How To Rig the System (to get what you want)

There was a big article in today’s paper about the lengths that forced-birth enthusiasts are taking to overturn the will of the people.

From inside today’s Baltimore Sun. Click the pic to embiggen.

The evangelical right has taken notice of how statewide referendums enshrining or defending reproductive freedom have passed easily in seven out of seven elections. That’s bad for their brand. So what are they doing about past and future referenda?

·         Contesting and removing signatures.

·         Creating competing ballot initiatives to confuse voters.

·         Filing lawsuits over language used in the measures.

·         Doxxing people identified as canvassers for abortion rights.

·         Allowing campaigns to convince people to withdraw signatures already provided.

Notice how none of their strategies involve trying to change people’s hearts and minds, or reason with anyone. Instead, they’re just going straight to manipulating the system to create minority rule.

The issue referendum is about as pure a democratic measure as we have. It’s not a matter of personalities or politics, but merely taking a measure of what citizens think about an issue that affects their state, county, and community. What the majority says, should go.

How toxic is it that when faced with a clear message from the populace, a small but loud set of zealots intend to substitute their own narrow view over that of a significant majority? They don’t care about people’s values or morals; they are bent on installing their own.

That’s as undemocratic and un-American as you get.

I can see why they do it, too. They have a hard time winning on science, facts, or reality. They can’t even win on morality, not in the big picture. When championing the rights of a small blob of cells over the free will of the women carrying them, without taking a single step to help that same organism once expelled from its mother, it’s a massive dent in their claims to value of “life.” No food benefits, no day care, no medical care; none of it is supported by their political party. And that’s where all the high-minded outrage of the “sanctity of life” collapses.

But rather than take the “L” and look for solutions (like actually providing some of those things for children and mothers) they instead try to rig the process to force their beliefs on an unwilling majority. They know that spending money on children will never fly with their own party bosses, who are only interested in siphoning money upward, into the coffers of their rich friends.