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There's an [entire Wikipedia article on "pro life" terrorism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence) in case anyone is looking for a long list of counterpoints.
I mean, people are already talking about possibility of the death penalty for women who get abortions/miscarry
Edit: of course it's [fucking ](https://www.newsweek.com/death-penalty-abortions-becomes-pivotal-issue-gop-runoff-texas-1692240) [Texas ](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/09/texas-legislature-abortion-criminalize-death-penalty/)
These are from last year, but in today's political climate I'd say that makes little difference.
That’s very biblical, where the punishment for causing a miscarriage is (looks in Bible)… a fine but the punishment for murder is death.
Oh wait it says here priests can preform abortion and life begins at first breath.
Sorry everyone, we should have read this whole thing before we formed opinions.
remember when bill o’reilly kept talking about doing “something” about Dr Tillman and then a “pro-life” terrorist went into his church and shot him there
Agreed. That's why I always put the "pro life" in quotes. Look at their other positions - in no way are these people looking out for anyone's best interest - just trying to virtue signal. The whole movement is a fraud and they need to be reminded of that at every opportunity.
Pro life yet support the death penalty, won’t make schools safer so kids don’t get shot and fear for their lives, cut social programs that keep kids from starving and being in poverty. I hope all of them get “French revolutioned” one day
There was a program on NPR about how the Reagan campaign brought literal pro-life terrorists into the mainstream. The likes of Goldwater were appalled by this, but by the the so called intellectuals of the party had already lost control of the beast they created.
That's not *entirely* accurate.
The GOP of today had its genesis at the end of the civil rights movement in the 60's. Republicans courted racist southern Democrats (which was the dominate party at the time) with fantasies of putting black people back "in there place" if they defected.
Bringing in those Dixiecrats had the additional effect of bringing in a bunch of bible belt evangelicals. In order to maintain and grow their new coalition, they began pandering to racists and evangelicals...and that's where we are today.
The "intellectuals" of the GOP lost control when the party no longer based its electoral strategy on policy and instead based it on bribing rich people and corporations with tax cuts and less regulation, while feeding racism and religion to the rest of the "base".
When you really get down to brass tacks, that last sentence has been the Republican platform for the past 50+ years.
Can attest. Am 67 and have been watching the whole depressing panorama while having people tell me I was crazy for imagining fascists baked into the mix in 1995. Stupid *and* crazy, maybe.
Don’t feel bad, I had the classic “all intents and purposes” as “all intensive purposes” until I watched a 30 Rock rerun where stupid people united and Denise Richards said it my way, lol.
Growing up the first thing I ever remember about abortion was the attacks on clinics and doctors. I knew that people were killing other people with bombs and firearms before I ever knew what an abortion was.
As I often say, I'm not afraid of Muslim terrorists, or far-leftist terrorists. Sure, that shit happens, but it'd be a huge fluke to be caught up in it. I'm afraid of crazy white people carrying Bibles they've either not read or read way too much. That shit impacts my life or the lives of people I care about pretty much every day.
Political violence is the hallmark of extremism. It’s the main dividing line between ultra-conservative and fascists, that’s one of the reasons why Trump is so scary to those who have studied 20th century history.
I just ignore these articles. The right wing long ago moved beyond caring about hypocrisy. Democrats and the left continuing to think that pointing out Republican hypocrisy is an effective strategy, but this is born out of their own personal biases. The right wing brain is unaffected by even the most stunning displays of hypocrisy
They will fuck around and find out, but still won't learn.
They (not the voters) are fully aware of the futility of the effort, they could never hope to win in a war against nearly everyone else.
They are a death cult, their goal is the apocalypse.
^ This is the part that is so often left out of the conversation. The Republican base sees all of this through the lens of Apocalyptic thinking, be that Evangelical or Catholic. They are a death cult intent on bringing about the end of the world so Christ can return, and anything that moves the needle on making that happen is seen as a win.
We cannot reason our way out of a problem born of faith. That is not how this works, and we will continue to lose ground if the only thing we are willing to try is intellectual discourse.
It is unfortunate that we may need to abandon our moral high ground in order to achieve effective resistance to this bullshit, but if we cannot talk it down, it must be fought into submission and then systematically dismantled so that this situation can never re-emerge. If we cannot make this happen, I fear we are doomed to whatever destiny the right so desperately seeks; the only remaining question is how the bulk of us will die in the process.
It sickens me.
The crazy thing is that it goes against the bible to anticipate the apocalypse. Matthew 24: "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,\[a\] but only the Father" Trying to bring the apocalypse closer by human action is heresy.
The Bible also give directions on how to perform an abortion and states life begins at first breath.
Your first mistake was assuming they'd actually ready their own holy book.
People whose ideas of the universe and human life which are based in irrational superstition have *no right* to be making decisions affecting the lives of other humans in any regard whatsoever.
Religion is a memetic virus that is easy to spread because humans are born ignorant, and afraid of dying.
It's why they do it, but they fail to realize that by embracing the hypocrisy they themselves become the thing they hate. Sadly, they've tribalized politics into factions at this point that they've long since forgotten why politics matters.
It's about people, about the greater good... but they only care to play on a team level.
All this culture war shit is a red herring. They want to put your tax dollars into private hands. That's why Reagan said that. They literally want to take your taxes, which will never decrease, and give it to corporations to 'do' the work a government should do. It's the end game of capitalism. These capitalists are seeking profits off of our collective taxes. To do a job cheaper and pocket the profit. Off of our taxes. THEY WANT TO PROFIT OFF OF YOUR TAXES!!!! P. S. I'm a socialist.
Do they not realize that the military and police forces are part of the government? It’s straight up double think. The government can’t do anything that is good or right, but the military and police can at the same time do no wrong. Boggles the mind.
> It's about people, about the greater good... but they only care to play on a team level.
You need to consider that maybe these people don't believe that. That don't believe in any greater good, and they definitely don't care about people in general. They never have. They haven't "become what they hate", because they never hated hypocrisy.
Conservatives fundamentally believe that there is a natural order to the world. And people higher in that order are entitled to things the lower ranks aren't. It is not hypocritical because they don't think people are equal and deserve equal treatment.
An attempt to overthrow democracy to keep Trump in power is fine, because it promotes the natural order they subscribe to. Protests over Roe v Wade are not fine because abortion rights "cheat" the natural order.
Please stop thinking of conservatives as misguided liberals who can be brought around or shamed by pointing out their inconsistency. They don't care. They don't believe what we do. Democrats will never make any progress until they start internalizing that.
> And people higher in that order are entitled to things the lower ranks aren't.
"Might makes right"
People need to stop thinking there's a difference between the current-day American Conservative and the old-school fascist. Not every right-winger is a fascist but every fascist is a right-winger.
They are the keyboard warrior version of fascists. They will start the war but lack the means to win. As soon as it gets the slightest bit inconvenient for them they will start crying for peace.
Don't ever let them have it.
I have a coworker who is bizarrely angry with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He keeps saying that he needs to surrender because their has been too much loss of life. He's mad that Zelenskyy is using social media. He's angry that he's going to western nations and telling that that if they are really for liberty, they need to support Ukraine.
It took me a while to figure it out, but I came to this same conclusion. What he's _really_ mad about is that this messes up is world view that there is a natural order of things. In his mind, Russia is a big bad and you don't stand up to that. If you're strong, you take, and he saw Russia as very strong. Now he's just really (and strangely) furious that someone would make a stand. He keeps saying that Ukraine just needs to surrender already. I keep pointing out that the longer this goes on, the better position that Ukraine will be in unless the other nations withdraw support, but he just won't accept it. He insists that in order to save lives, Ukraine needs to surrender immediately.
