The Right Wing War on Rights
Old America is dying. This sounds alarmist but that makes it no less true. This statement–while admittedly hackneyed by the chorus of pundits, talking heads on both sides, and an avalanche of the worried, the endangered, and the afraid– is now coming to a head. Conflict on an unforeseeable scale is on the horizon. I vehemently disagree with the notion that people shouldn’t pick sides. It is arguable, now more than ever, that one must pick a side or a side will pick you.
Picking a side is, admittedly, a frightening and dangerous proposition. After all, to leave the center means one's position is under fire–even about seemingly non-controversial things like one's right to sovereignty over one's body. Despite medical professionals publicly stating various negative effects childbirth can have both physically and economically on an underaged person (anyone under 20) giving birth, many people who want abortions and those willing to provide them are being attacked and even threatened with legal consequences. These concerns coincide with a plethora of political consequences once rights to privacy and bodily autonomy are placed into the domain of the government as opposed to private actors.
At this point, some reading this article might accuse me of promoting murder. Still, I'm afraid I have neither the time nor the notoriety to launch into a semantic discussion on whether or not a clump of cells constitutes the same rights and legal protections as a full living, and breathing person. However, considering we have American citizens, such as ones born on reservations or ones who have paid their debt to society, who still lack the right to vote, it stands to reason that the might of the American legislature should be turned to engage concerns such as theirs before we then turn our attention to the matter of the unborn. As far as I can tell, the unborn do not pay taxes nor engage in our society more than these two marginalized groups. Further, I do not think their bodily autonomy supersedes a full half of our entire society, AKA all women.
To be frank, the people asserting such a position tend to overlap with those who maintain the “Big Lie” and attack the rights of trans-identifying persons. To explain, the “big lie” that is somehow still being peddled by Trumpists and assorted extremists is so bizarre that it is all but unfathomable to those not immersed in the rhetoric. Both of these positions are inherently dangerous and can not and should not ever be compromised.
To democratic watchdogs, however, the suspicious lack of denunciation of such individuals by the Republican party is indicative of the depths they intend to reach. With a few notable exceptions like Dick “Prince of Darkness” Cheney who claims Trump is a “threat to our republic” while still being on the extreme right of the political spectrum, many within the GOP are somehow still stating that an election that occurred two years ago was a sham and a hoax and that votes don't count despite one having lost the popular vote dramatically in one of the most active elections in American history. This is important as all sources have found little to no signs of election tampering that favored the Biden campaign. This indicates not only a lack of grace in the wake of having lost the election but also an attack on democratic institutions as a whole, if not on the concept of democracy itself. There is no excuse for a large section of a political party in a democratic society to be against democracy. The allowance of rhetoric in circulation that serves such interests is a risk to democratic institutions. Such interests remain a threat, not only to a democratic state but to the people within it.
This is particularly true given that this undemocratic party has deployed a myriad of attempts to target specific groups of already marginalized groups. For example, in Utah, Kansas, North Dakota, and Louisiana Republican legislatures passed bills targeting trans athletes that had to be vetoed by their governors. Meanwhile, in Texas, the right-wing attorney general has decried gender-affirming care as “child abuse.” Besides the social ramifications of this as an indication of a blanket dislike of trans people due to the very nature of their existence transgressing against the status quo, it has thrown the Texan populace into disarray due to what has effectively become a kind of edict, despite not being actual law. Excerpts from The Texas Tribune refer to the effect this has had on the trans population which tends to be more at risk of suicide https://www.texastribune.org/2022/03/11/texas-genecis-closure-transgender/
Libby Gonzales, a trans girl within the state, is worried about attempted legislation of mandatory bathroom attendance based on assigned gender at birth. She told Texas lawmakers that “she never wanted to be forced into the boys’ bathroom at school, and that the idea scared her.” At seven years old, facing the panel of powerful republican senators deciding her fate she stated “I am 7 years old. I am transgender” and “Please keep me safe. Thank you.” That was 4 years ago. Libby no longer feels safe.
Privacy is no longer a right given to every member of the Texas population. Thankfully these bills did not pass but the fact that it was proposed and popular sets a dangerous precedent. That Americans stoop so low as to attack people who just want to live their lives without harming anyone is appalling and yet not unique. The reality is that in 2021, over 290 anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced, with just 25 of them having been enacted, indicating their lack of popularity yet prevalence. Of those 25 enacted, 13 of them were legalized to be against trans people which is irrational considering trans folks are estimated to be 5% of young adults or about 1.6% of U.S. adults today. Beyond the obvious stigma they engage with daily, there is no reason for them to be targeted and forced to face even more cruelty. Besides being a nonsensical decision on the part of such legislatures, it is an outrage and a waste of taxpayer resources for sitting officials to spend an unending amount of time attacking a small, marginalized part of the population for no reasons beyond bigotry.
Maybe some people believe there is a reason to choose the side of an anti-democratic party hell-bent on rolling back the rights of at least half of the American population. I don't. I only hope the bulk of voting Americans never adhere to this twisted wisdom and that they observe more egalitarian wisdom: that a better world is found through giving each other the space to be who we are and acquire divine strength from a diversity of opinion. As it is, bigotry and the restriction of human rights and dignities can only serve to weaken and eventually destroy the very principles our nation was built on, especially democratic thinking. I hope that we can realize the danger of raising our children in a country where bigotry reigns and the government controls our bodies.
Jay Pade is a contributor who has been moved farther left due to a myriad of factors including the pandemic, the rise of polarization, and an alarming shifting rightward of the American Overton window. When not commenting on something political he can be found engaging in some egalitarian political cause or watching an arthouse.