As MAGA persecutes the equally fanatical right-wing white Catholic leadership for not being loyal enough to Trump, could it split the coalition that the Moral Majority crafted, drive them out of politics or back to the Democrats? Could Republicans ever win an election without white Catholic votes?
I warned you.
About 15 years ago, I had a minor moment of Internet fame when I wrote a lengthy essay series on LiveJournal called "Christians in the Hand of an Angry God." In it, I argued that right-wing evangelical "Christianity" was literally Satanic by scriptural standards, was literally the cult of anti-Christ that Jesus prophesied in Matthew 25:31-46, that they were literally worshiping a made-up guy with the same name to justify cruelty, just like Jesus predicted they would the week before the crucifixion.
And at least half of the people who read it and praised it called it excellent satire. They saw my point, thought I was onto something, but couldn't take seriously that I literally meant what I literally said.
"Do not commit the sin of empathy."
In case you thought it was just this one guy preaching that empathy is a sin:
The same news source had a long piece, a couple of days ago, quoting top Baptist theologians on this controversy, here's the steel-man version of it:
- If people are suffering, it's because they're doing something wrong, probably something sinful or else God would protect them.
- Empathy tricks you into thinking that the problem is that they're suffering, when the real problem is that they're sinning.
- True sympathy says, "stop sinning so you don't have to suffer." And, "If I lifted your suffering, what would motivate you to stop sinning? You're supposed to suffer until you stop sinning."
Never mind how many ways in which this contradicts the plain language of the Bible, you don't even have to go into that to sigh and say, "It's the 'Just World' hypothesis all over again." Rich and powerful people and their acolytes love the "Just World" hypothesis because if it were true, their wealth and popularity and power would be proof that they did nothing wrong.
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Do u think killing babies is wrong? Yes or no
Yes. Killing babies is wrong.
Nothing in embryology or any other science says that a fetus is a baby. Nor does the Christian bible (which says the soul enters the body with the first breath), nor the scriptures of any other major world religion, not that that should matter.
I, for example, was almost 15 years old before the Southern Baptist church stopped denouncing abortion opposition, calling the "pro-life" position un-biblical "papistry" before then. And they didn't change their mind through biblical exegesis, they changed their mind in exchange for huge bribes from crazy right-wing billionaires.
Now let me turn it around on you, asshole: do you think killing women (by denying them essential healthcare) is wrong? Yes or no.
This is your second-to-last warning.
Back when fanatical anti-abortion judges were getting appointed in Trump's first term, people on Facebook asked me how scared should they be? And I drew the comparison to the role that the Fugitive Slave Act played in the run-up to the US Civil War, to lay out three levels of alert, because repealing Roe would be your third-to-last warning.
- If Roe v Wade was repealed, I said, have a discussion with your loved ones and dependents where you try to get them to imagine having to flee, and come back to it, if not every night, often enough to keep the possibility in mind.
- When the first attempt is made to extradite a doctor or pharmacist or other volunteer from a free state to an anti-abortion state, for a crime not illegal in that state, I said start active preparations in case you're going to need to flee. (More on that in a bit.)
- When that extradition request fails, and it will fail, you should expect a Republican Congress like this one to pass "Fugitive Slave Act 2.0," requiring free-state local law officials to assist out-of-state law officials and/or bounty hunters in bringing "abortionists" to justice, just like they did last time, and expect this Supreme Court to uphold it. When that happens, get yourself and your loved ones to safety in a free state or, honestly, abroad if you can. Because ...
- The last time these very same states tried this, they found that private citizens and local law enforcement in the free states went to extreme lengths to buy time for escaped slaves to escape, delaying out-of-state bounty hunters in every way, the Supreme Court be damned.
If you're still here when that bridge is crossed, you volunteered to live through a civil war. Because the anti-abortion states are going to find out that it is physically impossible to enforce their will on free states while remaining in the United States.
The outcome will be the same, because the conditions haven't changed. The army will take their side? Nearly the whole army took their side last time, too. Didn't help once the food and bullets ran low, which will happen again this time. Last time it ended with their cities shelled and burned to the ground, their economy in a shambles that it still hasn't recovered from, and there's no plausible story that ends the next civil war, if they're determined to have another one, on any other terms.
Yesterday ...
... a Louisiana grand jury issued an order to extradite a New York pharmacist for remotely prescribing mifepristone to a patient in Louisiana. Not only was that legal, but New York state has a shield law, requiring local law enforcement to defend the pharmacist or anyone else so indicted. And it's just what I predicted, because that's what they did last time.
With this Congress, expect a "Fugitive Abortionist Act." They'll have to suspend the filibuster in the Senate to pass it, so there's some hope yet. But by the time it passes, if it does, you will need:
- Up-to-date travel papers. A passport is best, but for Gods' sake at least have up-to-date REAL IDs for yourself and your dependents. And ...
- Cash. Preferably stashed off-premises, maybe diversified, and at least some of it out of the country or in a local credit union in the free state you're going to if that's your choice.
- A transportation plan. Where are you going and how are you going to get there? And, finally, and most importantly ...
- An agreement. Promise each other, in advance, that once physical resistance to extraditions ordered under the Fugitive Abortionists Act (or whatever they end up calling it) makes the news? Screw inertia, screw work, screw the fact that you might not have a plan for a place to live when you get there, screw all the reasons to stay, you need to promise each other that, if that day comes, you are going to implement your escape plan, and not wait another day.
Because, to expand on what I said above, if you wait until armies are on the march and checkpoints go up because borders are closing, you will have waited too long, and wherever you are on that day, that's where you're going to be when US cities start looking like Aleppo, like Mariupol, like Gaza.
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