#A VOTE FOR ANYONE ELSE IS A VOTE FOR TRUMP AT THIS POINT | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

nobrashfestivity · 7 months

Text

I'm not delving into politics but after a weird morning reading people's political reactions I want to briefly explain something a lot of people on tumblr don't understand. It's just a personal note I will likely delete.

The tropes politicians and comedians like to use of "There's money for war but no money for your college loans" is concise and useful because it points out a broadly philosophical thing about our society and what we spend money on, but it is not actually descriptive regarding the mechanics of the government.

Your student loan or food money is not going somewhere else. The problem is greed and living in an oligarchy. If Santa clause gave the government 300 billion dollars tomorrow they would not pay for your school loans or gender reassignment surgery or give more money to the poor or create affordable housing.

The point is that conservatives, of any party, believe their profits are more important than you having an easy way to live. They do not want you to have these things, they don't think your needs are important, they would rather pocket the money but perhaps more importantly, the minority rule we are experiencing can only win elected office on ideological fear. They do not want the disadvantaged empowered. They are selling the idea of denying anything to women, minorities or the poor based on the a success they have had disenfranchising those people that older white people fear will come to power. They cravenly play on a deep fear Americans have that someone will have something they don't. That they will get an unfair advantage somehow if they are helped in any way, even though these same people have been given countless advantages in life.

The reason I feel basic understanding of the government is important is because even well intentioned people here I agree with lack this understanding. A lot of tumblr 2020 was lacking any nuance about how politics works. "So and so introduces a bill to end homelessness" is typical and great idea but largely performative as Bernie Sanders or anyone in government has a pretty good idea what has a chance of being funded or made law. The razor thin Senate majority means there's not a "liberal senate" and American liberals are really pretty conservative by most standards. It's the same misconception with things like "Trump sues the Biden administration" . People file lawsuits everyday, they are largely meaningless but it looks good on paper.

Everything in this country could improved a LOT if everyone voting age just voted. You could have shelter for the homeless and money for college and better benefits for the mentally ill and cheaper housing but the idea that the government has decided to pay for war and not pay for something good is inaccurate. There would never pay for something good if they had all the money in the world.

It's not the money, it's their values.

#personal

169 notes · View notes

not-terezi-pyrope · 5 months

Text

It's posts like this that tell me that I'm never going to see eye to eye with certain people on the left, because this is a deeper cognitive problem that exists irrespective of any political axis, although it's just as directly damaging as being a reactionary or a protofascist.

I've noticed for a while now that some people seem incapable of perceiving the world through a non-aesthetic worldview. Their understanding of how society work is full conceptualized through narrative and symbolism, and they seem incapable of contemplating simple utilitarian cause and effect.

The context of this post was somebody saying that even if you accept that Trump would be identical (or worse) compared to Biden on foreign policy, but that a Biden presidency would tangibly improve the domestic situation, then you still shouldn't vote for Biden, because Biden is the one currently endorsing genocide and a vote for him is "saying that you're okay with that".

Do you see the disconnect there? The way that that argument fundamentally talks past what it is claiming to argue against? I'm not one to argue some bizarre conspiracy theory about incompatible styles of cognition, but it feels like sometimes these people genuinely don't understand how their argument fails to make sense.

It feels like some people understand that out of a limited range of possible actions, you should take the one that causes the least harm, because that utilitarian approach is how you produce desired outcomes.

Then you have this entire other group of people who can't conceptualize that. Who can only understand moral choices as which flags to fly in support of which narrative. And the narrative of "Joe Biden being president" is seen as carrying out the narrative of fascism, and so voting for Joe Biden, regardless of your motivation for doing so, is seen as allying with fascism. As "endorsing" it with your vote, as the screenshotted post says, with a fully straight face.

People are so adamant about this, even after you explain, at length, the concept of choosing the path of least harm (because not voting for Joe Biden will, to be clear, cause more harm, as best as anyone can tell), they will dismiss what you are saying as obviously silly.

So I'm forced to conclude that they simply don't understand the argument being made, or else see it so obviously secondary to the moral aesthetics of voting that they can't bring themselves to even contemplate it.

