If that’s accurate, then comedians are, collectively, in the business of mapping the boundary that separates reason from mere combinatorics. They identify the off-ramps that would lure us away from sound thinking.
I’ve long felt that George Carlin was a pretty good proof of that hypothesis. When he said, “they’re not ‘pro-life,’ they are anti-woman,” he wasn’t just being funny. He was demonstrating how to pierce the veil of language games and double-think that misogynists of a certain stripe have learned to hide behind in their war against our mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters.
George Carlin was basically a legendary hunter of Logic Hallucinations, and his career ended up being just as much about teaching the rest of us how to hunt and fell those beasts as it was about making us laugh and getting paid.
Anything, at any time. I said when the Orange Guy got elected and started making pronouncements, “If I’m going to be subjugated I want competent subjugators”. All these seemly adoring Nazi wannabes never figured out that competency of their plans, made the Nazi programs run smoother.
Roe was generally popular when it was announced. The percentages approving Roe hadn’t changed by the time of Dobbs. Most thought Roe was settled law. Most people considered the anti-abortion movement to be a minor annoyance. Most people had a hard time getting out to vote against the anti-abortion crowd. For most liberals and moderates it was a secondary issue.
The anti-abortion crowd, on the other hand, were red hot and remained red hot. Republicans fundraised off of the anti-abortion crowd. The Catholic Church and more importantly the mega evangelical churches grew in strength and influence pumping the anti-abortion agenda. After all they were on a mission from God. One that pitted men of the cloth against loose women. Something that has been going on since Pope Gregory I called Mary Magadeline a whore one Sunday in Rome or maybe before.
Dobbs changed everything. Now the average voter, especially the average woman, has skin in the game. They realize that Roe is gone and they are going to have to fight for their reproductive freedom. Most are still opposed to late term abortions of viable babies but the idea of a 6 week ban is abhorrent.
The 6 week ban seems to be the current Republican position. That puts the Republican party on the wrong side of a lot of red hot opponents. On the other side are a bunch of cool Christians who are convinced they have won in the Supreme Court and Alito and the others have their backs. Since more voters support some sort of reasonable abortion policy, the Republicans will lose over and over again if the red hot opponents see anti-abortion policies on a ballot. If they keep playing the issue the way they are playing it, Republican elected officials are soon going to start losing elections. That could be catastrophic for the Republican party.
I couldn’t be happier about the Republicans problem.
Their problem is they are the minority party who like all authoritarian parties think they are in charge.
To hell with public opinion full fucking ahead.
Oh I don’t know if they go ahead an enact a federal ban on abortion then the example of how many Drs left states that enacted full abortion bans within those states. Plus the added fun of how many rural hospitals no longer have maternity wards, if the hospital hasn’t already shut down.
Kind of hard to be on Medicaid or Medicare when the closest doctor could be 2+ hours away. Oh and you employer provided health insurance, well good luck using it.
Yes. They probably didn’t like the sound of her voice, paraphrasing my older brother who has since realized it’s about more than that. He now considers Desantis an unmitigated ass, which is a damned shame for the state in which we were both born.
He returned there for retirement. You couldn’t pay me to do the same.
To an outsider it was plain to see these were arguments nobody really wanted to solve. The preacher impersonators were happy going to Congress and condemning everything while working the insider trades and K Street.
This SHOULD be an albatross that we can and should hang around their necks for DECADES!! Democrats need to fully embrace and campaign on being champions of abortion rights!!!
It is amazing to me than no Republican strategist even thought a backlash could happen!
I truly hope that Republican candidates follow the advice of Ronna McDaniel and campaign on getting rid of Roe. They will write our campaign ads for us!
Overturning Roe turned on Republicans to vote. It was highly motivational for their single issue voters.
Sometimes defense is a harder sell, and less motivational for multi-issue voters like many Democrats.
That Republican politicians, who have access to reams of polls and focus groups, could not figure out the disparity this situation creates once Roe was overturned is completely on them.
However, their myopic outlook is completely consistent with the GOP having become a navel-gazing cult.
Abortion rights have always been difficult to poll because many people both don’t like abortion and also want it to be legal. There’s a lot of game playing and self-delusion that takes places in the wiggliness between those two realities.
Pre-Dobbs, abortion restrictions sat in that “wiggliness”; it was possible to tell oneself that they were about making sure those other, irresponsible, people faced the consequences of their actions. Not taking away your ability to get the medical care you need.
The extremism of the post-Dobbs bans has blown that out of the water. The absolutely horrifying stories of women denied care when wanted pregancies go wrong are having a real impact on the voting public. The intransigence of rep legislators when confronted with these stories sort of rips the “pro-life” mask off.
What a revolting thought. In addition to her innards being trashed, she’s probably developed right arm issues from endlessly whacking all those kids to ensure total compliance - or as it’s known in the community, loving encouragement.
In addition to her innards being trashed, she’s probably developed right arm issues from endlessly whacking all those kids to ensure total compliance - or as it’s known in the community, loving encouragement.