Fuck This Country
It's hard to shake the feeling that there are now more ways to die than to live in America.
The worst has happened: The Supreme Court today overturned Roe v. Wade, our constitutional right to abortion, reversing nearly 50 years of precedent. In a solo concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas made clear that this isn’t likely the last direct attack on our rights, saying the court should also reconsider rulings that protect the rights to contraception, same-sex relationships, and same-sex marriage.
(Here is a great list of things you can do right now if you want to do something.)
This isn’t about me, it’s about all of us, but even though the leaked draft opinion was meant to inure us, I feel sick, I feel hateful, and I feel abject rage at this caveman fucking country where this was allowed to happen. I’m not sure what else there is to say, but I know what I absolutely don’t want to hear.
I don’t want to hear anything about how voting in November is now more important than ever. Spare me, I am begging you. As I’ve written before, my entire career voting at the national level, for my whole life, has been a reaction to Democrats’ emotional blackmail: If you care about Roe at all, hold your nose and vote for us. We now all see where that’s gotten us, and we see how little elected Democrats are willing to do to protect us. Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi, and Chuck Schumer can barely be bothered to say the word “abortion.” But don’t worry, Pelosi has already blasted out a fundraising email. (She says she’s “absolutely sick to my stomach” and needs “25,000 Democratic gifts in the next 24 hours.”) And the Senate has promised to…hold a hearing. In July. A real sense of urgency there!
House Democrats also—and I can’t believe this is real—stood on the steps of the Capitol today and sang “God Bless America,” if you needed a sign of how terminally braindead that caucus is.
Biden did address the nation, saying things like “I hear you, I support you, I stand with you” and calling on Congress to codify Roe into federal law. How do we do that? By voting in November, of course.
“Voters need to make their voices heard,” he said, before pivoting to the Dems’ emerging consensus line. “This fall, Roe is on the ballot.”
The president did pledge to fight to protect access to contraception and medication abortion, but he ended on a depressing note, urging the protests that will spring up around this decision to remain “peaceful, peaceful, peaceful.” Fuck off, man.
I also don’t want to hear any babe in the woods rationalizing about how Amy Coney Barrett, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh lied—of course they did!! Anyone with or without eyes could see that!!—during their confirmation hearings. I shudder to think of how Joe Manchin would’ve reacted to Lucy and the football!
Obviously, so obviously I shouldn’t have to say it but still will: I don’t want to hear the unfettered glee coming from the absolute worst people in the world right now.
“I think God has had his hands in this from the very beginning,” said Becky Currie, a Missouri state representative who wrote the law at the center of the SCOTUS case, per The New York Times. A very happy day for everyone who believes God wants them to make women second-class citizens.
“Today, Life won,” Mike Pence said. Who is this proper-noun being “Life”? It certainly doesn’t include the lives of women who will die because of this ruling. This isn’t melodrama; people will quite literally die of pregnancy complications or unsafe abortions or delaying any semblance of healthcare as a result of overturning Roe.
It’s hard to shake the idea that there are now more ways to die than to live in this country. Go ahead and die because you can’t afford insulin, die of a drug overdose, die in a mass shooting. There’s simply nothing to be done! But God—your god, not mine—forbid you be allowed to govern your own body in this specific way. Living in this country is no less than misery for so many, and forcing people to bring another life into that world when they would otherwise choose not to is unfathomably punitive. Inhumane doesn’t even cover it; it’s nasty, it’s brutal, and it’s going to ensure that women who would otherwise choose abortion—most of whom we know already have children and live on lower incomes—will lead much harder lives. It’s really just that simple.
And if it wasn’t already clear, today’s disgraceful events should make it extra-clear: politicians will not protect our rights, and the system will betray our trust time and time again. The only way through is for people to stand with each other, take matters into their own hands, prepare to disrupt and disobey and get in trouble, and tear this entire system down piece by piece until we can rebuild a more just society.
The pelosi email, coupled with the singing, followed by Brandon telling us we just gotta vote. Gd man, what’s the fucking point.
It’s almost just as impossible to even start the discussion of “Democratic party leadership is objectively terrible and seems allergic to even efforts to exercise power for the good of the country”
Without being yelled at for being a Bernie Bro or RESPONSIBLE FOR CLINTONS FAILURE (am really not I’m just tired of watching Democrats objectively suck as a political party for all 43 years of my life)
It’s not going to get better short of a ground up rebuild, which is literally the only thing they will make an effort to prevent happening (See Henry Cueller)