The problem is that, from a utilitarian point of view, prioritizing the moral aesthetics of one's own actions - of keeping one's own hands clean - over actively working to reduce harm done to others through the choices you have available, is actually an incredibly selfish and damaging way to make decisions. It is very much "part of the problem".

But don't try to tell them that. They've already decided that you're a fascist, and if you argue with them that just proves it more.

#tired of this #politics #fascism mention cw #us politics #gaza conflict cw

111 notes · View notes

deadpresidents · 3 months

Note

Hypothetically what do you think would have happened if the january 6 rioters had gotten to pence or pelosi before they got safe?

At this point, I almost dread answering questions like this anymore because I know the kind of hate mail it will unleash for the next few days, but it's important to keep talking about what happened on January 6, 2021 since so many people are trying to normalize it. That includes many people whose lives were in danger that day, as well as the former President who tried to hold on to power by encouraging his supporters to launch a violent insurrection and is now referring to those who have been brought to justice for attempting a coup as "patriots" and "hostages".

I genuinely believe that there were people in that crowd who would have killed Vice President Pence, Speaker Pelosi, and certain Congressional leaders if they had reached them on January 6th. I think there are people in that crowd who were ready to hold lawmakers hostage. Why else did they have handcuffs and zip ties? To help the Capitol Police maintain order? (Oh yeah...that's right, thanks for reminding me: they violently attacked the police -- some even beat police officers with the "Blue Lives Matter" flags that they brought with them.) Now, I do not think that everybody who was at the Capitol on January 6th -- or even the majority of those who took part in the insurrection -- were willing to go that far. I think a lot of them got swept up in what was happening and went with the flow. That doesn't excuse what they did. The flow that they got swept up in was still a fucking insurrection, and anyone who took part in that deserves to be held accountable. But I think there were certain elements embedded throughout that crowd that were much more organized and prepared to fully execute their plans for a coup after disrupting the certification of the Electoral College votes.

I actually think Vice President Pence was probably in more danger than even Speaker Pelosi or some of the Democratic leaders because Trump was so actively calling him out in the days and hours before the insurrection. I think that's why Pence is so adamant now about not supporting Trump. I mean, think about how disgustingly loyal and subservient Pence was to Trump throughout those four years until basically the first few days of January 2021. But even as other Republican leaders are crumbling and offering their allegiance to Trump again in 2024, Pence is standing by his decision not to endorse or support Trump, and I think that's because he realizes that Trump absolutely almost got him (and his family, who were with him in the Capitol on that day) killed on January 6th. Shit, even Mitch McConnell has folded and endorsed Trump again despite the fact that Trump has spent the last three years not only insulting him but also making racist attacks and questioning McConnell's wife's loyalty to the United States all because Elaine Chao had the audacity to resign from Trump's Cabinet in the wake of the insurrection. Yet Mike Pence -- who spent the better part of four years following Trump around like Paul Heyman follows Roman Reigns...

...THAT same Mike Pence is steadfastly refusing to endorse Trump because he has personal experience about how real of an existential threat Trump is. Some of those people at the Capitol were very serious about following through on their chants to "Hang Mike Pence", and not only does Pence realize that, but he also knows now that Trump -- who refused to take actions that would have helped clear the Capitol more quickly -- said "he deserves it" when hearing about those chants.

That's what is so scary about the insurrection, its aftermath, and the Trump Republican Party's redefinition of what happened that day. It almost worked. They stormed the United States Capitol and invaded both chambers of Congress. They carried Confederate flags into the United States Capitol -- even the fucking Confederate States of America didn't successfully invade Washington, D.C. and plant their flag in the Capitol. They were willing to hurt and probably kill some of America's elected leaders. And the people who helped plan and instigate the events of January 6th have spent the three-plus years since then learning from their mistakes and figuring out how to be successful next time. And guess what? "Next time" is only a few months away.

77 notes · View notes

hollowwish · 3 months

Text

I don't really like. Politics post much but I wanna say something. Because the 2020 election was bad. This year is already worse and it's only March

As a queer trans american (who lives in the south, no less, and has to hear the dumbest anti biden propaganda you've ever heard) a republican getting in office is actually doomsday for me. I'm literally horrified of it. It gives me horrible anxiety for days on end and makes me feel physically sick. And if it happens I will not be able to leave immediately like I would want to.

