A Peek Inside the GOP Tent

I have written several pieces on abortions over the years. There are times and places when an abortion is necessary and the Pro-Life side doesn’t recognize this. Listen to the claims of their ultimate goal as reported in today’s New York Times:  “Ms. Schmit-Albin (head of Pro life group) and other abortion opponents readily admit that a 20-week ban is a step toward their ultimate goal. 

“Our mission is to restore legal protection to unborn life from the moment of conception,” she said. “This is a marathon.” There it is. All or nothing. They want to control every second of the pre-natal life. Good luck women. These fanatics are out for your rights.

This all or nothing attitude shows the politicalizing of issues that the far right has chosen to take for our country. It is why Washington is at an impasse on almost every subject that comes along.  From healthcare to voters’ rights. And state legislatures are just as bad.

There comes a time when reason must prevail, but as long as ideological demagogues are allowed to ruin roughshod over their parties, then this type of corrosive behavior is going to take place. The new entrant into the race of Texas AG, Ken Paxton told a crowd in Plano yesterday that he wanted to send a message to Obama that “Texans would govern Texas.”  What Paxton was really saying is he wants white, upper-middle-class Texans who are to the right on the political spectrum to govern Texas. Why else would he and other GOP leaders be so against a court-ordered redistricting of the lines they drew?  And why would they stand to eliminate thousands of citizens from the voting lists? Because it will help them govern Texas their way.

The GOP can’t stand to watch history unfolding. They are losing power and losing the control of government (and society for that matter.) So they will try anything to claw their way back into power. They will stoop to any measure to cling to the last bits of holdings they can. 

But times are changing. The population is changing. The mostly white, suburban, upper middle class GOP is becoming a minority and fast. And as a minority, if they felt they were being infringed on they would go yelling and screaming to the Federal Government for protection. (That’s the same Federal Government they are trying to dismantle even as we speak.) That you can take to the bank.

But like so much of what they stand for, today’s GOP is run by hypocrites. They say one thing, but mean something entirely else.

They will tell you “we want abortions stopped at 20-weeks (even though the science they quote is faulty). But what they are really saying is we want it outlawed all together. (And, by the way, we don’t want to take care of the children that come into this world unwanted and in poverty either. That’s not our problem.”

That’s your GOP.