Theocracy: a system of government in which priests rule in the name of God or a god; government by divine guidance or by officials who are regarded as divinely guided; a form of government in which a religion and the government are intertwined.
The Taliban has recently announced that women in Afghanistan must be covered head to toe whenever they are out in public. If they violate the Taliban dress code, the man responsible for them could lose his job, or even go to jail. (https://www.npr.org/2022/05/08/1097458605/taliban-declares-women-and-girls-must-cover-up-from-head-to-toe-in-public)
Women in Iran who dared take off their headscarf in public to protest their government’s dress code, face charges of “openly committing a sinful act,” “violating public prudency,” and “encouraging immorality or prostitution.” Under Article 639 of Iran’s penal code, encouraging immorality or prostitution can carry a sentence of between 1 to 10 years in prison. https://www.mei.edu/publications/iranian-women-campaign-stop-rise-honor-killings
Honor killings punish women for “bringing disgrace” upon their families, for example by refusing forced marriages, being the victim of rape, getting divorced, having sexual relationships before marriage, or engaging in adultery. But women’s actions need not even be that extreme. Fathers and brothers have felt honor bound to murder their favorite daughter or sister because she dared to appeared “too provocative” on an online video, or had a public Snapchat account. https://www.dw.com/en/social-media-uptick-in-honor-crime-in-middle-east/a-56370773
https://nypost.com/2022/02/15/brother-acquitted-for-killing-of-pakistani-star-qandeel-baloch/
Honor killings have actually increased in recent years. One paradoxical reason for this increase in killings, may be that because of the internet, women and girls are becoming more aware, and therefore are refusing forced marriages, etc. But if education, awareness, and assertiveness have the opposite effect one might predict, and if total subservience and acquiescence are the more effective survival technique, how do things ever improve?
Women in the USA, in spite of a myriad of large and small injustices and inequalities, at least have some improving conditions to celebrate, and some expectation that the more egregious bad behavior against them is likely to have consequences for the perpetrator.
Aren’t you immensely grateful that you and/or the women in your life don’t live in a Theocracy like Iran or Afghanistan?
Yet.
For a few more months at least.
Our government has always been political, imperfect, racist, and imperialistic. But even we older folks who were aware and acknowledged those failings could be justly proud of our founding principles and generally shared aspirations. Our Democratic Process, Freedom of Speech, Freedom of Religion, Separation of Church and State, System of Checks and Balances, majority rule/minority rights, a relatively apolitical Judiciary, an intolerance for uncovered corruption, and the Peaceful Transition of Power really did seem to make us special among nations. Equal Protection Under the Law, though clearly not a reality, was at least a broadly shared goal.
Republicans may have tended to ignore our failings and shortcomings more than Democrats did, but they seemed to cling even more tightly to our accomplishments and traditions. Not any more.
Shoot Someone and Not Lose Any Voters
In 2020 our system of checks and balances held, barely, against obviously false claims of a “stolen election”. But right wing media and lots of lying by prominent Republicans has caused our system to not hold the high level perpetrators (Trump and his top advisors) accountable for their seditious attempt to overthrow our Democracy..
At first Republican leaders were too shocked to lie. Two days after the insurrection and failed coup on January 6, 2021, Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell admitted: “It was a violent insurrection for the purpose of trying to prevent the peaceful transition of power after a legitimately certified election from one administration to the next.” (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P_Ldrx6sURQ)
On February 13, 2021, Mitch McConnell said, on the floor of the Senate: "Former President Trump's actions preceding the riot were a disgraceful dereliction of duty." "There is no question that President Trump is practically and morally responsible for provoking the events of that day."
And the rioters "did this because they had been fed wild falsehoods by the most powerful man on Earth -- because he was angry he'd lost an election."
https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/07/politics/mcconnell-trump-2024-comments/index.html
But a year later, the main point of McConnell’s speech was that Democrats were trying to “politicize the event”. No mention of any Republican involvement or wrongdoing.
Initially House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy called the January 6 rioters “un-American” and there is a recording of him a few days later saying he thought Donald Trump would likely be impeached and he would suggest Trump resign. He denies all that now.