The republicans want to kill me and i have known this since I was thirteen years old and i have just had to live with it. I have to just live with the thought as long as I'm in america. They want to kill me and all my queer friends and every other minority group they hate, they already took away abortion they have already started. And they are going to if we put them in office. Please please god do not let them put Trump in office again. I do not care who is in there, anyone but a republican. I will take almost anyone else but them.

Its to the point where I don't really care that a bunch of swfities are apparently voting democrat because Taylor said so. Yeah that's fucking insane but also it keeps literally the most evil man in this country out of office. Beggars can't be choosers I suppose.

Everyone around me is so sure of a Trump victory. They want him to fix the gas prices and things like that. People I thought were my friends really truly do not care what anti lgbt laws or whatever other horrible law they would make, as long as their personal problems get fixed. And I'm really really hoping that's not the case and that his victory is not already assured because I do not know what would happen and I am scared.

Please don't put him back in office. Just. Please. It's all I ask.

#ren posting #politics #I don't know why I'm posting this really #Because I'm scared. To vent. To get the anxiety and the shakes out #Maybe hope that the cries of a scared highschooler will change someone's mind. I don't know #Anyone but him please #us elections #I don't know what else to tag and I don't really care #Just gonna forget I made this post and move on with my night I think

83 notes · View notes

communistkenobi · 7 months

Note

if you don't feel like taking the time to explain this to a random person I totally understand lol I will continue to look elsewhere to form an opinion. but I'm torn on not voting for biden, because I do understand the motive. he's terrible, teaching the democratic party a hard lesson is overdue. they need to be taught once and for all that they need to actually fucking deliver on their lofty virtuous promises or they will lose all support. on the other hand if you're following closely the shit trump's people are spewing right now he just keeps getting worse and worse and overtly fascist and ambitious, it's incredibly frightening atp, it's obvious that he will only make everything that's bad now in the usa and in palestine and everywhere else 10000x worse for a long time to come, I just don't know if the damage from another trump presidency is a worthy price to pay to stick it to joe

I’m going to be blunt, but I genuinely do not mean this in a rude or condescending way, I invite you to think about this deeply: do you legitimately think that if the democrats get re-elected they’re going to stop any of the horrific shit the republicans want to implement, either domestically or overseas? Has their track record given you any hope that that will happen? If you vote for them as they gleefully, openly carry out a genocide, literally what incentive do they have to stop Republicans at all? If their voter base is that secure, that loyal, what incentive do they have to protect their constituents or address their needs when in power? Protecting Roe v Wade was what made voting for Biden an existential necessity in 2020 and that still got trashed! People are still in cages at the US-Mexico border! Cop city is being built in Atlanta! Police brutality against Black people continues unabated! Pipelines are still being built on indigenous land (DAPL happened under Obama)! The threat against minority populations, the truly disadvantaged and oppressed people inside the US, are already living with this violence on a daily basis and have lived with it regardless of who is in office. To assume the threat of fascist violence has not yet arrived, has not yet been developing for decades, is to ignore these things.

I do not think the democrats need to be ‘taught a lesson’ or that you need to ‘stick it to Joe.’ The Democrats are not failing to deliver on their promises - these are their promises. Even on a purely self-interested level, ignoring the genocide currently happening, you are not going to be protected from fascists domestically by voting blue no matter who. Certainly there are local elections and movements were there is genuine progressive potential (Ohio just voted to legalise weed and support abortion, a legit good thing that was absolutely worth going out and voting for), but that is not the reality of the national party. The primary language available to voters as voters is to stop voting for them.