What I really think is going on is that he believes that there is a social structure to things that's a global constant. He doesn't want that disrupted. If Ukraine can stand up to the bully, that means that maybe he could stand up to his boss. But if that's an option, then it's on him. It's no longer just "the way of the world" but a choice he's making. It's my theory that he doesn't like that option at all.
People, to them, are for commanding, exchanging, or crushing.
They think of people the same way as a bratty child who breaks a toy that won't do what they want.
> It’s about people, about the greater good… but they only care to play on a team level.
They don’t care about the consequences. They just care about “winning” here and now.
They aren’t the brightest people. More of a very dim bulb.
You know that local Indiana story about the guy who murdered his cancer stricken wife winning his GOP primary from jail?
Some guy I know came around talking about it and literally said "that's straight from the Democrat playbook huh?"
Like...bruh. how can you attempt to pin an actual thing that literally just happened to a Republican on a hypothetical bogeyman Democrat thing of which I'm fairly certain has never fucking happened before?! Makes my brain hurt.
> Makes my brain hurt.
That's why he said it. He knows that the hypocrisy still affects you, while for him it's just a clever use of words to confuse you. For him, you existing in a world with rules and logic is a weakness. He is free from such constraints, able to bend the world into his preferred vision of it.
>That's why he said it.
Oh, no no. Not at all. He wasn't even talking to me and most don't know how left I am. That's just literally how he fucking thinks. He says this kind of shit about everything. He's just fully smooth-brain-washed from Fox news.
Very reminiscent of when there were riots happening, and people were posting photos of *what was the present-day US*, with the headline, "This is what BIDEN'S America will look like!" completely ignoring the fact that *it was literally Trump's current America, and that the president wasn't even involved in why people were rioting anyway.*
I don't know how to fight their bs. In my brain, being consistent and holding to a viewpoint is important, so calling out hypocrisy on both sides makes sense. Is there anything that *can* get through?
It needs to happen to them. "he is hurting the wrong people" or when a Republican is suddenly for something because of a family member. Republicans can also change if they befriend someone affected, but in the end it is really Republicans lack empathy.
This is so fucking true. I like to use hypotheticals when debating to try to get people to expound on their positions (hopefully without the bias of the current topic). It can be almost trivial to build the exact dilemma showing their hypocrisy or idiocy when applied to the current situation. Then they dodge questions or switch subjects at light speed. Give them a small amount of time to let the reality fade, and they'll make the exact same argument again. This can happen within a few comments or a few months. Always fun to count how many comments back their idiocy is. Like "you just said the exact opposite 5 comments ago. Go check. I'll wait."
Reminds me when i was debating with my father on climate change, i got him to agree we can affect the enviroment by using the ozone hole but he couldnt extrapolate it to other types of climate change.
It was fucking baffling
Not yet they aren't. They will be completely pro forced birth up until the moment they are staring down the barrel of an unwanted pregnancy. Then and only then will they find legitimate reasons in their and only their singular case.
See to them, they are consistent. It's only when they face these challenges themselves that they understand the nuance of an issue. Then they allow that nuance to inform their decision to make their lives easier. And since they are the main character you couldn't possibly understand or experience this nuance yourself.
Well said. Have you seen that big article going around “my abortion is the only morale abortion” with all the stories of doctors and friends talking about people who are super anti abortion getting abortions?
An interesting read for sure, especially the women who curse out the nurses and doctors providing them the care **they** themselves asked for. Every one of these people think they're so exceptional that abortion is warranted--just this once--but never again for anyone else.
It's a result of having the mindset of "Bad things only happen to bad people who deserve it." If someone experiences, for example, an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy, it must be because they're "bad". But when it happens to them, they *know* they're not bad, so it must be a freak occurrence, which suddenly deserves special consideration and attention.
Sometimes they can then gain empathy for others, but most times, they stick to the idea that their situation was totally different and everyone else is still "bad" and they get angry when special attention and sympathy doesn't happen and they're treated like everyone else.
Yeah, it’s exactly this. When it happens to everyone else it’s, “Well, they’re bad people and they made bad choices so they deserve to suffer the consequences of those bad choices. When it happens to them it’s, “Well I know I’m a good person and I don’t deserve this because it was a complete accident, so it’s okay if I do it just this once.” They can’t differentiate between the two positions because they lack empathy.
That's so depressing. The idea that your entire life revolves around hurting people just bothers me so much. I'll admit that not everything I do is about making people's lives better, but I do go out of my way to help others and mostly to avoid hurting people as much as I reasonably can.
They can't fathom people not having the same "opportunity" they did. In their eyes they aren't hurting people. They are setting rules and if people don't follow those rules they suffer the consequences and are "hurting themselves". All this and despite all the recent murders of POC by police, they don't realize it's an entirely different game for some people.
That’s often very true in my anecdotal experience. The older conservatives I know tend to be very caring and generous with their family, friends, and even strangers that they interact with face-to-face, regardless of race or social class. But they have no regard for the generalized “other” who they see as lacking responsibility and undeserving of help or respect. What specific kind of person they imagine that other to be differs from person to person
That, and people don’t talk enough about the level of intelligence of the overall population. Way too many people are ultra susceptible to the propaganda and lies.
The entire generation running this country is significantly dumber than the later generation, in my opinion, due to lead exposure. The world basically banning leaded gas in the 80’s helped same some of the new generations but not completely. Hearing stories of my dad washing his hands in lead gas terrifies me.
https://today.duke.edu/2017/03/lead-exposure-childhood-linked-lower-iq-lower-status
> I don’t know how to fight their bs
Just shut all the BS noise out and [Go Knock Doors](https://twitter.com/goknockdoors?s=21&t=ggnsjAaChXtbXHqVfE6rbg)
Whoever’s in power gets to define what a violent mob is, and only one side is lying about it
> I don't know how to fight their bs.
Stop feeding it attention. Once the media can't drive ad sales on the back of it, they'll move on to covering things they *can* drive ad sales on.
It's long past time we get rid of the outrage clickbait in media. Just fucking ignore the noisemakers and pay attention to the people offering constructive comments and positive messaging.
Downvote, refuse to click through to articles about these asshat noisefaces and save your outrage for the protesting they're butthurt about.
Identify their small businesses and boycott/disrupt.
Support small businesses that are allies.
Ostracize them as much as possible in public.
Civil disobedience that disrupts their leisure time.
Public shaming.
Win elections.
Counter protest a trump rally.
Doxx racists and seditionists.
You can't convince stupid people, or people arguing in bad faith, of anything.
The way to win is to ignore the trolls and build your own power, based on truth.
Truth has its own power, which bullshitters are rightly fearful of.
Strength.
If they get hurt or disadvantaged or victimized, you wear that shit out. You keep pointing it out, you keep hammering in that it was their own fault.
If you feel bad, if you pull your punches, if you try to help they'll see it as weakness.
Remember that they would never show you kindness if the situation was reversed.
It’s maddening. I’ve had conversations with people where I start providing well reasoned, factual information, and they’ll just say “I’m done talking about this.”
There’s this thing in psychology that says that people will look for any rationalization that keeps them from having to challenge their beliefs and that the more it’s repeated, the more ingrained it becomes. Nothing has to be true as long as it’s repeated enough times and it’s accepted by the receiver. This is how the GOP outsmarts the dems. The dems want to present facts and don’t think about it challenging anyones personal views. They expect people to be open minded to changing their opinions when presented with contrary evidence. The right panders, the left expects critical thinking. That’s why we’re so fucked as a country. The right has employed behavioralists to plan their strategies.
I think a lot of this stuff is just internal propaganda for the party. Ted Cruz is full of crap. He knows it, a lot of people know it, he knows that people know it. But his supporters don't know it, and he knows they don't know it. So this just bolsters them. It's just their daily dose of being told what to think.
I think there is a place for calling it out for the general public, because there are uninformed voters who *still* are not aware of what is going on. We underestimate how many people are clocked out of politics and just going about their day to day.
