate the Evangelical base going into November? The Evangelicals have invested two entire generations into the fight to overturn Roe. They now finally have what they have always most cherished. How do you motivate them to show up en masse to the polls in November? Anti gay marriage rights? Anti LGBTQ and trans kids rights? They finally have their toy. Now they want to go out on the weekend and try to get laid!
be careful what you wish for, fools. Because now, not only are the Democrats going to motivate the hell out of the pro choice voters to turn out in November, they’re going to scarify the hell out of the LGBTQ voters to show up in November, because They’re coming for you next! And they’re coming for your contraception rights too! Don’t touch that dial.
A couple of quotes seem apropos here:
“What do you do when your dream comes true,/And it’s not quite how you planned?”–Glenn Frey, Don Henley, “After The Thrill Is Gone”
“When the gods wish to punish us, they answer our prayers.”–Oscar Wilde, An Ideal Husband
The dog finally caught that semi. And now it’s stuck.
“Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens.” (against stupidity the Gods themselves battle in vain)
Friedrich von Schiller (Die Jungfrau von Orleans)
I am hearing/reading a lot from the ‘pubes but none of what they are saying seems in any way terrified. They won, they know they won, and they’re pretty darned pleased about it. They know they have five solids on the s.c. that are going to do their bidding regardless of how backwards, asinine, or tyrannical that bidding may be.
I get it , those of us who live in the 21st century and wish to make sure humanity continues to do so past the 22nd are actually terrified, but the RWNJ’s we know as republicans are not a part of that calculus. They know a couple of things: their base will eat up every crazy thing anyone could possibly imagine and vote for the individual that is the goofiest m.f. of the bunch, and perhaps more importantly the people who are going to be adversely affected by the crazy, in this case young women, do not get off of their phones or asses to vote. It is unlikely anything short of a complete and utter catastrophe (and probably not even then) will turn the RWNJ’s and their followers into rational people. I do not know how likely it will be that young people turn from the nonsense on their phones to something more important like protecting their health/lives, democracy, you know, things of less importance….to them.
I’m afraid this terror is merely projection from those of us who are progressive and possibly some democrats. It is not coming from the magats/pubes.
Content people are unwary people. And MAGA has been established to be fairly stupid people atop that. As such, what they think means less than you’re giving them credit for.
When the SC’s decisions become seen as BS, they will not be accepted as definitive and Jury Nullification will become the restorative norm?
I keep wondering how even the RWNJs could justify reversing gay marriage. Would it nullify those that already exist, thus uprooting hundreds of thousands of solid families? Would it grandfather those marriages in at the risk of violating the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause? I think they will be kind of scared to touch that one, and if they do, it will provide the needed justification to expand the court and/or impeach and remove at least Bryant and Brewski.
The GOP didn’t really want to overturn Roe v Wade, any more than to overturn the ACA.
They just wanted to campaign and, more importantly, fund raise off of it.
Without it, they have to find a new issue to excite their troglodyte base.
Spock: “Stonn, she is yours. After a time, you may find that HAVING is not so pleasing a thing after all as WANTING. It is not logical, but it is often true.”
Among the greatest Star Trek Quotes in the whole cannon. And so appropriate NOW!
Well done Roddenberry and Ted Sturgeon.
RIP Leonard Nimoy as well, who made a cold, logical alien character (as written) into one of the most charismatic, beloved characters of all time (as acted).
I recommend watching Lawrence O’Donnell’s “The Last Word” (5 May), especially the full episode (38 minutes) but even the short version (the first 10 minutes). I’d suggest that there was actual steam coming from his ears during his discourse but that might seem like I was suggesting he was practising witchcraft, but only InJustice Alito could make that judgement.
Your supposition at the beginning doesn’t apply to me. I don’t even understand what you are talking about. In my 20s and 30s, I was busy being a mother to four children. I was a US Army wife, living in German part of that time. The only thing that I get out of this is that we need to work extremely hard to protect Roe vs Wade.
I meant living in Germany where my third and fourth children were born.