Conservatives are having quite a time in America this week. They’re about to win a case in the Supreme Court using the same argument that they used in support of slavery and Jim Crow laws -- that the most consequential matters of life and liberty in this country should be left up to the states which abused those very principles for more than three centuries.
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who can remember it are first appalled and then disgusted while they watch them do it. But when the ethos of "say anything while you loot the public treasury and lie your ass off" is so successful, why would they change?
As you pointed out in an earlier column, moral psychology doesn't work with these people. They have no morals, no scruples, no sense of accountability. All they have is a tremendous fear of being caught and the desperate ability to do and say anything that prevents that from happening.
Many of them also give trenchant displays of personal cowardice (see Rand Paul walking through BLM, or Trump in the bunker... or anywhere). Meanwhile, the pilot fish of conservative media make W.R. Hearst seem like Mrs. Pynchon from Lou Grant. Their shouting and lies don't need to hold up for even the time it takes to fact-check them because no sooner are they done than they've moved on to worse.
This is what damage Donald Trump did, in choosing the justices he did. Kavanaugh, Barrett, Gorsuch are so patently pretentious right wingers posing as jurists that it's sickening to watch. Of course women's rights are so overdone that they'd love to make women vessels again, and why not? What has it done except make men unhappy?
Yeah, you can say that "The Handmaid's Tale " was not that far off the mark.
We saw it in action today in a case that should never have been brought to court.
Tfg *nominated* those justices, but I'd be extremely surprised if he *chose* them. Look to McConnell for that, and the reactionary misogynists at the Federalist Society.
And think about the three of them: Gorsuch is sitting in what anybody with a conscience would know is another man's seat, Cavanaugh's confirmation was an obvious fraud and a demonstration of his unfitness for indoor work of any complexity and Barrett (who has never tried a case or even argued a motion before a judge) was confirmed before RBG was cold, and there's not a trace of integrity in any of them. Absurd.
Women have until June, when the decision is announced, to remain mostly human beings. After that, as Alexandra Petrie wrote in the Post, we’re back to being vessels. I wonder if we get to choose what sort of vessel we are. I want to be one of those beautiful tall ships with huge sails so I can get the fuck away from beady-eyed moronic gun totin’ misogynistic conservatives.
The SCOTUS decision isn't going to effect all women equally. Even in the worst-case scenario, it's not going to outlaw abortion; it's going to enable *states* to outlaw or seriously restrict access to abortion (which isn't exactly readily available in those states now). Women lucky enough to live in most blue states, or who have the resources to travel to one, will still be able to obtain safe, legal abortions. Last December, my state, Massachusetts, passed the ROE Act (over the veto of our Republican governor) to ensure abortion access no matter what SCOTUS does. Other states have taken similar measures. NARAL has a handy map showing what states protect access to abortion and what states restrict it: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/laws-policy/state-government/, (Our supposedly moderate Republican governor, Charlie Baker, just announced that he's not running for a third term in 2022. Speculation is that he was likely to be primaried by a rabid Trumper, who would then go on to get creamed in the general election.)
Women may have to go further than that-having their tubes tied. Yes, it's the worst case scenario, but you think that abortion was the only thing the right wingers want thrown out? Try all birth control next. That's coming. "Griswold v. Connecticut" will be challenged.
Yes-- I've been predicting that for years! All abortions for any reason outlawed, all forms of artificial birth control made illegal, all sex education in school eliminated except for useless abstinence training: those are the Holy Trinity of the right-wingers. So far, they've been silent on what they plan to do about the coming epidemic of infanticide, child abandonment, child abuse and child neglect that will inevitably result from them getting their wishes, and will lead to still higher rates of crime. Welcome to the fundamentalist Christian theocracy.
So terrific, as usual. Listening to the deliberations was painful. Republicans crying “my body my choice” when it comes to vaccines is worthy of a scene in a Mel brooks film. And that the constitution is as neutral as Switzerland is news to me. The only part that makes perfect sense is that conservatives on the court are relying on pro slavery arguments.
Thank you Lucian. And for pointing out that there is a common thread, nay, highway, linking the subjugation of black bodies and the subjugation of women’s bodies. And for pointing out how blatantly Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh dared say they would uphold settled law, during their confirmation hearings, with their fingers crossed behind their backs.
But it points to a paradox in today’s America: would they have been selected for the Supreme Court had they spoken their true convictions? Most likely yes, because of the Republican majority at the time. But all three chose to misrepresent themselves, or lie, in public and for literally recorded time, rather than state their real intentions and beliefs. And if that is not playing politics, I don’t know what is. And the paradox is how easy it is to lie and accede to the highest court while in the land with no consequences for telling falsehoods under oath.
