“This Is Your Country, But This Is Our State!”

Missed this last week. Yikes. https://t.co/1jmmqoZL84

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 9, 2023

"This is our country, not anyone's church"

This is what I said on CNN to the right-wing religious extremists trying to police us & forcing us to give birth against our will

Turns out "pro-life" is an absolute scam

Plz share widely

Thanks so much to @rosemaryCNN for having me! pic.twitter.com/OKtPyPcJfi

— Lindy Li (@lindyli) March 9, 2023

I was thinking on the way to the gym this morning (my "quiet time") about a report on DOJ investigating police abuse/misconduct in various places like Miami, where five officers have been charged with murder of someone they detained/arrested (my memory of the facts is scanty). It got me to thinking that we are a nation with some central standards when it comes to the treatment of people. Various states have various laws for murder, for example; but no state is allowed a law that is flagrantly racist in intent or application (the subtle stuff that is the concern of CRT is another matter). Despite Arkansas removing the penalty on employers for not positively ascertaining an underage child is in fact not legally qualified for employment, there are still federal laws against child labor. State laws vary, again, but there is universal consensus that child abuse is a bad thing, as is DWI (those last two took awhile. I remember that well.)

But invading women's privacy, usurping their authority over their own bodies, their medical care decisions (most abortions are medical procedures, not conveniences like cosmetic surgery for purely vanity purposes), their personal lives, their family lives...sure, we can let that happen on a state-by-state basis.  We can't let states endorse allow racism, or tolerate too much police brutality (the Supreme Court says we have to put up with a lot, because, you know...cops), but we can allow states to treat women like vassals of the state.  Not quite like the slaves of old, but near enough for dammit.  Sure, that's fine.

Because states rights, ya know.  And "laboratories of democracy."  And the Constitution doesn't say in clear, bright line language that we can't treat women differently the way it's been read to say we can't treat races differently in different states (well, not legally, anyway), so:  OPEN SEASON ON DA WIMMIN!

And if people in South Carolina or Texas don't like it, LET 'EM MOVE!  Sure, the same way all the blacks emptied out of Mississippi and Georgia and Louisiana and Florida and Alabama and Texas and Oklahoma (Hello, Tulsa!) and....

Is this a great country, or what?