I keep saying that elections have consequences. And perhaps now people who have treated their right to vote as an inconvenience will finally wake up to the reality that it truly does matter who is representing them at the local, state, and federal level. While voting for the president is important, voting for mayors, governors, local and state lawmakers, and federal lawmakers is just as important.
Since Friday, I’ve looked at a lot of Facebook postings and Tic Tok videos of people either praising or lamenting the Supreme Court decisions on public funds supporting religious school education, expanding gun rights, and now banning abortion rights at the federal level. Personally, I find these decisions deeply disturbing and not in the best interest of everyday Americans. However, these judges are in place because this country elected Donald Trump and because people in enough states elected Republican senators who ensured the Trump nominees were confirmed. Set aside the fact that two of them misrepresented their views to Senators on protecting longstanding precedence that would have kept Roe v. Wade in place.
On the subject of this detrimental abortion decision, I must add that women, mostly poor women of color, will suffer from this bad decision. Some will die from self-imposed abortions or inadequate pre-natal healthcare and many others will have to endure the derailment of their life ambitions. To add insult to injury, this country has no safety net to adequately support mothers and children and no good system in place to hold men financially and socially accountable for the unplanned children they sire. Ironically, forcing poor women of color to carry unplanned pregnancies to delivery will result in an even faster demographic change that white supremacist fear so much. Maybe then we will be able to fully free ourselves of their desired tyranny.
I told a gleeful religious zealot on Facebook not to be so short-sighted. I pointed out that his own daughters could die if they had an unintended pregnancy that they were too afraid to disclose to him and then tried to end that pregnancy on their own. I pointed out to him that his daughters could die from a tubal pregnancy that doctors refuse to end because of this abortion ban. I also shared my alternative view that personhood begins with the “breath of life” and that the womb is just a place where a body is formed. I asserted that if abortion is murder like he claims, then God must be the biggest murderer because so many pregnancies end in miscarriage. These federal Republicans vow to do away with abortion in all 50 states and to eliminate abortion pills that allow women to end early unwanted pregnancies, so his daughter would be left in desperation, taking us back to the pre-Roe days of coat hangers, falling down steps, and back-alley butchers.
The decisions of the Supreme Court do not represent the will of the people, but they represent the will of a minority of people who voted for Republicans and won because other Americans failed to show up to vote. So, I have a message for the religious male zealot on Facebook who gleefully but mistakenly rejoiced that abortion was banned across the nation by the Supreme Court (it wasn’t), or the young black female on Tic Tok who said voting is a scam because Biden didn’t stop the ruling and because we have majorities in the House and Senate, but this still happened. My message is two-fold. First, learn how our government works. Second, vote in every election for intelligent people who represent your interests and who will pass laws that protect your fundamental rights and who will help ensure public safety.
I’ve made it my mission this year to use my voice to encourage people to vote in the November 2022 mid-term election to secure stronger majorities in the House and especially in the Senate. Historically, the party in the White House loses seats both in the House and Senate. But with the Trump Republican Party on the march, we cannot afford to allow them to govern. They are harboring too much bigotry, too much lawlessness, and too little care for marginalized people and the environment. Their agenda for America would be a disaster for women, LGBTQ people, communities of color, children, and the environment. And they have no answer for high gas prices nor inflation. They lie about Biden being the cause of high gas prices and inflation, depending on the ignorance of people like that religious zealot and that Tic Tok girl to either vote for them or stay away from the polls.
The young woman on Tic Tok didn’t understand that passing legislation in the Senate requires 60 votes, not just 51. The religious zealot didn’t understand the concept of states’ rights. So, consequently, neither understood the importance of their votes in mid-term elections. In fact, the young woman was advocating against voting because she was so disappointed. I countered her argument in the comments as was my civic duty.
I understand that a lot of people are angry today and will be again taking to the streets. And they should. But my hope is that these same people and many others will take to the polls this November to vote. Positive changes will happen when we have lawmakers in place at all levels of government who are committed to gun safety, pro-choice, civil rights, the environment, and public health. The numbers are on our side so we can have the lawmakers we desire if we show up to vote.