Way down deep, it's not points of law, but rage and terror of female sexuality that animate right-wing anti-abortion fanatics, whether in the white robes and hoods of the KKK or the black robes of SC Justices. They can't endure the thought that women might have sex for any reason other than dutiful procreation within marriage. So, if they want an abortion, it MUST be because they've had sex for some other, unacceptable reason-- like maybe because they (gasp!) enjoy it? In the scared, twisted minds of those men, women wanting abortions are sex-crazed sluts who have to be punished by forcing them to have children-- THAT'LL teach 'em not to enjoy sex so goddamned much! This is the Gospel of Punitive Pregnancy.
Judith...I've ALWAYS thought that the tendency of laws around pregnancies, etc. comes directly from terror relating to female sexuality, which just works so much better than ours. I realize that a lot of these people looking to keep women in "their place" will tell you it's something else (and probably believe it as well), but that is really where it originates. totally. thanks for saying it so neatly.
Lucian, how right you are to emphasize the dark irony that it is the state of Mississippi, cradle of Jim Crow, that forwards this injustice. Phil Ochs’ refrain from “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” echoes as a taunt: “Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of, Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of…” Now, where does our country go?
That's exactly where my mind went: "Here's to the state of Mississippi / for underneath her borders the devil draws no lines . . . The calendar is lying when it reads the present time." After that I cued up "Mississippi Goddam."
I am going to be very curious if this case indeed unravels Roe v Wade if the Republicans getting what they have so long sought will be a case of watch what you wish for because I would expect that this would awaken a sleeping giant in the form of the many women who will not take too kindly to losing their access to safe abortions.
I also have to ask the question, how exactly are the United States of America "united"?
Let's face it-- "most" women will not need to have an abortion during their lifetime, so I don't see a huge wave of irate women rising up over this issue. And furthermore, millions of women who dislike or barely tolerate sex are just as furious as conservative men at the thought that there are women who have sex for the fun of it, and they want to see those women punished with unwanted pregnancies. I'll bet some sociologist could set up an experiment that would show a close to 100% correlation between an individual's fanatic opposition to abortion and that person's shitty sex life.
You underestimate younger women who have grown up with Roe as settled law. The women’s march after trmps election filled DC with women furious that he threatened to kill Roe and limit our rights. You may be right that white women won’t need abortions. Black women, brown women, and poor women are the people who will suffer. I am a sociologist and the values that support pro-life are complex and usually unrelated to personal sexual satisfaction.
You may well be correct. But I spent many years as a university professor, and the degree of utter obliviousness among so many of the young women I encountered was horrifying. They seemed unaware that Roe v Wade was under threat; their attitude was close to: “If I get pregnant, I can always get an abortion.” And yes, I’m aware that people offer many different reasons for opposing abortion, but for the most fanatic foes— the ones who want NO exceptions, even for rape or incest— I think you’ll find, hidden below their surface explanations, a dark vein of hatred and fear of female sexuality. Not that they’d ever admit it! It it comes out in the vengefulness of their attitudes— their desire to PUNISH the women who want abortions, rather than to save fetuses.
One of your greatest columns, Lucian. I’m originally from Mississippi, still love its writers, its music, its food and some of its people. But if its politicians are going to win the day, all I can say is we are screwed.
Same here. I left many decades ago, thankfully. And I can tell you firsthand that those old white boys couldn't make a decent decision on behalf of ANYONE if their sorry lives depended upon it. They're basically not much good for anything except drinking, hiding in their closets (oh, yes, we gals could tell a ton of stories), and spending other people's money. They still think they're on some sort of veranda sipping mint juleps while the "help" and the "womenfolk" do their baking.
Fear, fear that anything pleasurable is a mortal sin. Fear of their own impulses (Kavanaugh) fear of being "found out" I have always felt there is nothing greater or more beautiful than the "Form Devine" Fools..
Today the Republican carry out their decades plan to trip the constitution and maybe for a while have some kind of 'white control' But don't be fooled. Most white people are not extremist and they don't want Jim Crow 2.0 What they want is a safe and comfortable society for everyone. Junking Roe V Wade will expose the Red States for what they are, and the backlash will come. (Think Kansas) Please remember that in the 1960's the Civil Rights laws could have failed to pass, but they did pass, the country was changing. The Republicans might own 2023 but they won't own 2025 Extremism always defeats itself. Remember Trump never won the popular vote.
Thank you. This is the surest thing, and the biggest bag-job, since the Trump tax cuts, and it comes from exactly the same dark place in what passes for our national polity. Bullwinkle was right: the world is "rooled by dopes".
Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it. Those who can remember it are first appalled and then disgusted while they watch them do it. But when the ethos of "say anything while you loot the public treasury and lie your ass off" is so successful, why would they change?
