Originally published at: The Racist War On Drugs Has Come For Abortion Care
This article is part of TPM Cafe, TPM’s home for opinion and news analysis. You would be hard-pressed to find an American who lived through the 1970s and doesn’t remember the launch of President Nixon’s War on Drugs, a thinly veiled crusade against his political opponents and Black Americans. Presented as the cornerstone of Nixon’s purported…
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[Louisiana] has long been near the top of the world in incarceration rates
And you thought Texas was bad.
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The first question is, how will Florida respond to this egregious effort to one-up their game of MAGA extremism? And just remember, when it comes to authoritarian instincts, Nixon has already been called an amateur compared to Trump by members of his former cabinet.
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Make those two pills over the counter sundries
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This is what happens when you give preachers political power. They will use the law to criminalize their vision of right and wrong without any regard for the impact they will have on the lives of real people. Never forget the Christian Nationalists are on a mission fron God.
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I keep wondering when the rightwing will wake up to reality and understand that when they ban the abortions that they think are aimed to do harm to the black population, that there will be a rise in the number of unwanted black babies and children who will require their tax money for welfare, education, medical care and probably lifelong problems with legal or mental health issues as a result of being unwanted. For those women whose lives are negatively impacted by having to bear children as punishment for daring to have sex, there will be a rise in the need for welfare to support them, since they cannot afford daycare and therefore cannot work or continue any educational pursuit.
This is not, of course restricted to the black population, but to the poor white population as well. And Louisiana has plenty of those people as well.
Bearing and raising children is hard enough without the resentment and bitterness that comes with having some old white men make the decision about your body and your life and having to be encumbered with children that you never wanted to create in the first place.
As I said, this is a campaign by religious extremists that is underlain by a desire to punish women for having sex outside of their narrow minded idea of what any “pious” woman ( Jesse Helms comes to mind…It is called the Angel/Whore syndrome) might indulge in. This, of course excuses these pathetic men from having sex with their wives and relying on brothels (and confession of their sins to make it all better) for their “ungodly” lusts.
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POSIWID: the purpose of a system is what it does. What the so-called ‘war on drugs’ did was (further) demonize and ultimately inprison large swaths of the colored community, its youth in particular; it did not deliver as advertised.
Now that the main problem is heroin and fentanyl addiction in white suburban and rural communities we no longer hear it discussed in those terms even as much of the program continues relatively unabated. It is a truly grim history.
The history of forced birthism will fare no better and neither will its outcomes. It’s purpose is to punish those unable to flee, the disadvantaged otherwise known as folks ‘known’ to be inferior; ‘those’ people.
Conservatism consists of exactly one proposition, to wit: There must be in-groups whom the law protects but does not bind, alongside out-groups whom the law binds but does not protect.
There is nothing more or else to it, and there never has been, in any place or time.
– Frank Wilhoit
“No matter how cynical you get, it’s impossible to keep up.” ― Lily Tomlin
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As always with these people, the cruelty is a feature, not a bug.
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A side effect of this evil perversity among “Christians” is that the birth rates this forces to go up are largely in those parts of the population they seek to punish. If they were to go back to the old “eugenics” policy of sterilization it would at least make coherent sense.
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Criminalizing abortion will also serve as a source for bribery, blackmail and extortion of people who provide or get abortions. (And thereby empower organized criminals managing these schemes.)
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This shines a bright light on something I have been saying for years - there is a profound difference between what is legal and what is right. And the people who immediately belch about “law and order” are the people you have to fear the most. Because they will inflict any punishment without giving it a second thought, the same way fucking pigs would arrest someone for weed, totally destroy a life without a thought, all while sticking a few joints in their fucking pockets.
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I will hate Nixon until my dead carcass is parked in the ground. For a variety of reasons. Chiefly for an action he took concerning the Vietnam war that resulted in 4 of my childhood chums coming home in body bags. Darrtown is very small. Just two businesses. A bar and a sort of general store. And a population of around 500. To lose those young men was devastating and I am glad Nixon is dead
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Will that be the red or the blue pill?
And I will similarly hate him, and his f*ing enabler Kissinger. I’m sorry Kissinger wasn’t still born.
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They do not care about babies once they are born. We have already seen an increase of both maternal and infant mortality rates in states that have banned abortion. It never was about more babies being born, but about control over other people and keeping them desperate, both economically and socially.
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My dog Ambrose who was a show champion at Westminster died the same day Nixon did. I hold that all the American flags I saw back then at half staff were to show respect to my dog and none for Tricky Dick
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The reactive right wing never has a wake up moment. They reference to reacting and using/abusing power that flow from that reaction. This is the very essence which gives them meaning. They protect and extend their use/abuse of power in part by avoiding data based evidence for change. Having a wake up moment requires referencing to new and correct information instead of reacting with power or force, and it is a slow process instead of a reaction.
And we might think, it is why so many police officers and FBI agents are conservatives. It gives them license to do what gives them meaning.
Just IMO.
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Amen! Nothing truer can be said.
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Those babies may need the tax money, but they won’t be getting it. Remember that the GOP’s raison d’etre is to end all welfare programs and leave the 99% twisting in the wind while a handful of megadonors inherit the Earth.
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