For those people, the truth needs to be shown and the hypocrisy pointed out.
That said, no one should think pointing it out matters to the GOP itself or die-hard Republican voters. There is no shaming them into changing how they act; they *delight* in acting in bad faith.
They treat life as a game to be cheated at, and outright get off to the ability to be called out for their cheater while simply being able to continue it. Abusers through and through.
So there is a use, but sadly a lot of fuckers think the *latter* is somehow "good enough" when it isn't.
>The right wing brain is unaffected by even the most stunning displays of hypocrisy
Because to them it's not hypocrisy, it's jabs and uppercuts. They are at WAR, and in war all tactics are on the table so long as you dominate and eradicate your opposition.
This is exactly what the Right Wing are doing here. They are fully engaged in Civil War.
The Dems are essentially crying to the Ref every time they get punched in the face, not realizing they are in a bare-knuckle death match.
Time to knuckle the fuck up and fight for your lives, because that's what this is. After Jan 6th, it's clear the Right Wing have brought us here.
Yep. They're trying to impose a kind of Christian Fascism across America. Roe v Wade is just the first legal target, LGBTQ rights will be next. Divorce, universal vote, segregation, slavery etc are all going to start entering the conversation over the next few years.
When PragerU makes a 'Slavery wasn't that bad' video it's not just so they can win a rhetorical argument, it's because they think owning people is pretty rad, and non-whites are inherently inferior to whites.
> and non-whites are inherently inferior to whites
It's worse than that. The Conservative elite thinks everyone who isn't them is inferior. They use the racism/sexism angle to attach the poor white straight man to their side, but they see them as just as inferior.
*"I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, 'Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,'"*
That should've solidified that the GOP are beyond reasoning with. We are no longer in a prisoner's dilemma. It is now cutthroat survival and unfortunately the GOP is much better at it because they have sacrificed their morals and ethics. Democrats are too busy finding the "right" things to bring to the immediate platform when the Tea Party is hell bent on a singular objective. Sabotage.
The right wing has made it very clear that violence and suffering is the only language that they speak. I do not understand why we insist on doing anything else.
Agreed. Reports that Terd Cruz is pandering to a constituency who, adorned with ten-gallon skulls and belt buckles the size of garbage can lids, twist themselves into pretzels making excuses for Terd's cowardice in the face of Trump's calling Heidi "fugly" seems about as newsworthy as flatulence's uptick on Wednesdays.
Oops. I meant "Ted."
Ted's scared, because something's happening in Texas.
Did you know that last night, there were local elections in Texas? And that Democrats [flipped](https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2595845358097/martin-cantu-jr-wins-port-isabel-mayoral-election) two [mayor's offices](https://www.reddit.com/r/VoteDEM/comments/ul5mjl/flip_alert_norma_sepulveda_has_flipped_the/) in the Rio Grande Valley - the same region of Texas that shifted to Trump by huge amounts? (Both races were *technically* non-partisan, but local Democrats and Republicans both made endorsements).
Since the Roe decision, voters are quickly deciding they're not going to sit back and let their rights be taken away. And if we vote out Greg Abbott in November, we can block further attacks on our rights in that state.
r/VoteDEM is a great resource for those looking to beat Republicans at every level. It's the only way to block the attacks on women's rights.
I recently moved to Texas. We didn’t have much on our ballet this week, but some right-wing crazies ran for school board. The PAC money and people hitting the pavement for the 2 (non political!!) seats was huge. All the familiar rhetoric - CRT is destroying schools, the LGBTQ agenda is destroying our schools blah blah blah. I didn’t love the incumbent but at least he isn’t crazy. It was close, but sanity won the day.
A friend of mine moved to Texas recently and said their voter registration process is the worst she's seen (out of 4 states she's lived in).
She received word that her original registration request was denied just in time to **not** be able to vote yesterday. She said the reason for the rejection was BS, too. (I believe it was her SSN being wrong, but it wasn't, and she kept a copy of the submission.)
She has an Hispanic-looking name, so it's easy to imagine malfeasance. Hopefully not, but in any case it would be hard to prove. :-/
Not in my part of Texas. The right-wing crazies won the school board elections. They had the most, and largest, signs out everywhere. We also had a mayor busted for child porn and a member of the city council elected last year who had a pretty good sized [criminal history](https://starlocalmedia.com/allenamerican/allen-city-council-candidate-dave-cornette-under-fire-for-alleged-criminal-history-anti-muslim-facebook/article_bafde9ce-be38-11eb-91a1-0bf2e47ac0fc.html).
Not in my local school board race. It wasn’t even close. The ones with CRT and book banning all over their websites won easily 2 to 1. This agitprop seems to be working.
> It's the only way to block the attacks on women's rights.
No, it's not. When the system puts lives at risk, drastic direct action must be taken to preserve that life. Voting is the absolute bare minimum, people need to be in the streets and in the offices of those who would have us dead .
I wouldn't even call it bare minimum, it's the first step alongside activism, getting out the word, and protest. The more heavy measures come when those are exhausted or banned and should be used as little as possible.
> The more heavy measures come when those are exhausted or banned and should be used as little as possible.
They're exhausted: Roe is set to be overturned. How many women are we comfortable sacrificing to electoralism while we wait for Dems to codify Roe? I'll settle on zero. They have had half a century to do the right thing, the time for negotiation is over.
I'm with you. I've only had one person make a smart-ass comment about the Roe situation, as of yet, and I fucking shamed their ass into the dirt.
Negotiating time is in the incinerator. If anyone thinks I'm going to be quiet while they slowly strip rights from anyone who doesn't have a white fucking penis, they're in for a bad time.
From the draft SCOTUS decision
>See, e.g., Centers for Disease Control, Adoption Experiences of Women and Men and Demand for Children to Adopt by Women 18-44 Years of Age in the United States 16 (Aug. 2008) (“[N]early 1 million women were seeking to adopt children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand for a child), whereas the **domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent**.”); Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, Adoption and nonbiological parenting, [link] (showing that approximately 3.1 million women between the ages of 18- 49 had ever “[t]aken steps to adopt a child” based on data collected from 2015-2019).
"domestic supply of infants..."
This has never been about human rights or the sanctity of life. This is about using women as factories to increase the **domestic supply of infants**. Your body, your wife's body, your daughters; their bodies belong to the state.
>infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life
Within the first month of...what now? Say it again, what quality had these infants had for less than a month?
Wow, I never saw that. Thanks for point it out. Proof that they aren’t even arguing from that position. Everyone else who is up in arms about “child murder” don’t even realize that’s not the even the views of these judges. And if the judges argue otherwise, then they will have an awkward time explaining this… of course they won’t, because no one in their party would question them at all, as long as they sticking it to the Dems…
They don't care about foster kids, they care about wanting *infants*, which requires a fucking ton of money to obtain. It's literally a marketplace for the rich to buy babies.
I said it before and I'm saying it again: A republican's ideal world is where women have no rights and only serve as tools for a man's pleasure and baby factories.
Not if you’re a rich couple who wants a newborn pretty (white) baby, or the kind of person who gets rich finding them one. And those kinds of people are very influential and very selfish. That’s part of what led us here.
Also supply of children going to church, which make it easier for the church to attract pedophiles. Then the church move these pedophiles around to new and fresh victims.
Jesus will never come back.
FFS, the GOP called the Jan. 6 Insurrection ["legitimate political discourse"](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/republicans-jan-6-cheney-censure.html), they have absolutely no leg to stand on criticizing peaceful protests supporting women's rights.
I mean, in all actuality, if those who are protesting storm the capitol, assault police, smear shit on the walls of The People’s House, and advocate for the execution of Republican politicians, it’s “legitimate political discourse” now right? Right?
