The GOP, especially its MAGA wing, will tell you government is too big, government “overreaches” by making and enforcing laws that restrict freedom (by their definition of freedom, which trust me, I WILL get to.) They want SMALL GOVERNMENT. LOCAL CONTROL. INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS. FREEDOM. That they also claim to be in favor of law & order is a contradiction they ignore by defining “law and order” in a way that excludes the laws they don’t want to obey, and adds any laws they want *others* to obey.
And then they get control of a state legislature, and do they legislate like people who want SMALL GOVERNMENT, LOCAL CONTROL, INDIVIDUAL RIGHTS, FREEDOM?
No. They do not.
Universally, GOP state governments pursue draconian policies that make the state the master of individuals, towns, cities, counties…any size below state level. If there’s a state law that landlords must evict a tenant whose relative (of a certain degree) is a convicted criminal, then no one else–not the landlord, not the local town–can allow that person–who has NOT been convicted of a crime, and whose relative does not live with them–to live in that house, or any rented house or apartment. If there’s a state law that businesses storing large amounts of dangerous materials don’t have to tell the local government…then the local government can’t demand to know (even after a disaster involving those materials.) If a manufacturer isn’t required to report dumping toxic materials into the water supply, no other level of government can intervene. They’re happy to tell the entire state’s school districts what texts they can and can’t use, what they can and can’t teach, in great detail. They’re happy to tell every person with a uterus that she had no right to control what goes into it (some barring barrier contraception, others any contraception) or to take anything out of it that they define as “a person” (starting with the fertilized egg.) They’re willing to see persons with uteruses die because they aren’t allowed to be treated with anything that might, under any circumstances, count (in their little minds) as abortion. They’re willing to tell others the freedoms they cannot have–to come into the country, to travel between states, to criticize them…and willing to allow their own the license to break laws on the grounds those laws shouldn’t apply to them.
And–as events in Florida showed in this election–GOP states are eager to insist they don’t have to let national laws get in their way–they can exclude federal authorities–including federal law enforcement–from investigating breaches of the law they oppose. Such as, for instance, laws that were written to protect voters, and ensure elections uncontaminated by hanky-panky in the voting sites. Such hanky-panky was common before the Civil Rights Act, because it made excluding dark-skinned people from voting easy.
I’m filling out a bunch of forms that, some twenty years ago, were half the length they are now. They have more questions to answer now. They have more “state requirements” created by the very people who claim to hate government regulation…except when it suits them. About four years ago, they added a whole new level of regulation (state level) with a new administrative structure for it.
Freedom, to them, means their freedom to control other people. Other people are, in their definition, EVIL and don’t deserve any personal freedoms or rights. They, being the right kind of Christian (they think) must be free to bring on the apocalypse because they’re tired of waiting.
I’ve spent too much time on this today, in short snatches between the other things of the day
i grew up in a Republican household of parents who grew up in Democrat households. My parents, devout Christians of the type who saw life as a duty to serve others watched the escapades of the early 1960’s and in 1964 voted Republican for the first time, and ever since. Mom just turned 90 and she still says “if someone doesn’t like me, how can they like my friend Jesus?” She was an elected public official herself in the early 1990’s and I became familiar with state government in the late ’70’s when I worked as a page for a session in the state government. She’s been horrified by what has happened in the past 12 years. This election, for the first time in 58 years, my mother voted Democrat in the election for governor, senate, and state secretary of state. I know because I helped her complete her absentee ballot, which is currently legal in our state, however there were multiple propositions to change how early or absentee voting will work. However, it’s my feeling that democracy isn’t democracy without good choices. I saw a headline that the congressional representative for our district won for the seventh term, as if that was exciting news. He was only candidate in the general election. The system isn’t working.
On a better note, Yvonne of Friesian Horses posted a video today filmed Sept 1 of her first time back on a horse since the accident. Such a feel good moment, miracles still do happen. She described how the doctors thought she might not wake up from the coma, then they thought she would be in a wheel chair, that they weren’t sure she would “come back as Yvonne” which made me think about your description of Camwyn. She also showed the damage to her riding helmet that she says saved her life. I thought of you and wanted to share this news if you haven’t seen it yet. Not all is awful in the world.
Thanks for telling me about Yvonne. I’ve had some stuff to get done and haven’t gotten back to that site for close to a week. Very glad she’s that much better.
Yes, having Carter back AGAIN without a chance to even vote for an opponent was infuriating.
Hope you and Sir Richard Stumpkicker have had a blessed Veterans Day.
We did.