Ten Republican members of the House of Representatives and seven Republican Senators voted to impeach Trump after the January 6 riots. But their honesty and respect for our Constitution was quickly punished by their own Republican party.
https://www.npr.org/2021/01/14/956621191/these-are-the-10-republicans-who-voted-to-impeach-trump
For example, retiring Senator Burr said: "The evidence is compelling that President Trump is guilty of inciting an insurrection against a coequal branch of government and that the charge rises to the level of high Crimes and Misdemeanors."
Two days after his vote to convict Trump, the North Carolina Republican Party unanimously voted to censure Burr.
https://www.npr.org/sections/trump-impeachment-trial-live-updates/2021/02/15/967878039/7-gop-senators-voted-to-convict-trump-only-1-faces-voters-next-year
The Republican National Committee (RNC) also censured Representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger, and called the January 6 riots “ordinary citizens engaged in legitimate political discourse.”
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/republicans-jan-6-cheney-censure.html
Republicans closed ranks and lied that Trump actually won the 2020 election, and that the January 6 insurrection which killed 5 people, injured over 100 police officers, and was seen by millions of TV viewers, was justified; or didn’t happen; was just tourists; or was staged by anti-Trump people to try to embarrass him. With the help of right wing media, many Republicans seem willing to believe even the silliest lies and got to pick whichever one worked for them..
Perhaps the most honest thing Donald Trump has ever said was in January 2016, a few weeks before the Iowa Caucus: "I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody, and I wouldn't lose any voters, OK? It's, like, incredible."
That may have been one of Trump’s rare and largest understatements. It appears he can freely kill, not only someone on Fifth Avenue, but he can try to overthrow our whole Democracy; And even though he failed, he can go on as if nothing happened, and a few years later, successfully destroy everything we so proudly revered, just by installing a fundamentalist Christian Theocracy.
RINO (Republican In Name Only) is an insult used to describe politicians of the Republican Party who are deemed to be insufficiently loyal to the party. But not that long ago, putting the welfare of our country above your political party was greatly admired. Now the Republican party has gone rogue, and wants to win at any cost: to throw out our best history, ideas, and behavior, along with Truth, Reason, Science, any sense of fairness, curbs on corruption, fact-based media, the right to vote for the other side, and peaceful transition of power. They have been systematically replacing apolitical election workers and key figures in state and local election processes with loyal partisans to insure they can cheat their way to victory whenever and wherever necessary.
RINO’s, with their allegiance to Country rather than this treasonous, lying party, look pretty admirable.
The behavior of the right wing fanatics willing to scrap our whole, arguably best in the world, best in history, governmental system, just so they can inflict their views on everyone else, is so egregious that it deserves a new term: PINO’s — Patriots In Name Only.
But even in the face of PINO lies and stonewalling, it seemed our checks and balances might save us. Al Capone did not go to prison for murder. He went for tax evasion. Even if Trump avoided sedition charges for helping plan and encourage a violent takeover of our government to be declared the winner of an election he lost, he might still be found guilty of one of his other likely felonies, and be banned from office. Violations of campaign finance laws, the emoluments clause (you cannot profit from being in office), sexual assault, tax evasion, etc. The list was long enough, and the rumors thick enough, that it seemed something might save us.
Fact checkers say Trump made a total of 30,573 false or misleading claims over his 4 years as President. Truth is not his strong suit. He made all sorts of questionable deals and went bankrupt several times. There are widespread reports he valued properties high to get loans, and low to pay taxes. He clearly used his public office for private profit. He publicly asked for illegal campaign help from foreign governments, But he did all these things so openly, that PINO’s pretend it is somehow OK to break the law if you just let everyone know you are doing it.
Sure he tried to take over the government, and we all saw it, but we can pretend we didn’t.
Lies, damn lies, and Supreme Court Justices/Senators
Panicked Afghans by the thousands tried to escape their country as the United States evacuated last year. They feared that a victorious Taliban would offer no more respect for basic rights, especially those of women, than the movement did when it ruled Afghanistan between 1996 and 2001. For its part, the Taliban issued soothing promises of an “inclusive” government that would eschew the executions, persecution and forced veiling of women that marked its first reign.
Lies.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/12/taliban-clothing-order-drapes-afghan-women-in-repression/
Afghans who believed the Taliban’s reassurance were as gullible as some wavering Republican senators who apparently heard only what they wanted to hear — and voted the way their leaders wanted — in confirming Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanagh and Amy Coney Barrett.