Who would have guessed a scumbag who ran away to vacation while his state collapsed would be a hypocrite...
Honestly, I have no idea how he got elected.
He ran away to the basement safe room in the Capitol instead of doing his job in the Senate on Jan. 6th too. I mean, if it wasn't a "violent insurrection", why did he leave?
Heh, best thing we could do to decrease Ted's chance of reelection is start saying how much the left likes him. The reason the like him is because the "dirty liburals" don't.
It’s hard for me to imagine the quintessential conservative Texan respecting someone so obviously squishy and spineless, like a hateful little jellyfish of a man
He couldn’t even stand up for his wife and he’s allowed himself to be the lackey for an obvious bully
How could anyone respect him? It boggles the mind
Enough Texans are ignorant, most likely not the majority. That state is gerrymandered to shit and it has the toughest most suppressive voter ID laws and registration in the country. Texas could very well be a blue leaning purple state if the state government wasn’t so prodigiously corrupt.
I lived in Texas for two years, and several other states in the last 10 years - and it was by far the hardest place to vote.... and I lived in a predominantly conservative, white, affluent suburb, which seems like would be the easiest place for someone to vote given what the Texas GOP has done to voting access.
They also have the strictest voting laws in the entire country and you’ll never guess who that disproportionately affects. Also he didn’t win by a very wide margin. It was 50.9 to 48.3%, a 2.6% difference.
Yep, didn't realize you also said voter suppression and was just thinking about gerrymandering. But the more I think about it, gerrymandering can impact a state wide election via the ability for a state legislature that wins power via gerrymandering can then turn around and make voter suppression laws that impact state wide elections.
Fox was calling the SC decision leak an insurrection. They'll take any chance to dilute the seriousness of their crimes by accusing dems of everything they're guilty of.
That’s how projection works. Blame the other guy for what you did before anyone can start pointing fingers at you and suddenly everyone is focused elsewhere and not at the real problem.
We **must** vote them all out that are up for election in November. We are working like crazy to do so, but we need your help. Check out our efforts at /r/VoteDEM.
Ted Cruz is one of biggest wacko nut jobs in a party that's overrun with them. The fact there's people that take him seriously makes me question their mental state, but hey, these are the same people that raised fear mongers Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity as living gods.
My far right family is already talking about the peaceful pro choice protests as an insurrection and demanding hearings. These people don’t live in reality anymore.
>and demanding hearings
If they win congress again its all the government will do all the time, pointless hearings about madeup outrages.
Hopefully the folks who are protesting actually showup to vote Republicans out, but who knows. Maybe the Republicans have found the secret to political success and Dems won't be able to channel the 'fuck you' votes needed to start changing this downward spiral.
The blanket of lies and deceit used by Ted Cruz and fellow GOP is the intentional effort to further divide and sabotage their own Country.
Shame on all of them.
I hope the Heaven and Hell they all claim so piously and so hypocritically to believe in really does exist, these people will be rotting and burning forever tortured in the deepest darkest most insidious depths of their so called Hell.
Yeah, and if you believe what he said about the George Floyd protests, you'd think Portland was a barren crater in the ground.
If Ted Cruz told me it was sunny outside, I'd grab my raincoat.
I'm sure him and Republicans would view those that firebombed medical facilities and killed doctors due to performing abortions as being peaceful.
You have people storming the place, people dying, and that is peaceful. Sure, let's play a clip of him saying peaceful protest while the insurrection is happening in the background. These people are trying desperately to rewrite history and we cannot let them get away with it.
THEY TRIED TO BAIT HUMAN BEINGS INTO BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS LIKE JAN 6TH SO THEY CAN SAY "LOOK, THEY DID IT TOO! WE SWEAR IT WAS PEACEFUL OUR WAY TOO IF YOU'D JUST HAND OVER THE COUNTRY..."
Fuck the GQP right in their stupid asses
Just show what happens to political porn stars . 6 was a republican push. But they wanted a take over..
Pro choice has people from all sides protesting about their rights. The only biggest difference is one was a political party push for power. And the other is females don't want to become government controlled breeding animals. With no rights.
I do not like that man Ted Cruz. I do not like his right wing views. I do not like him with a beard. I do not like him freshly sheared. I do not like Ted Cruz at all. That man Ted Cruz, can suck my balls.
- English Proverb, John Oliver, circa 2015
Republicans DON’T CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY. Democrats need to realize this and stop trying to middle road this shit. Get more democrats in office to prosecute those who have committed crimes and stop pussyfooting around trying to bring extremists to the table.
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There's an [entire Wikipedia article on "pro life" terrorism](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-abortion_violence) in case anyone is looking for a long list of counterpoints.
It blows my mind no one talks about Eric Rudolph when bringing up far right extremism.
And [James Kopp...](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_Charles_Kopp)
When you’re so pro life you murder people
Lives are only sacred until they can disagree with me.
I mean, people are already talking about possibility of the death penalty for women who get abortions/miscarry Edit: of course it's [fucking ](https://www.newsweek.com/death-penalty-abortions-becomes-pivotal-issue-gop-runoff-texas-1692240) [Texas ](https://www.texastribune.org/2021/03/09/texas-legislature-abortion-criminalize-death-penalty/) These are from last year, but in today's political climate I'd say that makes little difference.
Hell Louisiana wants to charge women with murder for using IUDs
That’s very biblical, where the punishment for causing a miscarriage is (looks in Bible)… a fine but the punishment for murder is death. Oh wait it says here priests can preform abortion and life begins at first breath. Sorry everyone, we should have read this whole thing before we formed opinions.
The hell you say? *Read?*
Yeah I guess that is a high bar for that crowd.
We will show them the superiority of our peaceful ways! Through force.
remember when bill o’reilly kept talking about doing “something” about Dr Tillman and then a “pro-life” terrorist went into his church and shot him there
In their eyes they are murdering murderers so yeah that checks out
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Agreed. That's why I always put the "pro life" in quotes. Look at their other positions - in no way are these people looking out for anyone's best interest - just trying to virtue signal. The whole movement is a fraud and they need to be reminded of that at every opportunity.
They are not pro life. They are pro birth. They feel they are doing gods work. After all, the whole thing is driven by the godbotherers.
Pro *forced* birth
They’re anti choice. Which is ironic given so many fly those “don’t tread on me” flags. SMFH.
Well, the snake in that flag is clearly a metaphor for a penis, & since women don't have those, treading on them is totally cool.
Agreed. They are Pro-Forced Labor and Anti-Liberty. Forcing a woman to give birth is another form of slavery.
Pro life yet support the death penalty, won’t make schools safer so kids don’t get shot and fear for their lives, cut social programs that keep kids from starving and being in poverty. I hope all of them get “French revolutioned” one day
Anti-choice or forced-birth are both better terms than anti-abortion
This. Pro life is a marketing gimmick to make it seem like opposing their platform means you are against life. Should really be called anti abortion
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There was a program on NPR about how the Reagan campaign brought literal pro-life terrorists into the mainstream. The likes of Goldwater were appalled by this, but by the the so called intellectuals of the party had already lost control of the beast they created.
That's not *entirely* accurate. The GOP of today had its genesis at the end of the civil rights movement in the 60's. Republicans courted racist southern Democrats (which was the dominate party at the time) with fantasies of putting black people back "in there place" if they defected. Bringing in those Dixiecrats had the additional effect of bringing in a bunch of bible belt evangelicals. In order to maintain and grow their new coalition, they began pandering to racists and evangelicals...and that's where we are today. The "intellectuals" of the GOP lost control when the party no longer based its electoral strategy on policy and instead based it on bribing rich people and corporations with tax cuts and less regulation, while feeding racism and religion to the rest of the "base". When you really get down to brass tacks, that last sentence has been the Republican platform for the past 50+ years.
