Fool me once…


Panic. We really need to worry — the Republicans are playing innocent and saying they wouldn’t do that.

Following the Supreme Court’s ruling last month to overturn Roe v. Wade, Democrats are pushing to codify other rights that have been left vulnerable by the decision into federal law — including access to contraception, same-sex marriage, and potentially interracial marriage. “I do believe that we should move with urgency,” Hakeem Jeffries, chair of the House Democratic Caucus, told Axios Wednesday.

But they may have an uphill battle: Such measures seem to have little appeal to the GOP, whose members insist that those protections are unnecessary because those rights are not under threat. “I’ll worry about hypotheticals at the time we have it,” Ted Cruz told Axios. “I have no reason to believe these precedents are going to fall,” added Lindsey Graham. “Nothing like that should even be thought about by anybody because it’s not endangered in any way,” Chuck Grassley told the outlet.

“I don’t know why people would come to that conclusion,” he added.

Here we go again. They’re going to ban contraception, same sex marriage, and interracial marriage. 100%.

Comments

  1. raven says

    Here we go again. They’re going to ban contraception, same sex marriage, and interracial marriage. 100%.

    They might.
    The cruelty and control are the whole point.
    There is no reason to believe the GOP about anything.

    Results—Virtually all women of reproductive age in 2006–2010 who had ever had sexual intercourse have used at least one contraceptive method at some
    point in their lifetime (99%, or 53 million women aged 15–44), including 88% who have used a highly effective, reversible method such as birth control pills, an injectable method, a contraceptive patch, or an intrauterine device.

    Birth control use in relevant cohorts of women runs around 99%. It is 98% for Catholic women.

    This includes GOP/fundie xian women as well.
    With usage this high, any such anti-contraceptive laws will just be ignored.

    PS Don’t forget Social Security and Medicare. The GOP has always hated those programs because they are highly successful, very popular, and work. Bush the second actually tried to kill Social Security but didn’t get too far.

  2. kome says

    They didn’t even fool us the first time. We knew they were lying. We just have incompetent leadership who doesn’t care that conservatives openly lie.

  3. Susan Montgomery says

    First rule in politics: never believe anything until it’s officially denied.

  4. weylguy says

    Not to worry. The Republicans have indicated that contraception, mixed and same-sex marriage are “settled” issues.

  5. raven says

    Emergency contraception: How it works, how effective it … – NPR https://www.npr.org › sections › health-shots › 2022/07/08

    Jul 8, 2022 — Emergency contraceptives and abortion pills are not the same thing, … Plan B is one brand of the emergency contraceptive levonorgestrel, …

    Most likely, what the GOP/fundie xians will try to ban is several types of effective contraception.

    They keep calling birth control pills, Plan B, and IUDs, abortion pills or devices. They aren’t but fundie xians never let facts get in the way of their attempts to make everyone else suffer.

    It is worth noting that the Romanian dictator Ceausescu outlawed birth control and abortion because he thought he needed more Romanians. It caused the Romanian orphan disaster.
    It also didn’t work.
    The birth rate went up and then went right back down as people found ways to evade those laws.

    There was a happy ending though.
    Shortly after that the Romanian people rose up, overthrew Ceausescu, and executed him and his wife by firing squad.

  6. nomuse says

    I have a slightly different view. I think that aside from a few outliers, the mainstream party is interested in being re-elected. Having the Supremes overturn Roe was actually a problem for them. So they will absolutely go after everything that might strike the same spark among their constituents. “Those damn Liberuls want to give The Pill to schoolchildren so they can have sex in the hallways!”

  7. raven says

    February 2005 – Republican President George W. Bush outlined a major initiative to reform Social Security which included partial privatization of the system, personal Social Security accounts, and options to permit Americans to divert a portion of their Social Security tax (FICA) into secured investments.

    Social Security debate in the United States – Wikipedia https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › Social_Security_debate_i…

    Here is when Bush tried to kill off Social Security.

    .1. Of course, the GOP didn’t call it the End of Social Security Death Act.
    It was a “reform”. Who isn’t in favor of reform? Of course, those reforms would end Social Security.

    .2. The GOP will grandfather current Social Security recipients in the system. That means mostly old people over 62. That way they don’t have to worry about old people finding their income dropping to zero and the parks fill up with large crowds of destitute old people trying to avoid starvation.
    This allows them to doom younger generations while their parents and grandparents collect their SS checks and watch.

