“What’s happening in Alabama right now is a preview of America under a second Trump term”

If you think that the right wingers, theocrats, Christian fundamentalists, etc. who make up the Republican Party ever intended to stop with repealing Roe v Wade, you really must not have been paying attention to U.S. politics for the past…50 years? longer?  See below for what we’re facing right now, whether in Alabama or in Richmond:

• Supposed “moderate” Republican Nikki Haley (I know, I know, political “journalists” in this country are f’ing idiots – there actually are no “moderate” Republicans left, certainly not Nikki Haley!) thinks frozen embryos “are babies” – which presumably means that aborting an embryo is murder.
• Glenn Youngkin and Winsome Sears yesterday marched in Richmond with a bunch of anti-reproductive-freedom fanatics, including “amped-up teenage boys,” “mostly white,” shouting a “very powerful, pro-patriarchy message.”  Also note that, “Asked whether he thought it was a political mistake for Republicans to run last year on a 15-week abortion restriction, Youngkin said, ‘No…’” So yeah, when the WaPo and others back in 2021 kept acting like Youngkin was some sort of “moderate” or “mystery date” or whatever, THEY WERE LYING – and those of us actually paying attention knew it at the time!
• In today’s NY Times, one of the few excellent columnists there – Charles M. Blow – writes, astutely, that “Alabama’s I.V.F. Ruling Shows Our Slide Toward Theocracy.” Horrifying.
• The Biden-Harris campaign adds: “What is happening in Alabama right now is only possible because Donald Trump’s Supreme Court justices overturned Roe v. Wade. Across the nation, MAGA Republicans are inserting themselves into the most personal decisions a family can make, from contraception to IVF. With their latest attack on reproductive freedom, these so-called pro-life Republicans are preventing loving couples from growing their families. If Donald Trump is elected, there is no question that he will impose his extreme anti-freedom agenda on the entire country.”
• As Rep. Jennifer McClellan explains: “What’s happening in Alabama right now is a preview of America under a second Trump term. We must re-elect Joe Biden and Kamala Harris protect access to reproductive freedom – including abortion care, IVF and birth control.”
• Meanwhile, in the Virginia General Assembly, Democrats have been passing legislation to PROTECT women’s reproductive freedom and bodily autonomy, while Republicans have been almost unanimously voting in the opposite direction.
• Also, check out today’s Salon, specifically: Apocalypse now: Donald Trump dons the “armor of God” — and pushes for theocracy and Donald Trump may not believe in God, but he still plans to turn America into a Christian theocracy. And no, this really isn’t hyperbole.

Bottom line: The 2024 presidential election will determine not just whether we continue to have a democracy (as opposed to a “Handmaid’s Tale”-style dystopia), continue to protect our NATO allies (and Ukraine) from Russian aggression, etc, it will also decide whether women – and all of us, really – will continue to have many of the most fundamental rights that we’ve come to count on.  So, obviously, vote this November like your life depends on it, but way before then, make sure you donate $$$ to the Biden-Harris campaign and other Democratic candidates, push back on media disinformation and right-wing lunacy, volunteer to phone bank/door knock/write postcards/etc. Because if the Trumpified/MAGA Republican Party comes to power in this country, we are totally f’ed.