The fascist right in the US (both ‘populist’ groups like qanon and the proud boys, as well as institutional groups like the federalist society, the heritage foundation, etc, the list is endless, not to mention evangelical churches) is organised and developed enough that they will continue to hold power and influence regardless of who is in office. The genocide happening in Palestine right now, carried out by a democrat, is not a neatly contained far-away thing that can be separated from domestic politics (I am not claiming you’re making that argument, only trying to articulate my own point) - it is already having a profound and measurable impact on the US population in the form of increased racist, islamophobic and antisemitic violence, mass police brutality, institutional silencing and firing of anyone who even says the word genocide, etc. I think it’s productive to view those actions as developing fascist actions, actions which are being stoked by a democrat. And if they are not outright fascist, they are certainly a precursor to it. In the last couple years there have been a lot of stupid, incompetent demonstrations by the far right in the US - Unite the Right rally, the storming of the capitol, Qanon-motivated assaults and murders like the attempted plot to kidnap the Michigan governor, that one mob guy who was murdered by a Qanon follower in New York I think, Alex Jones being a national figurehead for the conspiratorial and openly fascist right (although he’s probably not going to continue to be that now that he lost a billion dollars in his court cases lol), the “stop the steal” legal attempt to contest the results of the 2020 election - these are ridiculous and on-the-surface ineffective attempts to express a fascistic will onto USAmerican institutions (“inchoate fascism,” a fascism not yet fully formed, a fascism in an experimental phase). But I think the genocide in Palestine is allowing for the effective version of those things to be done in the US. The hysteria, the rage, the violence that this genocide is producing “at home” is not going to dissipate if a democrat continues to hold office, and the Palestinian genocide is both an organising force for the current fascist right and an inciting force for it to further develop and grow. This larger debate about voting or not voting seems to be operating on the (correct) assumption that foreign policy is not a meaningful realm of difference between democrats and republicans, that the only space to battle over is domestic affairs. But absent from this debate is that these two things can’t be neatly partitioned, they are not separate, not just because you should view all human life as equally worth preserving but because we are seeing the mass domestic response within the US about Palestine - the popular resistance to it on the one hand and the institutional support for it on the other. The early 2000s US culture (“post-9/11”) is widely regarded as incredibly right-wing, and that was because of the war in Iraq! Foreign policy produces and shapes US culture, and the genocide in Palestine a colonial and fascist project.

This is not an argument for despair, or to do nothing. Fascism is not defeated by voting regardless of who you’re voting for, and so we can dispense with that idea. If you want to exercise your civic responsibilities, there are many other avenues - labour unions, community work, protests, boycott organising, and yes even voting in local elections when there is a strategic advantage to do so - things that are meaningful and do legitimately help people. But I do not see any strategic calculus in voting for democrats. Biden already told everyone this - “nothing will fundamentally change.” There should be no surprise, no expectation that they will do anything except what they’re already doing, which is business as usual

#asks #turning off reblogs bc I don’t feel like getting screamed at lol #anyway hope this was helpful. I’m also Canadian so my perspective is a bit more removed #although I feel largely the same about my own country. I’m not voting for genocide Justin!

67 notes · View notes

linddzz · 2 years

Text

Why Are People Happy (or like, at least Not Freaking Out) About the USA Midterm Results?

(or in my case exhaling a held breath as I slightly lift my finger off the "oh fuck me and my spouse should worry for our future survival if we stay in the country" button for now)

So for newer voters there is the very valid question: why the hell are people acting like this is a victory for progressives/Democrats when they'll likely lose the House and barely hold on to the Senate?

Short Answer: because by historical pattern and all the usual indicators, anyone who even slightly caucused with Dems should have been trounced, and the fact that they weren't trounced has the far hardline right shaking.

To borrow from a great Reddit comment I saw; the GOP is freaking out because this was like a pro boxer went up against a sick six year old, and the boxer may have scored higher in the end but the six year old beat the shit out of them in the process.

For decades the pattern has been that the president's party loses at LEAST 20-40 seats in the midterms. Add in that Republicans tend to turn out more for midterms, gerrymandering, and the fact that in the past swing voters are swayed by inflation and gas prices and...it should have been so much worse. With how everything was stacked up this ended up being a historic turnout for an incumbent executive branch, the career politicians pay attention to shit like that.

And yeah with how things are, "holy shit it could have been so much worse" is worth something.

So I'm not like, popping bottles and cheering, but this to me is a great example of Voting as Harm Reduction in Action.

