"In Adam's Fall, We Sinned All."
We get some insights into politics in the oddest places by keeping our eyes open.
I got this one near my home in Medford at the long traffic signal at the intersection of Crater Lake Highway and Progress Street, near the Best Buy and Fred Meyer stores.
He was at a busy spot:
But the traffic signal is so long I could see both sides of both signs as he flipped them around.
I see two messages. I had thought they were both messages of political convenience. Now I see them as a single message. He makes conception sacred.
The "abortion issue" for Evangelical Protestants was manufactured by the political right. It was a tactic to link Catholics and Evangelical Protestants for the purpose of building a political coalition to resist integrating schools. Back in 1973, when Roe v. Wade was decided by the Supreme Court, the abortion issue was not a partisan one. The Supreme Court vote was 7-2. The decision was written by Justice Harry Blackmun, a Republican appointee. His background had been as legal counsel for the Mayo Clinic, and the premise of the decision was that abortion was a medical procedure permitted under a then-solidifying notion of a right of privacy combined with the due process liberty of the 14th Amendment. American Catholics had a doctrine of "life" and caring for the vulnerable, which included the fetus through to natural death. Catholics tended to vote Democratic in the cities. Protestant Evangelicals were more oriented to liberty and autonomy, and abortion was a liberty issue.
The transition of non-college Whites from Democratic to Republican was underway. Black civil rights had been nurtured in Black churches. There were left-oriented Evangelicals. Jimmy Carter carried the South and the Bible Belt up through West Virginia. Nixon's Southern Strategy was a transition brought to completion by President Reagan, who solidified Christian religion as a Republican issue. Abortion was the glue linking Catholics and Evangelicals. It had tactical motive, but the idea had sticking power.
Beginning about two years ago, the Trans issue emerged as a useful one for Republicans. This issue is a stab at rebuilding the frayed relationship between Republicans and women voters. Republicans had not been particularly offended by drag or gender transition in the past. Respectable Republicans had gay children, yet stayed in good standing as Republicans. Rudolph Giuliani was photographed in drag and people thought it funny or a little NewYork-ish weird, but not offensive or dangerous.
The trans issue was accelerated by Lia Thomas' move from men's to women's swimming competition. It symbolized another iteration of progressive support for "identity privilege." It piggybacks on White resentment and fear that Blacks get unfair privilege to the disadvantage of plain, regular, normal White people -- the "real" Americans. Democratic defense of Lia Thomas just went to prove Democrats are OK with trans women getting the privilege of having male biology, yet competing against woman. The idea fits the GOP template of resentment that the people who had been victims of prejudice are now becoming the beneficiaries of it.
The man on the street corner with the signs had both issues on display. He linked them back to a single unifying idea: The completion of personhood at the moment of conception. It is a religious statement. A soul that would later face eternal judgement by God was established at conception by God. The die was cast. God made XX or XY. It makes conception sacred on both abortion and gender.
Complete-at-conception is a political line in the sand, linking politics and religion. It is a comforting and validating thought. Critics can call them deplorable and prejudiced, but the idea is that since God made the soul and gave it immutable gender, it is about obedience, not prejudice. Therefore, human choices to change what God hath wrought aren't just wrong. They are "evil."
14 comments:
Kudos for spelling!
A steaming pile of homophobia, religious fanaticism and stupidity served up by a person who would likely be restrained and held for observation for any other deranged public display.
Ah, the joys of living in a free society...
Clearly, boys, girls and everyone, with the emergence of trans athletes sports bodies are now tasked with creating and accrediting new categories of competition that recognizes these differences. Female athletes could hasten this progress by boycotting races in the cause of fairness.
Something like the Special Olympics or Puppy Bowl...but I digress.
Trans athletes are are a minority within a minority within a minority and as such easy targets for bigots. That's all this is.
It would help if the arguments focused on the real issue, which is what are proper actions for the state? The morality of abortion is debatable but its morality should remain in the realm of religious or personal morality, not state actions. It's obvious that abortion is killing (that's why it's done as otherwise, you get a baby!). But there are many ways to "legally" kill (duty; self-defense; insanity; accident; etc.) and I would argue abortion should be one of those kinds of killings, and without state consequences. Let the other debate (about abortion's morality) continue, but leave the state out of it.
Peter nailed it. At the root of Republican culture wars is White resentment – the feeling that “Blacks get unfair affirmative action privilege to the disadvantage of White people. Normal, regular Whites are picked on.”
Considering what blacks have suffered in this country, it’s hard to sympathize with Whites feeling picked on. The problem is that demagogues like Trump and DeSantis have emboldened White supremacists and besides the whining we also have a significant increase in hate crimes. Republicans have normalized racism. They aren’t even embarrassed to reference pseudo-scientific racists like Nicholas Wade and Charles Murray.
Officially sanctioned racism in the U.S. has left huge disparities between Blacks and Whites in access to education, health care and well-paying jobs. Ironically, Republicans claim that efforts to reduce those disparities are dividing the nation rather than all the fear and anger they foment with their stupid culture wars.
For the record: God also creates babies with a condition called “intersex.”
Removing and discarding a fertilized egg is not killing a person. It is preventing the development of a person inside a born female and the born female has legal and human rights.
