I watched Lawrence O’Donnell on MSNBC last night, and he made an excellent point I had not considered previously. In essence, he stated that if Roe were to be reversed, then not much would change in the country. States where choice is protected would continue to allow abortions. Those populations would not be impacted. As for states with trigger laws or where abortions are already difficult to obtain, an already limited right will merely disappear. For instance, in Mississippi, which only has one abortion clinic in the entire state, what would be the material impact of that one clinic closing? They perform about 300 procedures per month, so the impact is not much in that state. In many states with highly restrictive laws, those citizens have already adapted to an abortion-limited environment, so there is not much difference in the next step to an abortion-free circumstance, especially if a nearby state provides legalized abortions. Considering the very small fraction of women who chose abortions compared to the rest of the female population, it is conceivable that the vast majority of women will wake up the day after Roe is abolished feeling that nothing has changed. (Unless, of course, you consider women waking up feeling like second-class citizens a change.) Then that begs the question: What would be the political fallout if SCOTUS scuttles Roe? Allow me to answer.
In short, nothing! I predicted the day RBG died that abortion would finally be overturned. At the time, I welcomed it because dumbass Democrats have been asleep at the wheel for decades when it comes to prioritizing the judiciary — and basically everything else that entails wielding political power. I believed that overturning Roe just might be the last straw to wake Democrats the f*** up. I wanted Roe to be the new rally cry — the spark of the next revolution for Democrats to get their f***ing act together and to start winning again. But who the f*** am I kidding? O’Donnell’s comment made me realize that if Roe is abolished, then the net effect on the ground would be nothing; there would be no blowback. There will be no enduring excitement or political will for Democrats to do something — anything. It hit me that dumbass Democrats are simply too f***ing G.D. weak to mobilize on this issue and every other issue, except maybe for the ACA. I mean, killing women’s abortion right has been a RepubliKKKlan freight train rolling inexorably down the tracks in slow motion for decades, and idiot Democrats still managed to get run over. So, why the f*** would I think that now is the moment for things to change? My own hope diluted me — the one feeling I deride for its worthlessness, yet I dared anyway. Shame on me! O’Donnell woke me up!
What will happen once Roe is gone? Oh, for sure, there will be the perfunctory outrage among women who have seen autonomy over their own bodies reversed. They will be rightly outraged that five men have taken away a half-century-old right to women’s liberty and medical privacy. Sure, there will be marches, consternation, and rage, but there will be no comeuppance for RepubliKKKlans. Why would there be? RepubliKKKlans and evil evangelicals have been advocating restricting women’s rights for decades. This has been a long time coming for women, and Democrats have done absolutely nothing to avoid what is about to come to pass. The traitor trump administration and the years leading up to it have created the perfect storm. I’ve written about this before, but allow me to repeat myself. Traitor trump was the capstone on judicial court-packing at the highest levels, which will take a generation before there is even a hope of starting to reverse the destruction. Add voter suppression and redistricting, wherein blue states lost and red states gained seats in the last census. The inevitable consequence? RepubliKKKlans will become more entrenched at the local, state, and federal levels. Again, RepubliKKKlans have been working at this for decades, whereas dumbass Democrats have been doing — well, I don’t know what they’ve been doing, except mostly losing. Hoping to win the presidency every four years is not a successful strategy to advance Democrats’ agenda.
Oh, and did I mention court-packing? (I did.) The political tactics that RepubliKKKlans have been employing to achieve permanent power will get the rubber stamp from a hard-right SCOTUS. I’m old enough to remember way back in 2013 when the conservative justices rolled back significant portions of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. From that point, red states put their voter suppression efforts into overdrive, to great success. In short, the impenetrable circle of power is locked and completed in RepubliKKKlans’ favor. It won’t matter how many angry women show up to the ballot box, for RepubliKKKlans have all but certainly rigged the voting system in the right places to benefit themselves overwhelmingly and singularly. Whatever. There is nothing new here. We’re f***ed! Thanks, Democrats, for nothing. Truly! Welcome to stupid America, where one political party wants to rule by tyranny and the other likes to watch!