As you pointed out in an earlier column, moral psychology doesn't work with these people. They have no morals, no scruples, no sense of accountability. All they have is a tremendous fear of being caught and the desperate ability to do and say anything that prevents that from happening.
Many of them also give trenchant displays of personal cowardice (see Rand Paul walking through BLM, or Trump in the bunker... or anywhere). Meanwhile, the pilot fish of conservative media make W.R. Hearst seem like Mrs. Pynchon from Lou Grant. Their shouting and lies don't need to hold up for even the time it takes to fact-check them because no sooner are they done than they've moved on to worse.
"May you live in interesting times" indeed.
This is what damage Donald Trump did, in choosing the justices he did. Kavanaugh, Barrett, Gorsuch are so patently pretentious right wingers posing as jurists that it's sickening to watch. Of course women's rights are so overdone that they'd love to make women vessels again, and why not? What has it done except make men unhappy?
Yeah, you can say that "The Handmaid's Tale " was not that far off the mark.
We saw it in action today in a case that should never have been brought to court.
Tfg *nominated* those justices, but I'd be extremely surprised if he *chose* them. Look to McConnell for that, and the reactionary misogynists at the Federalist Society.
And think about the three of them: Gorsuch is sitting in what anybody with a conscience would know is another man's seat, Cavanaugh's confirmation was an obvious fraud and a demonstration of his unfitness for indoor work of any complexity and Barrett (who has never tried a case or even argued a motion before a judge) was confirmed before RBG was cold, and there's not a trace of integrity in any of them. Absurd.
Women have until June, when the decision is announced, to remain mostly human beings. After that, as Alexandra Petrie wrote in the Post, we’re back to being vessels. I wonder if we get to choose what sort of vessel we are. I want to be one of those beautiful tall ships with huge sails so I can get the fuck away from beady-eyed moronic gun totin’ misogynistic conservatives.
Bravo Lucian. You did it again. ♥️
The SCOTUS decision isn't going to effect all women equally. Even in the worst-case scenario, it's not going to outlaw abortion; it's going to enable *states* to outlaw or seriously restrict access to abortion (which isn't exactly readily available in those states now). Women lucky enough to live in most blue states, or who have the resources to travel to one, will still be able to obtain safe, legal abortions. Last December, my state, Massachusetts, passed the ROE Act (over the veto of our Republican governor) to ensure abortion access no matter what SCOTUS does. Other states have taken similar measures. NARAL has a handy map showing what states protect access to abortion and what states restrict it: https://www.prochoiceamerica.org/laws-policy/state-government/, (Our supposedly moderate Republican governor, Charlie Baker, just announced that he's not running for a third term in 2022. Speculation is that he was likely to be primaried by a rabid Trumper, who would then go on to get creamed in the general election.)
Women might have to go on a sex strike.
Women may have to go further than that-having their tubes tied. Yes, it's the worst case scenario, but you think that abortion was the only thing the right wingers want thrown out? Try all birth control next. That's coming. "Griswold v. Connecticut" will be challenged.
Yes-- I've been predicting that for years! All abortions for any reason outlawed, all forms of artificial birth control made illegal, all sex education in school eliminated except for useless abstinence training: those are the Holy Trinity of the right-wingers. So far, they've been silent on what they plan to do about the coming epidemic of infanticide, child abandonment, child abuse and child neglect that will inevitably result from them getting their wishes, and will lead to still higher rates of crime. Welcome to the fundamentalist Christian theocracy.
So terrific, as usual. Listening to the deliberations was painful. Republicans crying “my body my choice” when it comes to vaccines is worthy of a scene in a Mel brooks film. And that the constitution is as neutral as Switzerland is news to me. The only part that makes perfect sense is that conservatives on the court are relying on pro slavery arguments.
Thank you Lucian. And for pointing out that there is a common thread, nay, highway, linking the subjugation of black bodies and the subjugation of women’s bodies. And for pointing out how blatantly Barrett, Gorsuch, and Kavanaugh dared say they would uphold settled law, during their confirmation hearings, with their fingers crossed behind their backs.
Did anyone with any brains believe them when they said that??? I sure as hell didn’t!
But it points to a paradox in today’s America: would they have been selected for the Supreme Court had they spoken their true convictions? Most likely yes, because of the Republican majority at the time. But all three chose to misrepresent themselves, or lie, in public and for literally recorded time, rather than state their real intentions and beliefs. And if that is not playing politics, I don’t know what is. And the paradox is how easy it is to lie and accede to the highest court while in the land with no consequences for telling falsehoods under oath.