Voting did not Fix It. It can't. Voting will not stop fascism, strike that expectation from your mind and also really see that that is not what voting's role is in an action plan. Voting is the Minimum. Meaning if you can't do anything else you vote, but you don't rely on voting and expect it alone to fix problems.

(long post with more of a breakdown below. Tho this isn't a breakdown where I pulled sources and exact numbers. It's more of a General Take Away.)

The ultimate proof that this wasn't great for the far right is the fact that they're very openly freaking out. Go to the far right outlets and they are losing it. It has been loudly shown that they can't assume they can point to inflation and get away with OPEN pushes for total take over.

On one hand, we very VERY likely gained a couple more years to fight (either to stop a fascist take over or to at least set things up to save more lives, or to even reduce the power hold a fascist take over could keep.) On the other hand, people like Nick Fuentes are now openly saying "we are the minority and these results show why we need a dictatorship." Whether it's a good thing they're saying the quiet part even louder or not remains to be seen.

(My optimistic take is it may be a good thing, as it's way harder for moderates to accuse progressives of hysterics when the wackos won't stop saying the quiet part out loud and are in fact saying it louder. I kind of WANT the wackos to be louder and louder, there's now good evidence that freaks voters out.)

The More Definitive Good:

-The GOP majority is not NEARLY what they were wanting, and a lot of their moderates are spooked. The status quo holders are seeing that hardline regressive politics like the overturn of Roe is BAD for them, and they can't rely on "but the gas prices." The GOP generally falls in line together yes, but remember how much they struggled to pass big change legislation when Trump was president? They're gonna have even more inter-party tensions now as the hardline right gets frustrated that they can't impeach Biden every week and the status quo moderates get more hesitant to back up policies that they KNOW won't be popular with their constituents. They will not be able to coast whatever they want through. Even if they end up flipping the House AND Senate it will not be with big enough majorities to do whatever they want.

-Listen if nothing else, if you're a petty bitch like me who enjoys a nice dish of shadenfreude, its probably gonna be very funny watching McCarthy struggle to keep his party on track if they retake the House.

-Cannot possibly stress enough that the fact that it's STILL not 100% certain the GOP will flip the house is buck fucking wild.

-GenZ turnout is giving me hope that the Youths are properly viewing voting as a minimal first step in an action plan and not as a "if it doesn't fix it why bother?" scenario. If voting is all you can do, do that so you can help give people who are fighting better ground to work on and more time. Stay involved in local elections especially!

-For me at least, this has let me take my mental finger off the PANIC AND FLEE NOW button so I can focus slightly less on survival for immediate family and more on helping others.

-Speaking of, LOOK UP HOW TO HELP YOUR NATIVE AMERICAN COMMUNITIES. The Indian Child Welfare Act is on the line at the supreme court. Look it up, look up how you can help.

Best Case Scenario Outcomes/Dreams

-Trump vs DeSantis actually does turn into a GOP civil war. Will this fight be good in the long run? I don't know but I know that at this moment it's very fun watching them claw at each other. Thoughts and prayers towards an ongoing GOP civil war. The established GOP wants Trump gone and see this midterm as proof he's bad for elections, but he's not going to go easy. I'm gonna be like Cersei Lannister looking out my window sipping wine watching them fight.

-GOP realizes "being seen as the social regression party is bad for us" and they stop being obstructionists. Best case here is they open up to climate legislation. That or they buckle down harder and piss everyone off more. Either way is likely to work out for progressives. Ultimate Dream is a GOP civil war and party shakeout leading to a conservative party with like, disagreements on tax policy and regulations being the biggest thing to worry about in the future.

-Bigger Dream; this is a death knell for the rise of Christo-Fascism. They overshot their reach with the Roe overturn and the power hold the hard right Christian block has on the conservative party goes downhill from here. This is more of a dream and not a realistic expectation though.

-I don't hold as much hope here but there's a CHANCE that this also signaled to Democrats that they can be more pushy and not suffer for it. Biden is a political beast and I wouldn't be surprised if his more openly progressive (by his standards) moves recently were to test how voters would respond to it. If Dems payed attention (big if) they got the message that people want more action.

