Hyding In Plain Sight
by digby
Ed Kilgore wrote a piece in TNR that I hope did not escape the notice of the Villagers — he makes clear that this continuing misconception that the Tea Party is all about fiscal issues has blinded everyone to the fact that they are simply far right ideologues of the most predictable kind. And therefore, no one should have been surprised when they took a machete to abortion rights immediately after taking office.
Now we are all hoping against hope that dynamics in the Senate are such that none of these laws will make it into law or the if they do, president Obama will sign whatever the “compromise” is. But Kilgore outlines the real and present danger — in the states:
At the state level, newly empowered Republicans are also promoting anti-abortion measures. In Texas, Governor Rick Perry has designated a bill to require pre-abortion sonograms an “emergency” measure, giving it legislative priority. In South Carolina, a bill is moving toward passage that would create an unusually broad “conscience clause” to protect health care workers and pharmacists from disciplinary actions prompted by a refusal to administer birth control or emergency contraception, to take part in medical research that destroys an in vitro human embryo, or to halt care of a dying person in a hospital. In Ohio, Republican legislators are pushing a blizzard of anti-abortion bills, including one that would fine doctors for performing abortions when a fetal heartbeat is discerned. A South Dakota legislator just made national headlines by introducing a bill that would classify as “justifiable homicide” a death caused with the aim of protecting the unborn. He withdrew it after critics called it a license to kill abortion providers, but a separate bill in the same state, headed for a floor vote, would require women to attend a lecture at a crisis pregnancy center (code for an anti-abortion advocacy office) before getting an abortion. Even Mr. Focus-on-the-Fiscal-Crisis, Chris Christie, opted to eliminate state contraceptive services in the interest of “fiscal restraint,” and made the cuts stick with a gubernatorial veto. One could go on and on; there’s clearly no “truce” in the state legislatures.
(Amanda Marcotte deftly handles the contraception question here. Yes, they want to outlaw birth control too. Let’s not be naive, Kay.)
Kilgore goes on to show just how important this is in the presidential race coming up as well. There is obviously not going to be any “truce” anywhere. But why should that surprise us? The social conservatives are a huge faction in the GOP and abortion is their organizing issue:
[T]he main reason for the GOP’s focus on restricting and ultimately outlawing abortion is simply that the Right-to-Life movement has worked very hard for many years to make itself perhaps the most impossible-to-ignore, dangerous-to-diss faction in Republican politics, particularly at the presidential level. Its strength was most recently illustrated when it stopped John McCain from choosing Joe Lieberman or Tom Ridge as his 2008 running mate, and had its poster pol, Sarah Palin, placed on the ticket instead. That’s power. By failing to note these dynamics, Washington types have been ignoring what is right in front of their eyes. Whether it’s the economic crisis—which has raised the relative volume of debate over fiscal issues—or the alluring media focus on seemingly “libertarian” legislators like Rand and Ron Paul (both of whom, by the way, are anti-choice), or the ever-present longing for a mature, bipartisan consensus, the punditocracy has convinced itself that Tea Party Republicans aren’t interested in going to war over abortion. As I’ve written in this magazine before, in fact they’d love to. Why are we acting so surprised?
I’m certainly not. They are as powerful as the NRA — and they are on a crusade to end women’s reproductive rights. It isn’t a fad or a fashion. It is fundamental to the conservative movement and unless Democrats stop pretending like its going to go away or that there’s some kind of “common ground” that we can all agree upon and then everyone will be happy, they are going to prevail. They have power and they use it.
And don’t think they don’t have a chance to do it on the federal level too. As Debcoop lays out in this post at C&L, they put their plans right on the table during last week’s hearings:
All the weapons they need are there, and we left them there for the right to pick up and use to beat us up. The visible weapons are
THE HYDE AMENDMENT.
LEGISLATION REMOVING FEDERAL FUNDS.The “hiding in plain sight” weapons are
THE “LET WOMEN DIE” PROVISIONS;
THE ENFORCEMENT MECHANISMS;
LAWSUITS;
INJUNCTIONS STOPPING ANY AND ALL FEDERAL FUNDS TO ANY AND ALL STATES, CITIES PROGRAMS OR AGENCIES.What are they hiding in plain sight? How they plan to use the enforcement mechanisms in these bills and any future bills to destroy women’s reproductive freedom. They will attempt to first eliminate every women’s access to abortion while also beginning their assault on all Americans’ access to birth control. Yes indeedy, birth control is now in the crosshairs!! Certainly, that is what the Pence bill defunding Planned Parenthood is all about. Title X funding disburses money for women’s health in general – pap smears, mammograms. And yes, that includes birth control or family planning, something that is now bizarrely controversial. Basically, health care for millions and millions of women. But they do not plan on stopping there. The theory is throw as many bills against the wall as possible, with a lot of similar and dangerous elements. Then watch which elements they attach to which bill as they try through a variety of legislative maneuvers to paint the Senate into a corner, while the President keeps silent. To these extremists Republicans, his present silence means consent. That is certainly how they will propagandize it.
And, by the way, it’s really not smart. Polling continues to show that a large majority of the Democratic Party is female. They can keep telling them to “wait” or “sacrifice” for the greater good. But at some point this is going to backfire on them. You simply cannot sell out your largest demographic indefinitely before something very important breaks down.
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