Little introduction needed on how detached from reality and even minimum decency the Republicans have become with all the appalling shit emerging about that horrible case from Ohio, of the 10-year-old girl who was raped and with Jim Jordan. Dave Yost and Republicans across the United States either desperately denying that it happened (and Jordan, with a history of trying to cover up other sexual assaults at Ohio State, even deleting his Tweets), or openly calling for her to be denied an abortion and forced to carry her pregnancy to term (which from the circumstances of this terrible crime would likely kill both her and the baby, so much for “pro-life”). The statements of Republicans across the USA are reprehensible on this case, but none more so than Jim Bopp of Indiana—yes, that Jim Bopp, the one who gave us Citizens United. His revolting words are excerpted above (warning: you may need to vomit profusely after reading them), yes he actually said this, and yes they mean exactly what they look like: Jim Bopp is openly making light of rape of women in general, pushing rape victims to bear their rapists’ children, and specifically dismissing the pain and suffering of a 10-year-old rape survivor—yes, a 10-year-old girl—and calling for this fragile, terrified child to undergo a dangerous and likely fatal pregnancy to bear the child of her rapist. And yes, most importantly, these are the verbatim words of a prominent Republican, fully in the public record.
And this is where we need to pounce, now, and remind voters of these words, said by a Republican official, every single day from now through Election Day 2022, and in 2024. Too often in the past, Democratic messaging has been too vulnerable to distraction and veering away from 1 or 2 simple, hard-hitting messages that put the GOP on the back foot. The most powerful messages of course focus on issues that are directly pertinent for voters busy with jobs and family—which is the reason the economy is so important as an issue, but also certain social issues like abortion that do have especially immediate relevance for Americans as a whole and for their relatives and friends—and where our message is more popular with voters than Republican policies, giving us something to highlight and draw selective attention to. But Bopp’s own words have delivered a more powerful reason to vote Democratic than almost any before, since they brightly illustrate how morally and politically repugnant Republicans have become, how far away from the mainstream they are, how dangerous they are to the US and to the most basic standards of decency , but above all because they come from the mouth of a Republican public figure himself, and have been echoed by other Republicans. They own this, and they can’t take it back.
Now, we’re all angry about GOP gerrymandering and other minoritarian assholery (a bit more on this below), and yes it’s irritating how most Republican voters are stuck in their media echo chambers even in such areas of obvious repugnant statements and behavior by their officials. But here’s the thing--Bopp’s words and the general GOP fuckery on this horrible case are so offensive to the American mainstream, even many conservatives, that for once even many echo-chambered MAGA followers are reacting in dismay. We’re overwhelmingly from Southern, Southwestern and Midwestern Battleground States—Texas, Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Arizona, South Carolina, Ohio, Mississippi, Virginia, Utah, Iowa—and a lot of our family members have fallen for the MAGA snake oil. So we wind up seeing a lot of this GOP echo chamber on Fox News, Newsmax, OANN and the other conservative networks, followed by our relatives’ reactions, baffling us with how they lap up all the Qanon bullshit and even the dumbest and most anti-American, fascist conspiracy theory nonsense. But something was very different this time. The conservative networks did in fact air Bopp’s statement, likely because their programmers thought their audience might actually like what he said. But viewers were not amused. Bopp’s stupidity was so extreme, unpalatable and repulsive—essentially broadcasting a message of “the rape of a very young child is no big deal, and even she should be expected to bear the child of her rapist”—that even our most conservative family members, even many who’ve actively worked in the anti-abortion movement, were reacting with disapproval, alarm and even numbed shock. This is the first time we’ve seen this in over 6 years, when Trump started winning them over in 2016.
Obviously this doesn’t mean that all our conservative relatives will be voting for Democrats because of this—cognitive dissonance, denial and rationalization still go strong. And of course it remains important to address other pressing issues with direct effect on Americans, such as controlling and bringing down inflation and managing the economy in general. But the importance of Bopp’s beyond-offensive statement is that it crystallizes the absolute depths of depravity and extremism that the modern GOP has gone to, all in a concrete package and a single message that, if repeated, will make it undeniably clear how far away from even basic decency the GOP has drifted, and how outrageous and vile their policies in general have become. Even though we’re well aware most of our MAGA relatives still won’t cross over and do the right thing (although we have had success in getting some of them to do this, against all odds with how polarized the US has become), many now are leaning towards at least staying home in November. Even more important is what this means for the non-MAGA Republican leaners and independents. Even as batshit as the modern GOP has become, there are still some traditional Republicans and conservative-leaning Independents not so enamored of the new Qanon-dominated GOP who still vote Republican out of inertia or habit, or because of old associations with fiscal policies they liked—and largely just haven’t paid attention to how the Republican Party has shifted to the Party of Pure Crazy, Vileness, and Incompetence. That’s one of the key swing blocs to reach with this messaging (in addition to motivating our own base to the polls and bringing more Independents and undecideds into our camp), and they simply do not want to be associated with stands and policies as vile as those of Jim Bopp. Which makes it all more important to painfully remind the GOP of what Bopp said and what he clearly believed, to never stop reminding them of this and to never give in to defeatism.
Fuck defeatism. Yes, we’re all pissed off that the GOP’s outrageous gerrymandering and other minoritarian bullshit has been allowed to persist like this (which came up at our last precinct meeting), but that’s why it’s so critical to mobilize and fight even more tooth and nail for these mid-terms. The American people are overwhelmingly against the attacks on Roe v. Wade and the general fuckery by Alito and the SCOTUS right now, with even Fox News and more conservative-leaning polls showing strong opposition to the Republicans’ forced-birth agenda (even otherwise anti-abortion voters are getting warier about the outrageous extremes the Republicans in office are going to). It should be little surprise since this is the general state of the USA across all kinds of issues—an increasingly angry majority pissed off by the minoritarian bullshit of an increasingly fringe and minoritarian Republican Party empowered by minoritarian maneuvers, but they can only stick their fingers in the dam for a little while longer as public opinion, demographics and general revulsion at GOP bullshit overwhelm them. (COVID is decimating heavily Republican counties with their usual anti-vaccine, anti-mask bullshit but recent studies are showing the GOP has been killing off its own base even before the pandemic with their horrible, anti-care health policies.)
In fact the Republicans are doing all this minoritarian, extremist bullshit exactly because they’re so desperate and know that the forces of the country are working more against them every week. That’s why we need to be ruthless in bringing them down, in translating that majority opposition to GOP extremism into voting waves against them. Clear, consistent, repeated messaging on relevant issues where we have a clear advantage is the key to that, and Bopp has given us one of the most powerful messages we’ve ever had to bring the the regressive, fascist GOP and whatever’s left of its power base down for good. And when we do, it’s time to go all out—statehood for D.C., Puerto Rico, Guam, Solomon Islands and American Samoa, adding 4-6 justices to SCOTUS (its size has changed many times before) and shutting down whatever other minoritarian bullshit the declining GOP tries to cling onto. Any political party (which today’s revolting Republican Party absolutely has become) where one of its most prominent public officials does something like this, openly calling for a traumatized and suffering 10 year old girl to be forced to give birth to a rapist’s child, has gone so far beyond the pale of the most basic social norms that it deserves to be defeated and crushed in historic fashion.