I’m really surprised that no one is actively talking about what an America run by the GOP looks like. We can see it in deep red states right now, and it’s horrifying.
First, there’s the gun violence. Red states have all but abolished gun laws, and are awash in firearms. The result: lots more death, both in terms of murders and suicides. We see people randomly blowing away innocent strangers all the time.
Then there’s the death from preventable disease, maternal mortality, and infant mortality. Half of the Ob-Gyns in Idaho are gone. So are most in MS. Life expectancy in red states was low, and is plummeting. China’s life expectancy exceeds ours.
We're repealing child labor laws now. Letting them work in factories, night shifts, and bars. Given increasing wealth inequality, and low wages, more families will choose to pull kids out of school to work. More high school drop outs, and poverty cycle continues. 4/n
We’re also looking at the end of the line for the LGBT community, and particularly trans people. The laws being passed in Florida and elsewhere resemble something out of Russia or West African nations infiltrated by the religious right.
Their crusade to ban books that might tell the stories of LGBT people and Blacks has denuded entire library systems of books. Entire library systems are being closed or defunded to prevent people from having access to disfavored information. 5/n Gerrymandering and voter suppression are rampant, meaning most votes, and most election races, are meaningless: GOP politicians already picked their voters, and thereby the winner of every race. And when Dems get uppity, they get tossed.
Lack of access to birth control and abortion means more unwanted children, more poverty, worse schools (tax base issues), more child abuse, etc… The result will be more strains on already scarce social services, and even worse educational attainment. It may mean more crime.
Red states are particularly Malthusian in their views on social spending. This means that people in need of help aren’t going to get any. CPS won’t have resources. This means more homelessness, hunger, disease, and death.
Corruption among public officials will run even more rampant as the system refuses to prosecute its own. Look at Brett Favre, Clarence Thomas, and the Ohio state legislature. Money will disappear down ratholes the same way it does in Russia.
The long term picture for much of the American South is basically your average corrupt, violent, unequal, single-party, religiously conservative developing world country, complete with tropical diseases and staggering maternal and infant mortality rates.
And yet, because white Christians are on the top of the social heap there, they vote for this outcome overwhelmingly, because they see this as a better option than a pluralistic society.
Even if I’m wrong about one or two of these (and I’m almost certainly not), all of these together paint a bleak picture of what lies ahead for half the US. What blue states need to understand is that GOP controlled states will stop at nothing to make everyone just like them.
Originally tweeted by Brynn Tannehill (@BrynnTannehill) on April 18, 2023.