Republican Sens. Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska assured us that, based on their public comments and private assurances, Trump’s nominees would respect the abortion legalizing precedent of the decisive 7-2 ruling in the 1973 case of Roe v. Wade. Justice Brett Kavanagh desperately needed Collins’ vote to achieve his narrowest 50-48 Senate confirmation. So he called the Roe v.Wade ruling that legalized abortions nationally “settled as precedent” or “precedent on precedent.” He even added that precedence is “not a matter of policy to be discarded at a whim.”
Justice Neil Gorsuch called the Roe precedent “settled law.”
Justice Amy Coney Barrett called Roe a precedent at her hearing but declined to call it a “super precedent.”
They seem to have realized that they could lie once under oath and then be set for life with immense power to do whatever they wanted. (They could be impeached for lying under oath, but there is no possibility of that given that the PINO legislature knew they were lying when they lied.)
Like me, do you miss the time when Supreme Court Nominees, testifying under oath, were expected to tell the truth? And to protect us from legislative excesses rather than to encourage them?
https://enewspaper.mercurynews.com/?token=3360b2086c743654f016638e6209ab8c_6280f844_3a92_0&selDate=20220514&goTo=A01
It’s all about Abortion/ It’s not about Abortion
Most Americans favor at least some abortions.
Gallop polls since 1975 show 48-61% in favor of all abortions, 21-32% in favor of some abortions and only 15-21% against all abortions. (In 2021 48% were for all, 32% for some, and 19% against all)
https://news.gallup.com/poll/1576/abortion.aspx
Contraception has much broader support. About ⅔ of women 15-49, and over 80% of those not trying to become pregnant, use some form of contraception,. Almost all heterosexually active women have used contraception at some time.
The availability and popularity of contraception means Abortion never needed to be as contentious as it has been all these decades. If you really wanted to eliminate abortions, by far the best way would be to provide all women with such good contraception and health care that the vast majority of them chose whether or not to have a child BEFORE they got pregnant. Contraception is far cheaper and safer than either abortion or pregnancy.
Instead of trying to make abortions illegal, we could have made almost all of them unnecessary.
The Netherlands, using this type of strategy, has the world’s lowest rates of abortion and unwanted pregnancy.
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/7971545/
If all the resources spent fighting for and against abortion had been used for contraception and women’s reproductive health, far more abortions would have been eliminated, and there would have been far fewer unwanted births, which have a much higher chance of many problems.. Instead, unintended pregnancy and abortion rates are both higher in the United States than in most other developed countries, and low-income women have disproportionately high rates . Currently, 45-49% of pregnancies are unintended.
https://www.acog.org/clinical/clinical-guidance/committee-opinion/articles/2015/01/access-to-contraception
The fact that anti-abortion forces have tended to be anti-contraception as well, supports the notion of some Pro-choice people that the real goal of the Pro-life side is control of women, rather than eliminating abortion.
And we are on the verge of an American Theocracy because of the PINO supreme court justices the abortion wars brought us.
Like me, Donald Trump “hates abortion” but was “very pro-choice” and there is no reason to think his opinion of abortion or choice has changed. https://www.nbcnews.com/meet-the-press/video/trump-in-1999-i-am-very-pro-choice-480297539914
But say what you will about Trump’s weaknesses and failings, he is a “master persuader”, able to manipulate public opinion by taking issues salient to a group of voters (race, immigrants, white male dominance, abortion) and exploiting them. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Win_Bigly
Trump used all those issues to gain power, but it was largely Abortion that allowed him pack the Supreme Court with arch-Conservatives so partisan as to be PINOs, which will likely enable him to achieve his totalitarian goals: be President for life, and say and do whatever he wants; ignore laws, pardon criminals. The Theocracy is an incidental side effect, although he will probably thoroughly enjoy thumbing his nose at the liberal elite who mocked and underestimated him.
RINO’s and PINO’s
What and who could fix this? Is it too late for democrats and RINO’s to join together to stop Trump and the PINO’s? Mitch McConnell is no fan of Trump. Is he not saving us because he can’t, or because he is choosing party over country in the mistaken belief that our government can function as it should if it is broken enough to let Trump back in?