    .3. If failed because the GOP was afraid they would start losing elections since Social Security is a successful and popular program.
    These days, that isn’t a concern for the GOP any more. Their base just keeps voting for them no matter what, and they have twisted the election systems quite a bit in their favor.

  8. Artor says

    Cruz, Graham and Grassley have well-established their status as lying sacks of shit. They absolutely are planning to gut civil rights across the board. Nothing is sacred, nothing is safe. The GOP is an existential threat to everyone.

  9. Artor says

    @ raven
    “With usage this high, any such anti-contraceptive laws will just be ignored.”
    No, it will be selectively enforced. Wealthy Republican women will get all the abortions they need, as always. Anyone else will be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law, and often beyond it.

  10. birgerjohansson says

    There are two doorways.
    One of them leads to death.
    Each door has a guardian.
    One guardion always tells the truth.
    The other guardian wears a MAGA hat.
    What question should you ask them to find the safe door?

  11. says

    “I have no reason to believe these precedents are going to fall,” added Lindsey Graham. “Nothing like that should even be thought about by anybody because it’s not endangered in any way,” Chuck Grassley told the outlet.
    “I don’t know why people would come to that conclusion,” he added.

    These assholes would have everyone believe it’s just liberals getting their panties in a twist, but some of them actually are coming out and saying it–they want to ban contraception, same-sex marriages etc. Clarence Thomas, who is only a Supreme Court justice, has publicly mused about such things.
    From cnbc, June 24:

    Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas on Friday said landmark high court rulings that established gay rights and contraception rights should be reconsidered now that the federal right to abortion has been revoked.
    Thomas wrote that those rulings “were demonstrably erroneous decisions.”
    The cases he mentioned are Griswold vs. Connecticut, the 1965 ruling in which the Supreme Court said married couples have the right to obtain contraceptives; Lawrence v. Texas, which in 2003 established the right to engage in private sexual acts; and the 2015 ruling in Obergefell v. Hodges, which said there is a right to same-sex marriage.

    Yeah, don’t know why we’d come to that conclusion. Silly us.

  12. Alan G. Humphrey says

    @10 Artor
    The selective enforcement will also lead to a more inclusive industrialized prison system so that our well-regulated militia can go back to its originalist mission…

    … gotta love that oligarchy we have always lived under, upgraded to version 3.0 Jefferson/Madison now.

  13. says

    I don’t think they’ll go after interracial marriage. Too many Republicans are in interracial relationships, and it will give them at least one thing to point to as “proof” they aren’t as evil as liberals say they are.

  14. =8)-DX says

    SCOTUS has already overturned and thrown out the legal principle that protects contraceptives, equal marriage and consensual sex, with Clarence Thomas explicitly saying those are next on the chopping block (not mentioning interracial marriage for some reason.. hmmmm).

    Unless something drastic is done (doubling the courts), it’s just a matter of time, even if congress republicans do nothing.
    =8)-DX

  15. velociraptor says

    Some of you folks were warned. Repeatedly. By the email lady (and to be fair, others). They were right, and you weren’t. And now the things some of you have spent years virtue-signaling about are on the line. Roe was only the beginning.

    What are you going to do?

  16. consciousness razor says

    “I’ll worry about hypotheticals at the time we have it,” Ted Cruz told Axios.

    After all, as a legislator, he has a job to do: literally nothing. And when the time does come, he’ll be vacationing in Cancún.

    I don’t think they’ll go after interracial marriage. Too many Republicans are in interracial relationships, and it will give them at least one thing to point to as “proof” they aren’t as evil as liberals say they are.

    You’ll be wrong when it happens in Alabama or wherever, because they’re (again) making the argument at the national level about “states’ rights.”

  17. raven says

    Some of you folks were warned. Repeatedly.

    Not quite right.
    Most of the people on this thread were the people who were warning everyone else. Repeatedly. And for years and decades before the overturn of Roe versus Wade.
    I wasn’t the least bit surprised when it happened. It was an obvious disaster in slow motion.

    What are you going to do?

    Yeah good question.
    None of us have ever thought of it.

    I did plant Pennyroyal this year.
    It is easy to grow.
    Just saying.