-Trump probably lost the political backup he hoped for if he gets indicted. There's a GOOD chance that the establishment GOP won't stop the legal freight train about to hit him even if they get both House and Senate. I think it's silly to say "it's over for Trump!" but it's fair to say his tower is less protected than he likely hoped. It's likely the establishment is less afraid of his power than they were even after 2020.

-can you imagine if he made a third party and wrecked the GOP voting base? Like to charge reblog to cast.

-If nothing else; between Alex Jones, Elon flailing like an idiot and maybe taking down Twitter, and far right pundits screaming in confusion, there is entertainment to be had.

Now What:

-The fight is not over. It will never be over. The hill to fight up is less steep than expected now, but it's still there.

-We will likely not see much passed before 2024. This midterm was less about getting progressive platforms pushed and more about making it harder for regressive policies to pass. It'll be frustrating but with how things were stacked that's the best we could've hoped for.

-The GOP have gerrymandering and can win that way (it's likely how they end up winning the House) BUT more people are aware of it now and districts that should have been EASY wins were closer than the GOP would like. They're likely to try to gerrymander harder, it's now our job to be very very loud about that. Push for districting reform.

-The conservative voting bloc is ALSO sick of the two options. Peeking around in r/conservative revealed a surprising amount of support for rank choice voting. This is an area to plug your nose and work with people towards a common goal. Rank choice is at the moment, the most realistic strategy for breaking up the two party system.

-Hard to swallow pill: the majority of this country is moderate. It sucks. But it is. You cannot depend on the dream of a socialist revolution. Lying down and accepting that as a reason to give up is also not an option.

-Expanding on that; this midterm may be a sign that the moderates are more politically aware than they used to be, and that they're more persuadable towards progressive policy than I had expected. Try to keep that up, because it makes it harder for the hardline right to try to push their shit quietly.

-There will almost certainly not be a time where progressives can relax and say they fixed it.

-Celebrating "holy shit that could have been so much worse" can't be a sign that It's Fixed. I also don't think people view it that way. My big hope is that younger progressives have realized that they can't go "the system is fucked beyond repair so why bother."

-Celebrating increments and enjoying some shadenfreude can be good for your mental health. Shitting on people for celebrating "oh good I don't need to flee the country asap" doesn't really help anyone.

-There was a ZERO chance this midterm would have given total big majorities to progressives. If you are set on only celebrating Perfect Wins you're going to have a BAD TIME and will burn out fast.

-Fight for an ideal you don't expect to reach. Take every half step you can, push for bigger leaps. Do not give ground for the sake of not reaching the goal.

-If DeSantis is smart he will moderate his "anti woke" openly social-regression talk. Don't let him get away with remaking his image as "the nice safe moderate compared to Trump." Pull out the petty shit he did with Disney, point out every way he is JUST as low and mean.

-GenZ: the far right is now terrified of you. Good. Keep em scared.

#politics #usa politics #midterms 2022 #added a working readmore

468 notes · View notes

aroacesafeplaceforall · 18 days

Note

hi!! Can you please explain to me the drama of what happened with the rap music thing and people calling you racist??

this is a side note but I saw someone post about it saying this is how white asexuals treat black asexuals and included me and I’m not white?? It says in my intro but ok….

Yeah basically saw some one post in the asexual tag with a screenshot saying “as a sex repulsed ace I don’t listen to most music with lyrics (90% of pop) this isn’t aimed at rap”

The OP who screenshot the reblog tags was calling them racist for it, I jumped in and said “uhh what no? They said pop music as well and yeah it’s a little weird to mention rap in this but not racist” And they lost their shit, calling me a racist for saying that.

In the end it spiralled, someone made a blocklist for anyone (including POC aces) who said anything similar to what I was saying/saying that that wasn’t racist, calling them racist and saying we were spreading “white supremacy talking points”

They also called someone racist for listening to another kind of music and they called me racist (again) for saying I liked music that I could relate to more and as im not interested in sex a lot (not all) of popular (again not all just a lot of the popular) rap didn’t relate to me.

