21 August 2012 Teavangelism,
rape, and the 1st Amendment
Wake up: It's not just Akin
By LZ
Granderson, CNN Contributor
updated
9:38 AM EDT, Tue August 21, 2012
LZ Granderson
“The
truth is the "legitimate rape" comment made by U.S. Rep. Todd Akin --
as in pregnancy from "legitimate rape" is rare -- is not a GOP
anomaly, but rather another disturbing glimpse into the viewpoint too many
social conservatives have about women's health and reproductive rights. And if
abortion is not among the "real issues," why is the GOP platform committee considering adding a ban,
with no mention of exceptions, to this year's to-do list?
“Last
March, in a discussion in the Kansas House about whether women purchase
separate abortion-only policies, Republican state Rep. Pete DeGraaf suggested women
should plan ahead for rape the way he keeps a spare tire. A few weeks later,
Indiana state Rep. Eric Turner, a Republican, said some women might fake being
raped in order to get free abortions.
Former presidential hopeful Rick Santorum suggested doctors
who perform an abortion on a woman who becomes pregnant from an attack should
be thrown in jail and this year suggested rape victims who become pregnant from
an attack should be forced to keep the baby and "make the best out of a bad situation…"
“…Some
social conservatives talk of protecting religious freedom, but what they are
really seeking is a theocracy that places limits on freedom based on a version
of Judeo-Christianity that fits their liking. That language is also being considered for the GOP's national platform. Some
speak of fighting abortion because of their religious convictions and then
belittle the trauma caused by rape.
“They
think they can make this controversy all about Akin, as if Ryan's legislative
history is just going to disappear. As if DeGraaf never suggested women should
plan ahead for rape the way he keeps a spare tire. As if none of us are paying
attention.
Cassi Creeek:
We are
treated in every Romney/Ryan speech to the myth that our “freedom and rights”
derive from a supernatural deity that deals in these “rights” in exchange for
sufficient supplication. Such
supplication must, apparently, be voiced in the appropriate language by persons
of the appropriate skin tone, who schedule routine appearances at a building
with the appropriate label. There is, of
course, no recognition of the same theocratic manipulation of public practice
and opinion going on in every 3rd world nation. Emerging powers and industrialized/digital
states have long ago advanced beyond reliance on religious mythology in
financial, educational, social, and other means of maintaining a strong and
reality-based government.
If all the
above conditions are met the individuals who supplicate loudly enough and often
enough will be rewarded with wealth and power; with which they may then enact
laws to suppress similar supplications to other mythical deities, and with
which they may engage in efforts to rape and gut the 1st Amendment
to our Constitution.
That’s the
one that promises no state religion will be established &/or
supported. That’s the one that guarantees
I can put my opinions in print and that someone else can dispute them with
neither of us going to jail for blasphemy.
That’s the one that the teavangelists want to overturn so that they can
create a theocracy in what was once a reality-based nation that valued math,
physics, biology, and other sciences as a means to remain a free and modern
nation. We would have laughed at anyone
who proposed a theocratic government based upon early Iron Age mythos and
faerie tales.
Now, we’ve
let a bunch of snake-oil selling charlatans gain control of our culture and our
government. They are all too willing to
return our culture to the 16th century or earlier. Women are losing ground on every front as
their access to health care and family planning are being stripped away by
theocrats who view them as little more than breeding stock.
The Texas
GOP/teavangelists, not content with rewriting history for schoolchildren, is
attempting to eliminate access to contraception across the entire state. While the wealthy may be able to afford to
travel to civilized states or nations to obtain adequate and science-based modern
health care, the vast population of poor and working poor women will be forced
back to the era when the only form of family planning was Vatican roulette.
Texas women,
and all other American women are at high risk of losing their rights to a bunch
of white males, desperate to hang onto political power in a nation rapidly
becoming non-WASP, who are so lacking in intellect and awareness that they
regard rape as something to joke about.
Notice I said nothing about “god-given rights” I know men and women who fought to retain
those rights in WWII. They didn’t have
any supernatural help. Today, those
rights and others are at grave risk.
Waiting for a sky-faerie to swoop down and fix things is not a viable
plan of action.
American women
need to vote in every election in which they can legally vote. They need to make certain they have the
proper documentation so that they can’t be turned away at the polls. They need to drag their mothers, sisters,
daughters, and friends through the same process. The dark ages are only one election away.
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