The Worst Halloween Costume of 2022 goes to….
Look! I made a meme!
In the days leading to the 2022 midterm the GOP and conservatives everywhere are dressing up in costume to hide the true identify of their positions. So, what is this year’s costume of choice for incumbent and aspiring Republican officials? It is concern for State’s rights. Since the day Roe v. Wade was overturned (long before that really) Republicans have pushed the narrative that abortion should be decided by the states. They have argued that each state should determine whether a woman can access abortion. Candidates across the country are trying to avoid saying that they are “pro-life” or “anti-choice” or “anti-women’s rights” or “pro-gross-misogyny”. Instead, they say Roe v. Wade was wrongly decided because it was not a proper issue for the Court or Federal Government to intervene on. Rather, it is an issue that should be decided by the states.
This argument is nothing more than dressing up a “pro-life” stance into something more palatable to independents, voters in the middle, right leaning democrats and left leaning republicans. It is a disguise, a costume and a transparent effort to conceal the most basic truth – these candidates do not believe a woman should be allowed to decide what occurs in her own body. Any argument/position that is intended to deliberately obscure the politician’s true argument/position is indeed spooky. However, it wins worst costume of 2022 because it is so transparently false. It is like the Emperor’s New Clothes – not really hiding anything.
The majority of Americans support a woman’s right to choose. A majority of Americans were really pissed when SCOTUS abandoned 50 years of fundamental rights for women. This is the reality that Republican candidates are facing in the 2022 midterms. “Pro-life” is not popular at the moment, so they need to cover-up their anti-women’s-rights bona fides as something else.
Not only is it transparent obfuscation, it is also bullshit. Should the state you live in determine what fundamental rights you possess? Do we want a situation where women in Illinois, New York or California have the right to bodily autonomy, but those unfortunate enough to live in Texas, Alabama or Oklahoma do not? What about the teenage girls who can’t even choose where to live? This is not how fundamental rights should work. Do I have fewer free speech rights if I cross into Indiana? No. Is my right to own a gun very different between in Illinois than in Texas? Not by much. Is the right to practice your religion different in New York than in Nevada? No. Is your right to vote curtailed if you live in Florida or Georgia? … well yes, but that is a whole different discussion.
Is my right to full bodily autonomy in any way limited by what state I reside in? No, but that is because I have a penis. Allegedly, the United States of America is “one nation, under god, indivisible with liberty and justice for all.” Right? Except that if you are a woman your liberty depends on where you live. The right to bodily autonomy, as fundamental as it is, is not guaranteed to everyone in this “one nation” and apparently that right is wholly divisible by state lines. At least that is the costume the Republican’s are wearing in 2022. That, my friends, is utter bullshit. It is the lie that is told today, so that tomorrow the endgame – national abortion ban – can be accomplished.
As a final thought, off the top of my head, I recall another time in history when politicians raved about the importance of state’s rights. In the 1850s and 1860s southern politicians argued that slavery should be a state decision, not federal. In the decades that followed revisionist historians and confederate apologists tried to make the case that the Civil War was actually about wonky questions of federalism. But the state’s rights argument was nothing more than a costume for the truth– that those southern politicians wanted to own other humans. So, there is nothing new about hiding an anti-fundamental rights position behind a veneer of state’s rights. Maybe I am crazy, but emulating the rhetoric of the white-slave-owning class is probably not the best strategy. If those are your philosophical forebears you should probably rethink your position….
