I hope you’ll forgive me if this post is just a hair more than a touch disjunct. All day I’ve felt as though my brain has been floating in a lukewarm vat of Vaseline sprinkled with crushed Valium. I’ve basked in the soft yellow glow of my own mediocrity for decades now, so it really wouldn’t be fair of you to expect any better from me when I have a head full of petroleum jelly. Anyway, here are a few thoughts that have been floating around in my thick haze:
Do we really intend to sacrifice every woman’s civil liberties at the altar of unfettered government oversight of every woman’s uterus? I’m just wondering, because I’ve been getting the feeling lately that we do. I’m sure I’m not being pragmatic here, but I’d really prefer to distance myself from the ‘we’ who have any such intention. I tend to think that any sort of pragmatism that involves tossing the rights of over 50% of the population under the bus, is the farthest thing from pragmatic. That’s the sort of pragmatism that leads to driving drunk because the other guy is even more wasted. Call me a single issue guy if you like, but should you choose to pin a single issue on me, please do pin it on the one where I say that depriving anybody of their rights, or advocating for the same, is indefensible.
I understand that many feel that abortion is an issue and a procedure which is difficult, uncomfortable, icky, yucky, unfortunate, unpleasant, inconvenient, awful, shitty or really just about any other negative adjective you might care to use. I get it, and just as soon as the right of every woman to do exactly what she chooses with her uterus, or any other part of her body, without any government oversight is completely secure and no longer under attack, I’ll buy everybody a drink at my corner bar. We can cry each other a few rivers and maybe even have a group hug and sing along. I don’t mean to trivialize your angst, but then again maybe I do. If Human rights and civil rights don’t come first, what the hell is the point? Why even bother?
Just as a point of reference, this post was prompted by some of what I read in the comments attached to GreenSooner’s recent post on what’s happening in Oklahoma, as well as the cross posted edition of the same on Kos. For further reference, have a look at what happens on just about any post which deals with either Pennsylvania or Bob Casey. I realize it’s bad etiquette to post about the contents of the comment sections of blogs, but I was stunned by some of what I read. I’m concerned that we have found ourselves in a place where being a pro-choice Democrat is viewed as inconvenient or distasteful. I won’t pretend to know a thing about electoral strategy, but advocating for a position shared by a majority of the country, which also happens to be right, seems just about as convenient as you can get. Pragmatic, even.
I must say I was also stunned by many of the wonderful comments I read as well. I have nothing on about 95% of the people who participate regularly on this site in terms of their knowledge, and their ability to make powerful arguments with that knowledge. I’m often humbled by what I read.