What is the exact legal status of the pre-born (no birth certificate, no conception certificate), who is basically a "parasite" (sorry, but it is true) living off the host?
When it comes to abortion and the legal and human rights of girls and women, the issues are autonomy, privacy, the right to self-determination, viability of the fetus and the health and well being of the host female.
Females are not just incubators for the human race. They are half of the population and actually have rights as full-fledged human beings.
The microscopic fertilized egg is not a person with rights.
You would think that God, as a supremely intelligent being, would have the complexity to reflect, change and evolve in the 333 years since 1690. Just as you would want a judge to reflect on the evidence presented and be able to say “I’ve changed my mind” instead of reactively imposing a result based on stereotypes and ingrained assumptions. Caitlyn Jenner is a trans Republican woman out and Lindsey Graham is a Republican gay man in the closet. Whenever progress tries to bring the out group in, there is backlash from those who consider themselves “normal.” Relax and open your mind, man.
Peter said:
The idea fits the GOP template of resentment that the people who had been victims of prejudice are now becoming the beneficiaries of it.
Not just “the GOP template”.
White people (e.g. the KKK) used to go around murdering black people, an act of pure evil. Does that justify black people who are angry about that history to go around in the present and murder white people? I assume everyone around here would say no.
Black people were horribly discriminated against in the past. Does that justify discriminating against white people in the present? To me, the same logic says no.
I never owned slaves. I never discriminated against black people. I do not believe in generational guilt, but even if I did: while Black people were slaves in America, my ancestors were getting the crap kicked out of them in Eastern Europe for being Jewish. I see no justification for allowing discrimination against me because in the past other people did bad things to black people.
This does not mean that I am opposed to helping people in this country who need help, including blacks trapped in poverty. But you can do that without trying to make a right out of two wrongs. Racial discrimination is wrong in any direction.
I find the rage, snark, and invective directed against me for saying things like this indicative: we are not just talking about policy or logic here; we are in the realm of religious beliefs which require the persecution and silencing of heretics.
It didn’t work against Galileo; it won’t work against me either. The Earth orbits the sun, and racial discrimination is wrong. It’s not difficult to stand up against the abusive behavior of some around here; it’s just pixels on a screen…
If you are a female human being (a real one), the government should start monitoring your monthly menstrual cycles and conducting pregnancy tests. If a test is positive, the female should be moved to a government baby farm, where the girl or woman can be monitored until she gives birth. This is the best way to protect the pre-born.
On the trans athlete issue:
Trans activists have a slogan, “Trans women are women.“ This is wrong; it’s a rhetorical attempt to put biology outside the realm of permissible discussion.
In fact, there are two categories: trans women and biological women. If trans activists were being totally honest, their slogan would actually be, “Trans women are women socially.“ I could agree with that.
But trans women are definitely not women biologically. Lia Thomas was a mediocre competitor in male swim competitions. But she is dominant in female swim competitions, thanks to having gone through male puberty. This is totally unfair to the biological women she is now competing with.
Biology matters, despite the trans activists’ desire to erase it from our conversations and our thoughts.
Would anyone here be comfortable with someone born with mixed, male AND female gonads, having surgery to make them more nearly normal? Don’t blame them for their deformities; if you just have to blame somebody, blame GOD-it’s her fault!
After centuries of Whites brutally oppressing blacks, now White nationalists are whining about being the oppressed. There’s about as much evidence of that as there is of the widespread voter fraud they use as an excuse for voter suppression.
They don’t want their children exposed to Black history, they don’t like being reminded that racism remains prevalent in spite of taking pride in their bigotry and they really don’t like diversity, equity and inclusion – an existential threat to their White privilege.
What would make America great again is for White nationalism to fall out of favor and crawl back under its rock. Unfortunately, it’s the Republican base.
Well said, but it will never work, imho. Too many stand to profit if they can punch down on "the different ".
"Give a poor white man somebody to look down and he's yours for life"
Lyndon Baines Johnson
Fortunately, that "Republican Base" is a shrinking percentage of the population at large, as a significant percentage age and assume room temperature. The younger among them, such as Nick Fuentes, even Tuckio Rose, know they are on the short list for becoming even more inconsequential, thus the ever more shrill squeals of faux victimhood. I hope to live long enough, in good or at least reasonably good health to see them become invisible.
About "transgenderism," this is a very important subject that I have been tracking for about 10 years. I know someone personally affected by this phenomenon.
Instead of writing a long comment, I would refer readers to Kara Dansky and Debra Soh, although there are others. They have written and spoken extensively on the subject from a biological (real) woman's perspective. Also J. K. Rowling.
Just last week, there was a Dr. Phil episode on tv on this subject. Kara Dansky was a guest on that show.
Also notable, Caitlyn Jenner (previously known as Bruce) just this month formed a PAC to fight the radical trans agenda (Jenner calls it the "radical rainbow mafia") pushing males into female sports.
It is rare for for feminists to work with conservative Christians on social issues, but "transgenderism" is one of those issues (pornography and sex trafficking are others).
Growing up, I was aware of transvestites and androgyny. There was David Bowie and The Rocky Horror Picture Show, which I intentionally avoided seeing. Obviously, female impersonators ("female blackface") have been around for a long time. We entered the next stage of gender-bending decades ago. But now it has gone way too far and must be contained.
How does it affect YOU?
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