Way down deep, it's not points of law, but rage and terror of female sexuality that animate right-wing anti-abortion fanatics, whether in the white robes and hoods of the KKK or the black robes of SC Justices. They can't endure the thought that women might have sex for any reason other than dutiful procreation within marriage. So, if they want an abortion, it MUST be because they've had sex for some other, unacceptable reason-- like maybe because they (gasp!) enjoy it? In the scared, twisted minds of those men, women wanting abortions are sex-crazed sluts who have to be punished by forcing them to have children-- THAT'LL teach 'em not to enjoy sex so goddamned much! This is the Gospel of Punitive Pregnancy.
Judith...I've ALWAYS thought that the tendency of laws around pregnancies, etc. comes directly from terror relating to female sexuality, which just works so much better than ours. I realize that a lot of these people looking to keep women in "their place" will tell you it's something else (and probably believe it as well), but that is really where it originates. totally. thanks for saying it so neatly.
Expand the court.
Lucian, how right you are to emphasize the dark irony that it is the state of Mississippi, cradle of Jim Crow, that forwards this injustice. Phil Ochs’ refrain from “Here’s to the State of Mississippi” echoes as a taunt: “Oh, here's to the land you've torn out the heart of, Mississippi, find yourself another country to be part of…” Now, where does our country go?
That's exactly where my mind went: "Here's to the state of Mississippi / for underneath her borders the devil draws no lines . . . The calendar is lying when it reads the present time." After that I cued up "Mississippi Goddam."
I am going to be very curious if this case indeed unravels Roe v Wade if the Republicans getting what they have so long sought will be a case of watch what you wish for because I would expect that this would awaken a sleeping giant in the form of the many women who will not take too kindly to losing their access to safe abortions.
I also have to ask the question, how exactly are the United States of America "united"?
Let's face it-- "most" women will not need to have an abortion during their lifetime, so I don't see a huge wave of irate women rising up over this issue. And furthermore, millions of women who dislike or barely tolerate sex are just as furious as conservative men at the thought that there are women who have sex for the fun of it, and they want to see those women punished with unwanted pregnancies. I'll bet some sociologist could set up an experiment that would show a close to 100% correlation between an individual's fanatic opposition to abortion and that person's shitty sex life.
You underestimate younger women who have grown up with Roe as settled law. The women’s march after trmps election filled DC with women furious that he threatened to kill Roe and limit our rights. You may be right that white women won’t need abortions. Black women, brown women, and poor women are the people who will suffer. I am a sociologist and the values that support pro-life are complex and usually unrelated to personal sexual satisfaction.
You may well be correct. But I spent many years as a university professor, and the degree of utter obliviousness among so many of the young women I encountered was horrifying. They seemed unaware that Roe v Wade was under threat; their attitude was close to: “If I get pregnant, I can always get an abortion.” And yes, I’m aware that people offer many different reasons for opposing abortion, but for the most fanatic foes— the ones who want NO exceptions, even for rape or incest— I think you’ll find, hidden below their surface explanations, a dark vein of hatred and fear of female sexuality. Not that they’d ever admit it! It it comes out in the vengefulness of their attitudes— their desire to PUNISH the women who want abortions, rather than to save fetuses.
I was also at four universities. Yes, young women do not understand life without Roe. It was up to us to teach them.
The poorest, least educated state will awaken the best result possible in our Trumpian disaster:
VOTE WOMEN!!!
One of your greatest columns, Lucian. I’m originally from Mississippi, still love its writers, its music, its food and some of its people. But if its politicians are going to win the day, all I can say is we are screwed.
Same here. I left many decades ago, thankfully. And I can tell you firsthand that those old white boys couldn't make a decent decision on behalf of ANYONE if their sorry lives depended upon it. They're basically not much good for anything except drinking, hiding in their closets (oh, yes, we gals could tell a ton of stories), and spending other people's money. They still think they're on some sort of veranda sipping mint juleps while the "help" and the "womenfolk" do their baking.
Can you say...Stench?
Fear, fear that anything pleasurable is a mortal sin. Fear of their own impulses (Kavanaugh) fear of being "found out" I have always felt there is nothing greater or more beautiful than the "Form Devine" Fools..
Today the Republican carry out their decades plan to trip the constitution and maybe for a while have some kind of 'white control' But don't be fooled. Most white people are not extremist and they don't want Jim Crow 2.0 What they want is a safe and comfortable society for everyone. Junking Roe V Wade will expose the Red States for what they are, and the backlash will come. (Think Kansas) Please remember that in the 1960's the Civil Rights laws could have failed to pass, but they did pass, the country was changing. The Republicans might own 2023 but they won't own 2025 Extremism always defeats itself. Remember Trump never won the popular vote.
I suppose if I weren’t so angry, I would be profoundly sad. Is there anyone who can hear us screaming? Does anyone care?
Thank you. This is the surest thing, and the biggest bag-job, since the Trump tax cuts, and it comes from exactly the same dark place in what passes for our national polity. Bullwinkle was right: the world is "rooled by dopes".