I AM AUSSIE I DO NOT HAVE ANY INTEREST IN AMERICAN SHIT FURTHER THEN “don’t vote for trump” AND MAJOR ECOLOGICAL ISSUES (mining ect)

I think a big issue comes from the fact im not American and therefore know fuck all about American history with people of colour (apart from the obvious; “not very good (read: genocidal) relations with the Native Americans”) and a bit about the slave trade

I in the past did say I wasn’t going to speak about this again but thought I would finally explain everything I know about what’s going on. This is the final post on the matter

The others on their list are more then welcome to explain in the replies/reblogs their side of the story and anyone else is also welcome to.

#discourse

39 notes · View notes

dontmeantobepoliticalbut · 22 days

Text

For the second week in a row, Republicans in state legislatures are making the interesting choice of fighting for child marriage. In Missouri, where children 16 or older can marry with parental permission, a bill to prohibit anyone under age 18 from getting a marriage license easily cleared the Republican-controlled Senate 31 to one last month. But now, the bill can’t get out of committee in the state House because seven out of 14 committee members are House Republicans who oppose the bill.

Those opponents include Rep. Hardy Billington (R), who insists without any evidence or logic whatsoever that banning child marriage will lead to a spike in abortions, even as abortion is totally banned in the state. “My opinion is that if someone [wants to] get married at 17, and they’re going to have a baby and they cannot get married, then chances of abortion are extremely high,” he told the Kansas City Star this week. Earlier this week, I also had to write about a different Republican lawmaker in New Hampshire who used the same argument against a bill to ban child marriage. This doesn’t make sense—if someone of any age is pregnant and doesn’t want to be, they’ll probably seek abortion care; this actually has nothing to do with marriage.

Another opponent of the bill, Rep. Dean Van Schoiack (R), told the Star that he opposes the bill because he knows someone who got married as a 17-year-old girl and is still married. “Why is the government getting involved in people’s lives like this?” Van Schoiak said.

Of course, if we’re bringing anecdotes and lived experience into this, I think I trust state Sen. Holly Thompson Rehder (R), who introduced the bill, a little more than Van Schoiack. “As a child that did get married, I would say I have a lot more insight to this issue than what he does,” Rehder said of Van Schoiack. Per the Star, Rehder got married at 15 to a 21-year-old, while her sister at 16 married her 39-year-old drug dealer. “The government does tell people when they can get married because we do have an age limit right now. The fact that [Van Schoiack] feels that it’s OK for a parent to make a decision for a child, that is a lifetime decision, is offensive.”

At this point, I would like to note that Rehder, who is currently running for lieutenant governor, might be right about this one thing, but is wrong about… pretty much everything else. Rehder supports the state’s total abortion ban and campaigned on a pledge to promote “the Trump Agenda” in her district in Southeast Missouri.

Nonetheless, if her bill doesn’t make it to a vote before the end of the legislative session on May 17, Rehder, who’s currently running for lieutenant governor, said she plans to introduce it as an amendment attached to another bill. She told the Star she’s confident that brought to the floor for a vote, the bill would have a majority…but right now, it’s simply being held up by its Republican opponents on committee.

Rehder’s bill comes after Missouri lawmakers in 2018 raised the state’s minimum marriage age to 16 with parental approval following backlash at the time over how many 15-year-olds in the state were being married. Currently, Missouri prohibits marriage between a minor and someone who is 21 or older, similar to the state’s statutory rape laws that prohibit sexual intercourse between someone 21 and older and someone under 17. This is all pretty needlessly confusing, but what isn’t confusing is that this is part of a pattern of Republican lawmakers going to bat for child marriage—from the state representative in New Hampshire who insisted that “ripe” and “fertile” teens should be able to marry, to a different Missouri lawmaker who last year declared that 12-year-olds should be able to get married because he personally knew someone who married at 12 (I mean, I hope they’re doing well today, but somehow, I, err, have my doubts…).

Experts and advocates against child trafficking have long pointed to how laws that permit child marriage put them at greater risk. The bill in Missouri’s legislature is notably part of a bipartisan effort, introduced by Rehder and Democrat Lauren Arthur. But despite Rehder’s best efforts, their bill is being blocked by members of her own party, even as Republican politicians have spent the better part of the last few years escalating their baseless and fearmongering smears of queer people as child sexual predators. As it turns out based on the political affiliations of every lawmaker fighting tooth-and-nail for child marriage (and, consequently, adult predators’ ability to marry children), the call might just be coming from inside the house—the Missouri state House, specifically.

