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You may have noticed that one entire political party opposes the position of the American people on every major issue. This includes universal healthcare, establishing sensible gun laws making America safe again, guaranteed voting rights, free education for all, putting an end to racism, fair taxation, reducing and ending income inequality, and protecting women’s rights once and for all. However, the right side of the Capitol Building has taken the regressive and extremist position of ignoring the people they were elected to serve. They are also allowing special interests to control America’s future.
Unfortunately, millions of Americans are uninformed and unaware that right-wing politicians have become the enemies of the great majority of the 331 million people in America. In speeches and in paid ads on television, they promise everything, and when elected they do nothing. They have become legitimately known as “the party of no.” It is the day that the right-wing’s war on women went nuclear.
Although every Court in history determined that the first amendment protected personal privacy, and control over our own bodies, the worst, most biased, and bigoted Court in history denies this interpretation of the first amendment. Therefore, two of the most cherished rights we have always believed were forever protected. This same Court expanded its interpretation of the second amendment. This decided that anyone should be allowed to carry and conceal a loaded weapon of mass destruction.
In another decision, it approved the rights of private, Christian schools to receive funding intended for public schools. In other words, this Court is rewriting the Constitution to serve the regressive platform of the party which appointed them.
The truth is that one party has singled out women in its efforts to replace democracy with fascism. In a fascist society, every action taken by the people must comply with the demands of its dictator. Women have become defiant, demanding complete equality for more than four decades, and this greatly frightens the old, white men who dominate the once Grand Old Party.
Let’s stop pretending that America is close to being a great country: it is moving in the opposite direction. The history of America is nothing to brag about for the most part. More of our presidents have harmed our nation than improved it. Our politicians have become more extreme and incumbents have forgotten why they were elected. We still have a long way to go to become “great.” Today, with one party moving us backward, if we survive, it will require another century to return America to a ‘respected nation.’
For four years between 2017 and 2021, we learned that America’s people are composed of far more racists, bigots, and misogynists than we believed. After the final count in our 2020 election, we learned that at least 74 million Americans share the beliefs of your 45th president.
When he nominated three justices for the Supreme Court, he had no idea what he was doing, or what the purpose of justice on the Court entailed. He was told by his party that there was a single requirement, they must be committed to repealing Roe v Wade. Already on the Court were two biased and unfit justices, Clarence Thomas, and Samuel Alito. These five were enough to complete the biggest attack on women’s rights in one hundred years. When Chief Justice John Roberts surrendered what was left of his principles and morals, it became unanimous. All six justices appointed by Republicans won the biggest battle in their war on women. But the war is not over, and these misogynists, these haters of women, cannot win. Women waited 130 years between the end of the Constitutional Convention to receive what should have been theirs from day one, the right to vote. Now the right to care for their own physical and mental health has been taken away from them.
I know which side I’m on in this war. I’m on the side of women who have done more for America in 246 years than any man, but have never been considered equal, and never respected.
Op-ed by James Turnage
Edited by Marrissa Kay
Sources:
Brennan Center For Justice: The Equal Rights Amendment Explained; by Wilfred U. Codrington III and Alex Cohen
American Library Association: First Amendment and Censorship
Ms. Magazine: Abortion Rights Advocates Can Still Count on the First Amendment; by Lynn Greenky
Featured and Top Image Courtesy of Brian Kusler’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
Inline Image Courtesy of Al_HikesAZ’s Flickr Page – Creative Commons License
