Beyond election denialism, the MAGA domestic agenda of Christian nationalism, government interference in gender preference and identity, and, most prominent today, anti-abortionism were never a part of the Republican view for America the beautiful.
The Grand Old Party ‘s stated values were fiscal restraint, deregulation, modest safety nets, one hundred points of philanthropic light, and pulling yourself up by your own bootstraps to achieve financial security with a libertarian streak when it came to social issues.
Republicans recognized the practicality of Eisenhower’s introduction of one nation “under God” and “in God we trust” to the pledge and the currency. The god fearing/godless rhetorical distinction was useful at the outset of the Cold War. Imposing evangelical Christian retrograde social norms backed up with the force of law was never in view.
And certainly Republicans were never going to go to the mat over interfering in a woman’s reproductive rights. This was reflected in Republican platforms passed at national conventions up until 2016 when candidate Donald Trump unilaterally declared that there would be no party platform at all.
Thus began the hollowing out of the traditional Republican Party by the forces of MAGA. I encourage people to see the Netflix documentary Get Me Roger Stone to appreciate the viciousness of the tactics applied to the Republican establishment.
The threat of violence to political actors and their families has been bedrock to the flourishing of MAGA. I doubt any unprepared political party in 2016 could have withstood the ruthlessness of such an attack.
Of all the issues MAGA has hung on the Republican Party, none is as dangerous to its viability as anti-abortionism. In every state where abortion rights were on the ballot, they chose to protect and preserve access most recently in Ohio and even in fully red states of Kansas and Kentucky. The disastrous outcomes for Republicans in the 2022 midterms are attributed to candidate’s stands on abortion rights.
The ultimate goal of the anti-abortionist machine was never just the defeat of Roe v Wade. It has always been a zero tolerance criminalization of pregnancy termination. The anti-abortion movement is a kind of relentless steam roller targeting women’s lives.
Americans have recognized this movement for what it is and don’t like what they see. Last Wednesday’s Republican Presidential Candidate Debate, following Tuesday’s very bad showing of anti-abortionism in state elections, showed a distinct change in position. One wouldn’t have wanted to get between these candidates and their new found opposition to any nationwide ban on pregnancy termination.
Besides the criminalization of abortion procedures, anti-abortionists are hard at work proliferating their own centers for pregnant women committed not to encourage, refer for, or provide abortion services. Having a clinic certification just means that licensed health care professionals are present, but they subscribe to the anti-abortion philosophy.
Republicans have always been for personal financial responsibility. They should know that these centers are in fact where women go in for free pregnancy testing and come out all signed up to embark on a life of Medicaid and public assistance. Instincts to wait to have children until the woman and her family can afford it are undermined at all costs.
According to the American College of Obstetrics and Gynecology these pregnancy centers cause delays in accessing legitimate health care and use emotional manipulation and in particular ultrasound scans to prevent women from accessing timely and comprehensive patient centered care.
Talbot County’s anti-abortion pregnancy center is misleadingly called Choices Pregnancy Center to lure the unsuspecting woman into thinking that a complete range of health care options are offered. I find this intentional deception outrageous.
Reimbursement for these anti-abortion pregnancy centers is part of the MAGA agenda and will be a losing issue for Republicans for which this will be a matter of indifference.
The disentanglement of MAGA from the traditional Republican Party is essential for the vitality of our two party democratic republic.
Holly Wright
Talbot County
TRobert O Hall says
Ultra conservative political groups are corrupting the legacy of American ideals and shredding the fabric of our society.
BobHallsr
Mickey Terrone says
Holly, Trump’s MAGA agenda is devolving into “ultraconservative political groups” being mobilized to arrest “vermin” political opponents. Trump’s new American ideal is to “root out communists, marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country that lie and steal and cheat on elections”. No mention of radical right thugs. They must be the American ideal because will likely be the designated post-election patriots designated to root out the vermin.
Perhaps Trump was calling today for those far right radicals, to execute the “citizens arrests” that he announced he wanted to see for NY State AG Letitia James and Judge Arthur Engoron over Trump’s civil fraud trial in NYC. There is the new American ideal according to Trump.
Yet unless Republican supporters of Trump call him out for such fascist/nazi political thuggery, they are part of the problem in America today. Thus far, not one Republican Senator or Congressman has condemned this unamerican behavior. Trump is pushing the limits of how far average Republicans are willing to support his contempt for the Constitution, the rule of law and political moderation.
We are now long past the point where Trump has become a direct threat to our republican democracy. At this point, numerous of his former associates in the scheme to overturn the results of the 2020 election have admitted under oath their complicity in this series of crimes, both with the attack on the US Capitol and the concurrent efforts in several states to adopt fake electors. That numerous Congressional Republican elected officials apparently were also very likely aware of the planning of the January 6th, 2021 attack on the Capitol, it makes them complicit in this fascistic enterprise. Those people, including our Congressman, Andy Harris, ought to face justice if he was aware of the plans and did nothing immediately to alert authorities.
As the frontrunner for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, Trump needs the support of the majority of Republican rank and file voters and elected officials. By allowing him wrecklessly to call for unlawful “arrests” of judges and a state attorney general, they give him at least tacit support. For Republicans to ignore the fact that many of Trump’s associates in the effort to overturn the 2020 election results in key states are now on video confessing to their guilt and complicity with Trump in this colossal fraud, and continue to maintain their public support for his candidacy is well, unamerican.
Trump and his fellow travelers are shredding the fabric of American society.