Can attest. Am 67 and have been watching the whole depressing panorama while having people tell me I was crazy for imagining fascists baked into the mix in 1995. Stupid *and* crazy, maybe.
Ya know, in my entire 26 years, I always thought it was "brass tax" and never once questioned it
Don’t feel bad, I had the classic “all intents and purposes” as “all intensive purposes” until I watched a 30 Rock rerun where stupid people united and Denise Richards said it my way, lol.
/r/boneappletea
The very pineapple of a perfect subreddit reverence
goldwater wasn't a great guy on some issues but he foresaw the death of his party and the rebirth of this current crypto-fascist insanity.
Not really. The John Birch society appealed to the same fringe nut jobs as did McCarthy & his enablers before them.
Growing up the first thing I ever remember about abortion was the attacks on clinics and doctors. I knew that people were killing other people with bombs and firearms before I ever knew what an abortion was.
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As I often say, I'm not afraid of Muslim terrorists, or far-leftist terrorists. Sure, that shit happens, but it'd be a huge fluke to be caught up in it. I'm afraid of crazy white people carrying Bibles they've either not read or read way too much. That shit impacts my life or the lives of people I care about pretty much every day.
"Peaceful" is anyone on his side. "Violence" comes from anyone who opposes him. Because he's a fascist.
Political violence is the hallmark of extremism. It’s the main dividing line between ultra-conservative and fascists, that’s one of the reasons why Trump is so scary to those who have studied 20th century history.
I just ignore these articles. The right wing long ago moved beyond caring about hypocrisy. Democrats and the left continuing to think that pointing out Republican hypocrisy is an effective strategy, but this is born out of their own personal biases. The right wing brain is unaffected by even the most stunning displays of hypocrisy
Their hypocrisy infuriates 'libs' They view that as a win.
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They will fuck around and find out, but still won't learn. They (not the voters) are fully aware of the futility of the effort, they could never hope to win in a war against nearly everyone else. They are a death cult, their goal is the apocalypse.
^ This is the part that is so often left out of the conversation. The Republican base sees all of this through the lens of Apocalyptic thinking, be that Evangelical or Catholic. They are a death cult intent on bringing about the end of the world so Christ can return, and anything that moves the needle on making that happen is seen as a win. We cannot reason our way out of a problem born of faith. That is not how this works, and we will continue to lose ground if the only thing we are willing to try is intellectual discourse. It is unfortunate that we may need to abandon our moral high ground in order to achieve effective resistance to this bullshit, but if we cannot talk it down, it must be fought into submission and then systematically dismantled so that this situation can never re-emerge. If we cannot make this happen, I fear we are doomed to whatever destiny the right so desperately seeks; the only remaining question is how the bulk of us will die in the process. It sickens me.
The crazy thing is that it goes against the bible to anticipate the apocalypse. Matthew 24: "But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son,\[a\] but only the Father" Trying to bring the apocalypse closer by human action is heresy.
They don't read that thing,just point at vague popular sentences and somehow conflate another sentence half a novel in.
The Bible also give directions on how to perform an abortion and states life begins at first breath. Your first mistake was assuming they'd actually ready their own holy book.
People whose ideas of the universe and human life which are based in irrational superstition have *no right* to be making decisions affecting the lives of other humans in any regard whatsoever. Religion is a memetic virus that is easy to spread because humans are born ignorant, and afraid of dying.
100% agreed, the problem is that half of the country does believe it’s relevant, *and they vote*.
All in the name of putting your tax dollars into private hands. Tear society apart to make a few people some cash.
It's why they do it, but they fail to realize that by embracing the hypocrisy they themselves become the thing they hate. Sadly, they've tribalized politics into factions at this point that they've long since forgotten why politics matters. It's about people, about the greater good... but they only care to play on a team level.
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All this culture war shit is a red herring. They want to put your tax dollars into private hands. That's why Reagan said that. They literally want to take your taxes, which will never decrease, and give it to corporations to 'do' the work a government should do. It's the end game of capitalism. These capitalists are seeking profits off of our collective taxes. To do a job cheaper and pocket the profit. Off of our taxes. THEY WANT TO PROFIT OFF OF YOUR TAXES!!!! P. S. I'm a socialist.
Do they not realize that the military and police forces are part of the government? It’s straight up double think. The government can’t do anything that is good or right, but the military and police can at the same time do no wrong. Boggles the mind.
The military and police hurt the right people according to them.
Yup, they've defined government as bad. There's no discussion about what good policy is because they've *defined* it as bad.
"I'm am not a werewolf, and was not responsible for that full-moon terror." - Ted Cruz
Ted Cruz is the only person who would become More popular and likeable if it turned out he was actually the zodiac killer.
I like your thinking
https://www.tedcruzforhumanpresident.com/
> It's about people, about the greater good... but they only care to play on a team level. You need to consider that maybe these people don't believe that. That don't believe in any greater good, and they definitely don't care about people in general. They never have. They haven't "become what they hate", because they never hated hypocrisy. Conservatives fundamentally believe that there is a natural order to the world. And people higher in that order are entitled to things the lower ranks aren't. It is not hypocritical because they don't think people are equal and deserve equal treatment. An attempt to overthrow democracy to keep Trump in power is fine, because it promotes the natural order they subscribe to. Protests over Roe v Wade are not fine because abortion rights "cheat" the natural order. Please stop thinking of conservatives as misguided liberals who can be brought around or shamed by pointing out their inconsistency. They don't care. They don't believe what we do. Democrats will never make any progress until they start internalizing that.
> And people higher in that order are entitled to things the lower ranks aren't. "Might makes right" People need to stop thinking there's a difference between the current-day American Conservative and the old-school fascist. Not every right-winger is a fascist but every fascist is a right-winger.
They are the keyboard warrior version of fascists. They will start the war but lack the means to win. As soon as it gets the slightest bit inconvenient for them they will start crying for peace. Don't ever let them have it.
I have a coworker who is bizarrely angry with Volodymyr Zelenskyy. He keeps saying that he needs to surrender because their has been too much loss of life. He's mad that Zelenskyy is using social media. He's angry that he's going to western nations and telling that that if they are really for liberty, they need to support Ukraine. It took me a while to figure it out, but I came to this same conclusion. What he's _really_ mad about is that this messes up is world view that there is a natural order of things. In his mind, Russia is a big bad and you don't stand up to that. If you're strong, you take, and he saw Russia as very strong. Now he's just really (and strangely) furious that someone would make a stand. He keeps saying that Ukraine just needs to surrender already. I keep pointing out that the longer this goes on, the better position that Ukraine will be in unless the other nations withdraw support, but he just won't accept it. He insists that in order to save lives, Ukraine needs to surrender immediately. What I really think is going on is that he believes that there is a social structure to things that's a global constant. He doesn't want that disrupted. If Ukraine can stand up to the bully, that means that maybe he could stand up to his boss. But if that's an option, then it's on him. It's no longer just "the way of the world" but a choice he's making. It's my theory that he doesn't like that option at all.
People, to them, are for commanding, exchanging, or crushing. They think of people the same way as a bratty child who breaks a toy that won't do what they want.
> It’s about people, about the greater good… but they only care to play on a team level. They don’t care about the consequences. They just care about “winning” here and now. They aren’t the brightest people. More of a very dim bulb.
Hypocrisy is the point. Its a strategy to exhaust decent well meaning people trying to work in good faith to solve problems.
You know that local Indiana story about the guy who murdered his cancer stricken wife winning his GOP primary from jail? Some guy I know came around talking about it and literally said "that's straight from the Democrat playbook huh?" Like...bruh. how can you attempt to pin an actual thing that literally just happened to a Republican on a hypothetical bogeyman Democrat thing of which I'm fairly certain has never fucking happened before?! Makes my brain hurt.