#us politics #news #republicans #conservatives #gop #republican family values #child marriage #abortions #jezebel #Kansas City Star #Hardy Billington #Missouri #New Hampshire #Dean Van Schoiack #Holly Thompson Rehder #Lauren Arthur #2024

42 notes · View notes

flandrepudding · 5 months

Note

I don’t mean to be rude, but who else do we vote for? Donald Trump is almost certainly going to be the republican candidate. Joe Biden is very likely to be the democratic candidate. Joe Biden seems to be the only person appealing enough to centrists and some right wing voters by his nature as a white conservative man to have a consistent chance of beating Trump. No other popular candidate that I know of actually supports Palestine or is less harsh on border policies. Who do we vote for?

You’re not rude, just asking a good question! At this point it’s about putting pressure on those in power, and sending a message to the Democratic Party and our Government as a whole, more-so than it is about winning. This country is collapsing and we need radical change, which is something we will never get by partaking in the two party system.

Biden has shown he is no less evil than Trump. With either of the two, things will not get better. The only difference is one is quietly a monster while the other loudly proclaims it. Why would I give my vote to Genocidal Joe? That sends the message that we will let him get away with this; that he can enable genocide and still remain in power. It sends the message that anyone can enable genocide and remain in power. It also sends the message that they can get away with even more.

If we don’t vote for him, the Democratic Party will be pressured to move their values more to the left. That is why in my post, I state we need to strategize and start having discussions about this. We need to decide on a candidate. I believe that currently there are two pro-Palestinian candidates running, they are named Cornel West and Jill Stein. There may be more but those are two big ones i remember.

47 notes · View notes

fairuzfan · 5 months

Note

ahlan. maybe ignore this if you’re not american, but ive seen what you’ve said about biden and i obviously agree hes a bloodthirsty motherfucker who doesn’t deserve a single vote from people who claim to care about palestine. but as a palestinian myself, what do you say to these americans that are like “well what else are we supposed to do, vote for trump?” cuz i genuinely am not sure myself either.

my first thought would be to just not vote or vote for a third party and focus on calling represantatives and marching in the streets until some semblance of change can occur. But I wonder how practical that really is.

A part of me is screaming very loudly about how idgaf about practicality and if they really cared then they would act in a more direct manner because it seems very whiney for them to be like “we dont have a choice :(( hes the lesser of two evils” (the dude whos playing a huge role in committing a literal genocide) when people in gaza are going through literal hell. it boils my blood but im trying to think of what they can do really and set my emotions aside for a second.

Do you have any thoughts on this? and thanks for taking the time to read btw.

No problem, Ahlan to you also!

Honestly I'm not voting on a federal level. Congress, senate, and the president have blatantly shown us they don't care about our opinions. We have been calling and emailing for months and they just flat out ignore us. So what's the point in voting if they're not going to listen to us? I told them that I won't vote for them unless they call for a ceasefire and I mean it!

I see Claudia de la Cruz seems to be popular, I'm not especially motivated in voting for anyone for president but you personally might be interested in looking into it.

I just genuinely don't see the point in voting for president since I think the whole system is messed up and I'm not sure anyone can fix it. So I choose not to participate beyond local elections. But that might not feel like it's helpful, and again, I don't think you should take my word for it lol but it's just my perspective. I don't think people who vote for Biden are necessarily.... bad people all the time but I do think people who pretend like they're doing a great service to others by voting for him are objectively bad. Like I don't care, if you're trying to pass off the genocide of Palestinians and the third nakba as a "necessary evil" then I think you're a bad person and I will never take what you say about politics seriously.

People pretend like we are protecting democracy by voting blue but when democrats just blatantly ignore us as we overwhelmingly participate in dissent in the ways our "democracy" allows us.... then sorry we don't live in a democracy. Full stop.

I'm not sure if what I said was reassuring or anything, and again, I think you should still look into the candidates and arrive at your own conclusion but I am thoroughly disillusioned by the entire system and I don't think anything will change that anytime soon.

45 notes · View notes