It would appear that if the modern GOP ever really was in tune with the pulse of America, it may now have reached a point to often declare a corpse alive.
In it’s effort to create a crisis at first just in name only, like their declaring a crisis in education in the Reagan years with their false solutions to a false problem eventually producing a real, ongoing one begun big time under GW Bush based on a false remedy, cooking the books, that had a failing Texas school district appear to be saved by an approach to education that was impotent yet harmful, and then foisting it on the rest of the country. Besides reducing schools to test preparation centers, in the process, shop classes were eliminated because, according to the “experts'”rubric, kids not being told they need to go to college, but, instead, to pursue their natural talent for certain trades and find future success, is an attack on their self-esteem because teachers were telling them they were too stupid to go to college.
Education crisis?
Yep, they made sure of that and forced it on the rest of the country.
Assuming that the public believed its propaganda as much as the GOP had come to believe it themselves, they recently attempted to petulantly get back at the Dems for passing a law that was pro-people by voting against a second law they had originally voted for that would have helped the veterans the GOP claim they, and only they, really support.
The first law was intended to protect Marriage Equality after Clarence Thomas’s saying in his statement on Roe that now that abortion was dead, it’s time to go after Gay people again. The majority of the citizens of this country, the people congress represents, support marriage equality. With the GOP in the senate either not knowing that or, worse, ignoring it, they voted against it, making Thomas’s plan come a little closer.
MAGA!
The second was to provide the medical care necessary for the veterans that those who love them show their love for by sending them to fight wars and face all manner of injury to either maintain the beneficial status quo or get more stuff.
The backlash had them going back and changing their votes back to yes.
In both cases, they say they would have voted for both bills but there was something about them that was not strictly procedural so, golly, their hands were tied.
But they had the other big issue- abortion.
This has been the big goal, the thing that had been firing up the base since it was discovered after Roe v Wade that a “pro-life” stance could bring in big money to politicians, churches, and organizations with religious sounding names. Many attempts were made to rescind the law, but they failed, which may have been an overt failure but a covert success because the money that would have rolled in to fight Roe might stop coming in without it.
It finally took three nominated judges to lie under oath that Roe was established law that could not be rescinded so they could, and did, get on the Supreme Court and re-un-establish it.
The conservative pot was sweetened when Clarence Thomas added getting rid of Marriage Equality, and that meant the money would keep coming.
Conservative states jumped right in to pass draconian and now unchallengeable laws to restrict abortion, with some leading the pack by already having laws ready to kick in if Roe died.
They did the same with the Don’t Say Gay legislation that has been passed or proposed in various GOP run states, and, of course, they are doing this because that is what the people want.
And “by people” they mean their own fellow subscribers to one religion and one political view.
16 states are suing Florida because of the DeSantis anti-Gay law, one aspect of which, beyond the moral and Constitutional, is that beyond being based on folk-lore and political tropes that, like old Italian Jokes becoming the Polish Jokes by the mere switching of the joke’s nationality, is so vague as to be applicable to whatever enemy they need to replace the latest one lost. It promotes practices that can really hurt children and families and these hurting people can bring that to other states when they move and, let’s face it, would rely on local resources to fix what Florida broke and won’t fix.
We have people going to other states to get abortions and we will see parents moving for the sake of their children.
The claim that they represent the “American People” seems to be weak.
It got weaker when a Red State, a non-liberal, it-is-part-of-our-heritage-flag waving, non-East Coast, non-educated elite, god-fearing, American loving state, told the senate and the GOP that they are reading the signs wrong.
When Kansas seemed to be still Kansas and wanted to amend the state Constitution to ban abortions, in what is usually a poorly attended election, and so, a good one into which to slip something that would otherwise not pass, the voters rejected it.
It was the first election after the killing of Roe.
Linsdey Graham, I assume dealing with the vapors, was able to admit,
“It’s definitely a wake-up call for us.”
“Kansas, which is a pretty red state ― it’s hard to find the words. I think people should look at it,” was how Thom Tillis responded to a question about the vote.
When they wake up and look, they will see that the country favors Choice and that includes abortion, the reason for which is up to the woman and her healthcare provider.
With Thomas about to go after Marriage Equality, the GOP might have to accept that the old days are over and the people they speak for are either long since dead or living on the fringes.
Some GOP candidates might have been comfortable approaching the fall elections, but that comfort was established before the Supreme Court made its anti-citizen choice of religion over Constitution ruling with the new justices having been in a position to do so because of perjury.
It began with going after the Trans Community and spreading lies to create yet another threat they could use and modify as needed.
Some people woke up.
They came for voters’ rights.
They met resistance.
They came for the right to choose.
More awakened.
They lost the ability to go back to oppressing Gay people of any Letter.
The vet vote riled others.
When the draft of the Supreme Court decision that ended Roe leaked, the National Republican Senatorial Committee asked voters to choose between two poorly veiled exaggerated candidates, a Republican who supports “banning abortions after 15 weeks with exceptions for the life and physical health of the mother or severe fatal abnormality of the baby,” or a Democrat who “supports unlimited abortion up until the moment of birth.”
However, the hypothetical Republican candidate does not exist in the Republican party and the only way to get people to reject abortion and support the Roe decision so as to have the GOP reaction to it justified as the opinion of the people was to ask a very loaded question that guaranteed the wanted results.
They weren’t teaching the public anything. They were hoping to validate their own belief in what America wants in spite of Americans’ constantly saying otherwise.
The Kansas vote was the real test, not the loaded question.
Of course, very revealing was Thom Tillis’ statement that showed that ignoring the people in favor of promoting ideologies with which they may not agree but the Party wants, is just not the way to go right now as they have riled the bears and elections are coming up.
“I do think it’s always best to be in touch with what your constituents support. Kansas has a 22-week ban. I think it’s a policy that a good number of Republicans seem to think is OK.”
Perhaps a lesson learned or the old one of acting one way before the vote and another after with the sequins and feathers removed revamped.
Only a fool would gamble.
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