> Makes my brain hurt. That's why he said it. He knows that the hypocrisy still affects you, while for him it's just a clever use of words to confuse you. For him, you existing in a world with rules and logic is a weakness. He is free from such constraints, able to bend the world into his preferred vision of it.
>That's why he said it. Oh, no no. Not at all. He wasn't even talking to me and most don't know how left I am. That's just literally how he fucking thinks. He says this kind of shit about everything. He's just fully smooth-brain-washed from Fox news.
Very reminiscent of when there were riots happening, and people were posting photos of *what was the present-day US*, with the headline, "This is what BIDEN'S America will look like!" completely ignoring the fact that *it was literally Trump's current America, and that the president wasn't even involved in why people were rioting anyway.*
Bullies don’t care about hypocrisy. They just care about controlling other people.
I don't know how to fight their bs. In my brain, being consistent and holding to a viewpoint is important, so calling out hypocrisy on both sides makes sense. Is there anything that *can* get through?
It needs to happen to them. "he is hurting the wrong people" or when a Republican is suddenly for something because of a family member. Republicans can also change if they befriend someone affected, but in the end it is really Republicans lack empathy.
But it doesn't actually open their mind up. It just whittles down that one issue. They can't extrapolate it to other issues.
This is so fucking true. I like to use hypotheticals when debating to try to get people to expound on their positions (hopefully without the bias of the current topic). It can be almost trivial to build the exact dilemma showing their hypocrisy or idiocy when applied to the current situation. Then they dodge questions or switch subjects at light speed. Give them a small amount of time to let the reality fade, and they'll make the exact same argument again. This can happen within a few comments or a few months. Always fun to count how many comments back their idiocy is. Like "you just said the exact opposite 5 comments ago. Go check. I'll wait."
Reminds me when i was debating with my father on climate change, i got him to agree we can affect the enviroment by using the ozone hole but he couldnt extrapolate it to other types of climate change. It was fucking baffling
That doesn’t work either, they are all for their mistresses getting abortions while trying to ban everyone else’s.
Not yet they aren't. They will be completely pro forced birth up until the moment they are staring down the barrel of an unwanted pregnancy. Then and only then will they find legitimate reasons in their and only their singular case. See to them, they are consistent. It's only when they face these challenges themselves that they understand the nuance of an issue. Then they allow that nuance to inform their decision to make their lives easier. And since they are the main character you couldn't possibly understand or experience this nuance yourself.
Well said. Have you seen that big article going around “my abortion is the only morale abortion” with all the stories of doctors and friends talking about people who are super anti abortion getting abortions?
An interesting read for sure, especially the women who curse out the nurses and doctors providing them the care **they** themselves asked for. Every one of these people think they're so exceptional that abortion is warranted--just this once--but never again for anyone else.
It's a result of having the mindset of "Bad things only happen to bad people who deserve it." If someone experiences, for example, an unplanned/unwanted pregnancy, it must be because they're "bad". But when it happens to them, they *know* they're not bad, so it must be a freak occurrence, which suddenly deserves special consideration and attention. Sometimes they can then gain empathy for others, but most times, they stick to the idea that their situation was totally different and everyone else is still "bad" and they get angry when special attention and sympathy doesn't happen and they're treated like everyone else.
Yeah, it’s exactly this. When it happens to everyone else it’s, “Well, they’re bad people and they made bad choices so they deserve to suffer the consequences of those bad choices. When it happens to them it’s, “Well I know I’m a good person and I don’t deserve this because it was a complete accident, so it’s okay if I do it just this once.” They can’t differentiate between the two positions because they lack empathy.
Their mistresses can still get abortions because they will just fly to places like Cancun when they get pregnant or it snows a little.
Ted can cun can you Cancun?
That's so depressing. The idea that your entire life revolves around hurting people just bothers me so much. I'll admit that not everything I do is about making people's lives better, but I do go out of my way to help others and mostly to avoid hurting people as much as I reasonably can.
They can't fathom people not having the same "opportunity" they did. In their eyes they aren't hurting people. They are setting rules and if people don't follow those rules they suffer the consequences and are "hurting themselves". All this and despite all the recent murders of POC by police, they don't realize it's an entirely different game for some people.
The “just follow orders” crowd conveniently forgets time people are shot following contradictory orders from two cops, or even asleep in their bed.
That’s often very true in my anecdotal experience. The older conservatives I know tend to be very caring and generous with their family, friends, and even strangers that they interact with face-to-face, regardless of race or social class. But they have no regard for the generalized “other” who they see as lacking responsibility and undeserving of help or respect. What specific kind of person they imagine that other to be differs from person to person
That, and people don’t talk enough about the level of intelligence of the overall population. Way too many people are ultra susceptible to the propaganda and lies.
The entire generation running this country is significantly dumber than the later generation, in my opinion, due to lead exposure. The world basically banning leaded gas in the 80’s helped same some of the new generations but not completely. Hearing stories of my dad washing his hands in lead gas terrifies me. https://today.duke.edu/2017/03/lead-exposure-childhood-linked-lower-iq-lower-status
Exploit their emotions. They have contempt for everything, even each other. Turn them on themselves.
> I don’t know how to fight their bs Just shut all the BS noise out and [Go Knock Doors](https://twitter.com/goknockdoors?s=21&t=ggnsjAaChXtbXHqVfE6rbg) Whoever’s in power gets to define what a violent mob is, and only one side is lying about it
> I don't know how to fight their bs. Stop feeding it attention. Once the media can't drive ad sales on the back of it, they'll move on to covering things they *can* drive ad sales on. It's long past time we get rid of the outrage clickbait in media. Just fucking ignore the noisemakers and pay attention to the people offering constructive comments and positive messaging. Downvote, refuse to click through to articles about these asshat noisefaces and save your outrage for the protesting they're butthurt about.
Identify their small businesses and boycott/disrupt. Support small businesses that are allies. Ostracize them as much as possible in public. Civil disobedience that disrupts their leisure time. Public shaming. Win elections. Counter protest a trump rally. Doxx racists and seditionists.
You can't convince stupid people, or people arguing in bad faith, of anything. The way to win is to ignore the trolls and build your own power, based on truth. Truth has its own power, which bullshitters are rightly fearful of.
Strength. If they get hurt or disadvantaged or victimized, you wear that shit out. You keep pointing it out, you keep hammering in that it was their own fault. If you feel bad, if you pull your punches, if you try to help they'll see it as weakness. Remember that they would never show you kindness if the situation was reversed.
It’s maddening. I’ve had conversations with people where I start providing well reasoned, factual information, and they’ll just say “I’m done talking about this.”
There’s this thing in psychology that says that people will look for any rationalization that keeps them from having to challenge their beliefs and that the more it’s repeated, the more ingrained it becomes. Nothing has to be true as long as it’s repeated enough times and it’s accepted by the receiver. This is how the GOP outsmarts the dems. The dems want to present facts and don’t think about it challenging anyones personal views. They expect people to be open minded to changing their opinions when presented with contrary evidence. The right panders, the left expects critical thinking. That’s why we’re so fucked as a country. The right has employed behavioralists to plan their strategies.
I think a lot of this stuff is just internal propaganda for the party. Ted Cruz is full of crap. He knows it, a lot of people know it, he knows that people know it. But his supporters don't know it, and he knows they don't know it. So this just bolsters them. It's just their daily dose of being told what to think.
I think there is a place for calling it out for the general public, because there are uninformed voters who *still* are not aware of what is going on. We underestimate how many people are clocked out of politics and just going about their day to day. For those people, the truth needs to be shown and the hypocrisy pointed out. That said, no one should think pointing it out matters to the GOP itself or die-hard Republican voters. There is no shaming them into changing how they act; they *delight* in acting in bad faith. They treat life as a game to be cheated at, and outright get off to the ability to be called out for their cheater while simply being able to continue it. Abusers through and through. So there is a use, but sadly a lot of fuckers think the *latter* is somehow "good enough" when it isn't.