    The anti-abortion laws will be ignored and evaded much like Prohibition of alcohol and cannabis were and are.
    The two current battlegrounds are:
    .1. The Red states want to make women into slaves and prevent them from traveling to the Blue states for abortions. They also want to extend their laws past their borders into the Blue states. The Blue states aren’t going to let them.
    .2. The Red states want to prohibit the means of the most common method of abortion, the abortion drugs RU-486 and misoprostol. These both are legal drugs and have other uses.
    There is already a huge black market for these drugs.

  18. vucodlak says

    @ velociraptor, #16

    Well, I see you’ve got the important work of dancing around and chanting “I told you so, I told you so, you’re all a bunch of stupid-heads who are wrong and stupid because I told you so!” covered, so two cheers for you.

    Of course, the vast majority of us did vote for Clinton, and did encourage everyone we knew to do the same, but please, keep being an obnoxious asshole. It’s super helpful to the cause to keep punching people who are already doing the thing you claim you want done because you’ve decided their devotion wasn’t pure enough for you.

  19. says

    The last thing the Repubs are going to do is outlaw interracial marriage.

    Reread that sentence. I am not saying that they don’t want to or wouldn’t try (and if you’re thinking that’s intentionally misleading, well, yes. Of course. Have you met the Republican Party?) What I am saying is that it is at the bottom of their list. Right now, Clarence (and Ginny) are useful to them, and they don’t want to piss them off. Once he leaves the court, then they can act.

  20. flex says

    Note the cunningness of their plan.

    The federal senate is not going to outlaw access to contraception, same-sex marriage, or inter-racial marriage. They didn’t outlaw abortion. The senate republicans will just agree with the supreme court’s ruling that nothing in the federal constitution allows the federal government to get involved in those issues. Their hands are tied. If republican-controlled state legislatures happen to pass laws which will kill citizens of the united states, they can’t do anything about it, the constitution doesn’t allow it.

    Clearly the concept that within a nation there should be equal laws and equal protection to all people (both citizens and non-citizens) under the law is something they have never considered. Nor have they considered that part of their duty to the nation is to create laws which apply to all states and all citizens. As for the idea that states shouldn’t be allowed to pass laws which will kill US taxpayers, that’s a real concern of theirs revenues may fall. But luckily, as soon as states pass laws which forbid women or people of color (to be defined as necessary) to own property that won’t be an issue any longer. I’m pretty certain the federal constitution doesn’t explicitly provide that right either, so we’ll need to rely on the tradition of only white males being able to own property. Women and people of color can certainly be citizens and vote, that’s clearly in the federal constitution, but owning property? Nah.

    /snark

  21. silvrhalide says

    @22 Does he? I thought he married her because of his bestiality fantasies about large-breasted women and cows. (If you have doubts about the bestiality fantasies, check out the original tapes or transcripts of the Anita Hill testimony before Congress.)

    If Joe Biden had listened to Anita Hill, the SCOTUS would be 5-4 on most issues. Not a winning hand but better than the current roster. If people had voted for Hillary, the SCOTUS would be 6-3 or 7-2 in terms of liberals vs. conservatives.

  22. Ichthyic says

    What are you going to do?

    I asked that question of progressives after the rise of Neoliberalism during the Reagan years, and got no answer.
    I asked that question after the “war on America” staged by Newt Gingrich.
    I asked that question when Bush Jr was elected, and again after he was RE-elected.

    I never got an answer.

    that’s when I left, because it was obvious that nobody was going to stop the US from regressing backwards.

    no regrets, though still much sadness to see it actually happen.

    you all DO realize you need to finish the civil war you started in the 1850s, right?

    the question: Should America stand for all of its citizens, or only some?… STILL has also not been answered.

  23. R. L. Foster says

    It’s only a matter of time until a conservative group in the South finds a legal case where they can equate contraception with abortion before a court of law. I can hear it now : Contraception is just another form of abortion. It must be outlawed.

  24. lanir says

    Clarence Thomas would like you to know his to-do list of rights to remove is not an actual to-do list. Also that the empty squares next to the points on the list are not checkboxes. If they were, clearly they would have checks in them. Every other republican would like you to know they’ve forgotten who Clarence Thomas is and he definitely doesn’t speak for the court or republicans or even car chasing dogs who have unaccountably latched onto the rear bumper of your vehicle with a death grip. They would also like you to refrain from reminding them who Clarence Thomas is or what he has written and if you try they will suddenly remember a desperately important elevator ride they need to take right now because you can’t accompany them.
    I think that about sums it up..?