If there is anything, anyone can do, they had better do it soon. Trump already holds most of the levers of power, and is on a path to holding them all.
Bringing the worst ideas to a place near you
Millions were horrified when China’s one child policy led to women being forced have abortions. But isn’t it even worse if your daughter needs to carry her rapist’s baby to term? And then, what about parental rights for the baby’s Dad?
Have you recoiled in horror when you heard about secret police and informers spying and reporting on people in totalitarian states? Even your children might report you. We never thought that could happen to us. Our government promised us some privacy and freedom.
But the Texas abortion law, which several states are attempting to copy, puts enforcement in the hands of civilians. It offers the prospect of $10,000 rewards for successful lawsuits against anyone — from an Uber driver to a doctor — who “aids or abets” a woman who gets an abortion once fetal cardiac activity can be detected. Anyone can accuse anyone at any time, without any penalty for harassment or false accusation. Anyone having a miscarriage is liable to be accused of murder. It makes Big Brother look downright friendly in comparison.
These laws were specifically designed to be difficult to fight in court. That blatant attempt to circumvent judicial review alone should have made them clearly unconstitutional. And they are such an incredible invasion of privacy, so mean-spirited, so completely and intentionally unfair, so absolutely antithetical to everything we have always valued, that it shows how profoundly misguided and PINO the Supreme Court of the United States has become. And how suboptimal our current situation is..
What is likely to happen:
Polls are overwhelmingly negative for Democrats for the midterm elections in a few months. In spite of distress about Roe v Wade being overturned red states and the Supreme Court bringing Theocracy upon us, American voters will be more concerned with the high price of food and $6 per gallon gas. Voters will blame President Biden (who has almost no control over inflation), and give Republicans control of the House and Senate. Then it is even closer to Game Over. By the 2024 elections so many voting districts will be gerrymandered, so many minority voters will be disenfranchised, so many state and local election officials will be replaced by partisans, so many checks and balances disassembled, that it will be almost impossible for a Democrat to win the Presidency in 2024 or the foreseeable future.
In 2025, re-President Trump will promptly pardon all the January 6 rioters, and convicted helpers, continue to ignore Truth and Science, continue to whip up his supporters to hate other Americans, and side with Putin and Russia against Ukraine and NATO,
Justice Alito’s strange argument that the right to an Abortion is not protected because it is not mentioned in the Constitution, (neither are cell phones, automobiles, the internet, the stock market, etc., but I digress) lends itself to also banning Gay Marriage, Transgender rights, contraception, etc.
Women, LGBTQ, and Transgender people may not feel the full brunt of Theocracy right away.
But already the Texas Supreme Court allowed the state to investigate parents of transgender youth for child abuse while also ruling in favor of one family that was among the first contacted by child welfare officials following an order by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott.
https://enewspaper.mercurynews.com/?token=d733e4a6668fce42b3a03fd899681326_627fdb46_3a92_0&selDate=20220514&goTo=A01
And Alabama has already passed a law which makes it a felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for doctors to prescribe puberty blockers and hormones to trans people under age 19.
https://enewspaper.mercurynews.com/?token=3360b2086c743654f016638e6209ab8c_6280f844_3a92_0&selDate=20220514&goTo=A01
No one here is asking women to cover their faces yet, but does a ban on dressing “too provocatively” seem as unlikely as it did a few months ago?
There is every reason to believe that Republicans who used to want small government that stayed out of people’s lives, and who used to revere our governmental system, will throw that all away now that they have the chance to run things their way.
If you think liberal states like California will be able to be an abortion or other haven, think again. With control of the Supreme Court, all Republicans need is control of the House and Senate to ban abortions, gay marriage, transgender treatment, IUD’s, morning after pills, or anything else they want, nationally. States can challenge those laws, but the Supreme PINO Theocrats will have the final word. And with voter suppression and partisan election officials allowed, how will they ever lose control again?
It’s like we were playing chess against someone we thought was a buffoon, but then suddenly realize that every option we have is thwarted. That we are trapped in every direction.
Or on a boat, floating briskly down the Niagara River, engine off. We know what is ahead, and can even vaguely hear the falls, but no one who could help seems to be doing anything. All we can do is shout “Don’t you see what is happening? Save us, please!” and hope someone does.