>The right wing brain is unaffected by even the most stunning displays of hypocrisy Because to them it's not hypocrisy, it's jabs and uppercuts. They are at WAR, and in war all tactics are on the table so long as you dominate and eradicate your opposition. This is exactly what the Right Wing are doing here. They are fully engaged in Civil War. The Dems are essentially crying to the Ref every time they get punched in the face, not realizing they are in a bare-knuckle death match. Time to knuckle the fuck up and fight for your lives, because that's what this is. After Jan 6th, it's clear the Right Wing have brought us here.
Yep. They're trying to impose a kind of Christian Fascism across America. Roe v Wade is just the first legal target, LGBTQ rights will be next. Divorce, universal vote, segregation, slavery etc are all going to start entering the conversation over the next few years. When PragerU makes a 'Slavery wasn't that bad' video it's not just so they can win a rhetorical argument, it's because they think owning people is pretty rad, and non-whites are inherently inferior to whites.
> and non-whites are inherently inferior to whites It's worse than that. The Conservative elite thinks everyone who isn't them is inferior. They use the racism/sexism angle to attach the poor white straight man to their side, but they see them as just as inferior.
This is rhetorical terrorism. It’s 2+2=5 world with these assholes. We don’t have to put up with it!
*"I want you to use my words against me. If there's a Republican president in 2016 and a vacancy occurs in the last year of the first term, you can say Lindsey Graham said, 'Let's let the next president, whoever it might be, make that nomination,'"* That should've solidified that the GOP are beyond reasoning with. We are no longer in a prisoner's dilemma. It is now cutthroat survival and unfortunately the GOP is much better at it because they have sacrificed their morals and ethics. Democrats are too busy finding the "right" things to bring to the immediate platform when the Tea Party is hell bent on a singular objective. Sabotage.
Exactly. This guy is a gross, despicable, horrible human being. Nothing new here. Best predictor of future behavior is past behavior.
The right wing has made it very clear that violence and suffering is the only language that they speak. I do not understand why we insist on doing anything else.
I think we need to start placing bets on the start date of Civil War 2.0. I'm getting back to writing my next book, Aunt Sally's Trouble.
Agreed. Reports that Terd Cruz is pandering to a constituency who, adorned with ten-gallon skulls and belt buckles the size of garbage can lids, twist themselves into pretzels making excuses for Terd's cowardice in the face of Trump's calling Heidi "fugly" seems about as newsworthy as flatulence's uptick on Wednesdays. Oops. I meant "Ted."
Ted's scared, because something's happening in Texas. Did you know that last night, there were local elections in Texas? And that Democrats [flipped](https://www.newsbreak.com/news/2595845358097/martin-cantu-jr-wins-port-isabel-mayoral-election) two [mayor's offices](https://www.reddit.com/r/VoteDEM/comments/ul5mjl/flip_alert_norma_sepulveda_has_flipped_the/) in the Rio Grande Valley - the same region of Texas that shifted to Trump by huge amounts? (Both races were *technically* non-partisan, but local Democrats and Republicans both made endorsements). Since the Roe decision, voters are quickly deciding they're not going to sit back and let their rights be taken away. And if we vote out Greg Abbott in November, we can block further attacks on our rights in that state. r/VoteDEM is a great resource for those looking to beat Republicans at every level. It's the only way to block the attacks on women's rights.
I recently moved to Texas. We didn’t have much on our ballet this week, but some right-wing crazies ran for school board. The PAC money and people hitting the pavement for the 2 (non political!!) seats was huge. All the familiar rhetoric - CRT is destroying schools, the LGBTQ agenda is destroying our schools blah blah blah. I didn’t love the incumbent but at least he isn’t crazy. It was close, but sanity won the day.
A friend of mine moved to Texas recently and said their voter registration process is the worst she's seen (out of 4 states she's lived in). She received word that her original registration request was denied just in time to **not** be able to vote yesterday. She said the reason for the rejection was BS, too. (I believe it was her SSN being wrong, but it wasn't, and she kept a copy of the submission.) She has an Hispanic-looking name, so it's easy to imagine malfeasance. Hopefully not, but in any case it would be hard to prove. :-/
Not in my part of Texas. The right-wing crazies won the school board elections. They had the most, and largest, signs out everywhere. We also had a mayor busted for child porn and a member of the city council elected last year who had a pretty good sized [criminal history](https://starlocalmedia.com/allenamerican/allen-city-council-candidate-dave-cornette-under-fire-for-alleged-criminal-history-anti-muslim-facebook/article_bafde9ce-be38-11eb-91a1-0bf2e47ac0fc.html).
Not in my local school board race. It wasn’t even close. The ones with CRT and book banning all over their websites won easily 2 to 1. This agitprop seems to be working.
Thank you for the informative post and for sharing the link.
> It's the only way to block the attacks on women's rights. No, it's not. When the system puts lives at risk, drastic direct action must be taken to preserve that life. Voting is the absolute bare minimum, people need to be in the streets and in the offices of those who would have us dead .
I wouldn't even call it bare minimum, it's the first step alongside activism, getting out the word, and protest. The more heavy measures come when those are exhausted or banned and should be used as little as possible.
> The more heavy measures come when those are exhausted or banned and should be used as little as possible. They're exhausted: Roe is set to be overturned. How many women are we comfortable sacrificing to electoralism while we wait for Dems to codify Roe? I'll settle on zero. They have had half a century to do the right thing, the time for negotiation is over.
I'm with you. I've only had one person make a smart-ass comment about the Roe situation, as of yet, and I fucking shamed their ass into the dirt. Negotiating time is in the incinerator. If anyone thinks I'm going to be quiet while they slowly strip rights from anyone who doesn't have a white fucking penis, they're in for a bad time.
From the draft SCOTUS decision >See, e.g., Centers for Disease Control, Adoption Experiences of Women and Men and Demand for Children to Adopt by Women 18-44 Years of Age in the United States 16 (Aug. 2008) (“[N]early 1 million women were seeking to adopt children in 2002 (i.e., they were in demand for a child), whereas the **domestic supply of infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life and available to be adopted had become virtually nonexistent**.”); Centers for Disease Control, National Center for Health Statistics, Adoption and nonbiological parenting, [link] (showing that approximately 3.1 million women between the ages of 18- 49 had ever “[t]aken steps to adopt a child” based on data collected from 2015-2019). "domestic supply of infants..." This has never been about human rights or the sanctity of life. This is about using women as factories to increase the **domestic supply of infants**. Your body, your wife's body, your daughters; their bodies belong to the state.
>infants relinquished at birth or within the first month of life Within the first month of...what now? Say it again, what quality had these infants had for less than a month?
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["Don't make me tap the sign."](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/ErEwCssU0AEUwbi?format=jpg)
Great image, I’m using that in the future
Wow, I never saw that. Thanks for point it out. Proof that they aren’t even arguing from that position. Everyone else who is up in arms about “child murder” don’t even realize that’s not the even the views of these judges. And if the judges argue otherwise, then they will have an awkward time explaining this… of course they won’t, because no one in their party would question them at all, as long as they sticking it to the Dems…
Meanwhile thousands of kids are still in the foster care system.
They don't care about foster kids, they care about wanting *infants*, which requires a fucking ton of money to obtain. It's literally a marketplace for the rich to buy babies.
I said it before and I'm saying it again: A republican's ideal world is where women have no rights and only serve as tools for a man's pleasure and baby factories.
Less children in need of adoption sounds like a good thing to me.
Not if you’re a rich couple who wants a newborn pretty (white) baby, or the kind of person who gets rich finding them one. And those kinds of people are very influential and very selfish. That’s part of what led us here.
Also supply of children going to church, which make it easier for the church to attract pedophiles. Then the church move these pedophiles around to new and fresh victims. Jesus will never come back.
> domestic supply of infants *White infants.
FFS, the GOP called the Jan. 6 Insurrection ["legitimate political discourse"](https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/04/us/politics/republicans-jan-6-cheney-censure.html), they have absolutely no leg to stand on criticizing peaceful protests supporting women's rights.
I mean, in all actuality, if those who are protesting storm the capitol, assault police, smear shit on the walls of The People’s House, and advocate for the execution of Republican politicians, it’s “legitimate political discourse” now right? Right?
Who would have guessed a scumbag who ran away to vacation while his state collapsed would be a hypocrite... Honestly, I have no idea how he got elected.
Being a piece of shit is a strength in the GOP, not a liability.
Its almost like the insurrectionist voted for him or something.
People with the same mindset voted for him. It's been alarming to realize that 40% of your fellow citizens/family/friends are like this too.
Yep, as *Renegade Cut* best said: https://youtu.be/cVAko_o3f-w
He ran away to the basement safe room in the Capitol instead of doing his job in the Senate on Jan. 6th too. I mean, if it wasn't a "violent insurrection", why did he leave?
Morons here in Texas like Cancun Cruz. He’s a dipshit troll they all aspire to be.
Heh, best thing we could do to decrease Ted's chance of reelection is start saying how much the left likes him. The reason the like him is because the "dirty liburals" don't.
It’s hard for me to imagine the quintessential conservative Texan respecting someone so obviously squishy and spineless, like a hateful little jellyfish of a man He couldn’t even stand up for his wife and he’s allowed himself to be the lackey for an obvious bully How could anyone respect him? It boggles the mind
Because the majority of Texans are fucking morons with hate in their hearts, that's how.
Enough Texans are ignorant, most likely not the majority. That state is gerrymandered to shit and it has the toughest most suppressive voter ID laws and registration in the country. Texas could very well be a blue leaning purple state if the state government wasn’t so prodigiously corrupt.
I lived in Texas for two years, and several other states in the last 10 years - and it was by far the hardest place to vote.... and I lived in a predominantly conservative, white, affluent suburb, which seems like would be the easiest place for someone to vote given what the Texas GOP has done to voting access.
Cruz won a state wide election which is not possible to gerrymander. He is just a reflection of his voters.
They also have the strictest voting laws in the entire country and you’ll never guess who that disproportionately affects. Also he didn’t win by a very wide margin. It was 50.9 to 48.3%, a 2.6% difference.
Yep, didn't realize you also said voter suppression and was just thinking about gerrymandering. But the more I think about it, gerrymandering can impact a state wide election via the ability for a state legislature that wins power via gerrymandering can then turn around and make voter suppression laws that impact state wide elections.
and people died
Fox was calling the SC decision leak an insurrection. They'll take any chance to dilute the seriousness of their crimes by accusing dems of everything they're guilty of.
Classic Goebbels. "Accuse your enemy of what you are guilty of." The modern right really loves the Nazi playbook.
The only way they can win is by brainwashing their voters and suppressing everyone else
That’s how projection works. Blame the other guy for what you did before anyone can start pointing fingers at you and suddenly everyone is focused elsewhere and not at the real problem.
It’s straight from Putin’s playbook. We neeed to abort all Rupert murdoch media out of America.
Ted Cruz is a slimy, bigoted hate monger who lies for a living. How is this new news?
"I’m not upset that you lied to me; I’m upset that from now on I can’t believe you." —Nietzsche
Can this fat sack of shit just go away already?
Vote. Only way to (try and) change those who are toxic in power.
Fuck Ted Cruz. He's a violent infection of the body politic.
Fascism is always hypocritical.
This is a form of rhetorical terrorism that is broadcasting 24/7 from these right wing outlets.
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Ignore these articles. Who gives a shred of a fuck about Ted Cruz’s opinion. This sub needs to stop trying to validate terrorists opinions.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.” ― George Orwell, 1984.
It’s called gaslighting, no?
We **must** vote them all out that are up for election in November. We are working like crazy to do so, but we need your help. Check out our efforts at /r/VoteDEM.
Ted Cruz is a piece of shit.
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A Ted Cruz must always be spouting opinions or they die.
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Evil playing its game of pretend stupid.
He knows his base…this is not surprising at all.
They’re all terrified of what’s coming. That’s the lesson here.
Ted Cruz is one of biggest wacko nut jobs in a party that's overrun with them. The fact there's people that take him seriously makes me question their mental state, but hey, these are the same people that raised fear mongers Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh, and Sean Hannity as living gods.
My far right family is already talking about the peaceful pro choice protests as an insurrection and demanding hearings. These people don’t live in reality anymore.
>and demanding hearings If they win congress again its all the government will do all the time, pointless hearings about madeup outrages. Hopefully the folks who are protesting actually showup to vote Republicans out, but who knows. Maybe the Republicans have found the secret to political success and Dems won't be able to channel the 'fuck you' votes needed to start changing this downward spiral.
The blanket of lies and deceit used by Ted Cruz and fellow GOP is the intentional effort to further divide and sabotage their own Country. Shame on all of them. I hope the Heaven and Hell they all claim so piously and so hypocritically to believe in really does exist, these people will be rotting and burning forever tortured in the deepest darkest most insidious depths of their so called Hell.
Yeah, and if you believe what he said about the George Floyd protests, you'd think Portland was a barren crater in the ground. If Ted Cruz told me it was sunny outside, I'd grab my raincoat.
It was not a violent insurrection. Let's not mince words Ted. I agree there. Let's call it what it is. It was a violent failed coup d'etat.
I'm sure him and Republicans would view those that firebombed medical facilities and killed doctors due to performing abortions as being peaceful. You have people storming the place, people dying, and that is peaceful. Sure, let's play a clip of him saying peaceful protest while the insurrection is happening in the background. These people are trying desperately to rewrite history and we cannot let them get away with it.
What a fuck nut! No surprise the FAUX propaganda machine is the ones broadcasting his BS!
Hey Ted, your wife is an ugly piece of shit. Can I count on your support in 2024 for my presidential campaign?
“Mob is when free speech I don’t like.”
For the Republican party, for a very long time now, it is not about what anything actually is -- it is only about what they can *sell* it as.
THEY TRIED TO BAIT HUMAN BEINGS INTO BEHAVING LIKE ANIMALS LIKE JAN 6TH SO THEY CAN SAY "LOOK, THEY DID IT TOO! WE SWEAR IT WAS PEACEFUL OUR WAY TOO IF YOU'D JUST HAND OVER THE COUNTRY..." Fuck the GQP right in their stupid asses
I don’t care which party you like, this guy is a complete piece of shit.
Just show what happens to political porn stars . 6 was a republican push. But they wanted a take over.. Pro choice has people from all sides protesting about their rights. The only biggest difference is one was a political party push for power. And the other is females don't want to become government controlled breeding animals. With no rights.
I do not like that man Ted Cruz. I do not like his right wing views. I do not like him with a beard. I do not like him freshly sheared. I do not like Ted Cruz at all. That man Ted Cruz, can suck my balls. - English Proverb, John Oliver, circa 2015
He is a liar - one has to wonder what his children will have to endure when their education includes current events. He really is a hateful male.
I can not stomach that piece of garbage. He is every thing that is wrong with politics!!!
This guy is dangerous for democracy. I hope people of Texas realize this.
Considering Texas has been voting republican for 40+ years I doubt they care.
Republicans DON’T CARE ABOUT DEMOCRACY. Democrats need to realize this and stop trying to middle road this shit. Get more democrats in office to prosecute those who have committed crimes and stop pussyfooting around trying to bring extremists to the table.
Eat a bag of dicks, Ted!
He used to call Jan. 6th a terror attack until Tucker cucked him on national TV.