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When fascism comes to America it will be wrapped in the flag and carrying a cross.
- Sinclair Lewis
Time was, when a Conservative waxed rhapsodic about wanting to shrink government, to get government off the backs of Americans, you could be forgiven for taking them at their word. Now, once you strip away the rhetoric, the propaganda, and yes, the lies, it’s crystal-clear that “small government” no longer means what you might think. No, these days, if you’re a Social Conservative, you’re ALL about “small government”…unless of course we’re talking about female reproductive functions, in which case your claim to believing in “small government” goes right out the window. If the topic is female reproductive functions and you’re a Social Conservative, you see absolutely no contradiction with Government getting all up in a woman’s business, meaning that legislating sexual morality- up to and including abortion and birth control- is your raison d’etre.
As Rachel Maddow mentions, most politicians (especially of the Social Conservative variety) and media are male. This means that, while they might see themselves as experts on sex because…well, because they have it with their wife twice a year, and their mistress twice a week, they really are clueless when it comes to female reproductive functions. This means that they also have no real clue about how birth control works. Yet despite such epic, stunning ignorance, they feel as if they’r expert enough to tell women what they can and cannot do and how they must do it when it comes to their reproductive functions.
Maddow took issue with what she saw as Romney’s failure to accurately answer a young woman who questioned the Governor’s stance on birth control at an Iowa town hall. Romney—a favorite target of Maddow’s— assumed the woman was referring to his stance on abortion, which he said he was against. But the woman was actually referring to what Romney has previously said he supports: a so-called “personhood amendment” that codifies life as beginning at conception. Many fear that the language of such amendments, which are currently on the ballot in some states, could lead to a ban on birth control.
After she played the clip of the exchange, Maddow said, “Romney apparently does not understand that this is what he supports.” She said that the exchange reminded her about the male domination of politics and the media, and of the fact that those men often find themselves talking about women’s bodies. “Sometimes, I’m not sure they really get it!” she almost shouted.
The problem is that Mitt Romney is all and only about becoming President. If that means eschewing previously-held positions (he at one time was pro-choice and passed a universal health care law while Governor of Massachusetts)…well, then that’s what he’s going to do. It’s about determining what a voter needs to hear in order to be sold on voting for Romney, Romney saying that, and then moving on. That this isn’t exactly a recipe for ideological consistency is no surprise. That it appears to be working is an indictment of the collective IQ of the American Sheeple.
Romney may now believe “in his heart” that he’s anti-choice, but he also knows that he has no shot at the GOP nomination if he’s anything but. If he has to strain credulity and credibility to burnish his anti-choice bona fides…so be it. It’s all (and only) about winning. If it means supporting a constitutional amendment that will in effect turn women into little more than two-legged sperm receptacles- even if he doesn’t fully understand the details of a “personhood amendment”- then that’s what Mitt Romney will do.
Social Conservatives may not understand how a baby is made or how contraception works, but they damn sure understand that by the time they’re done women will once again and rightfully be the property of men. Adolf Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that the first thing the Nazis would do once they came to power would be to get rid of the idea that women should have control over their bodies. If you’re a Social Conservative, women are sperm receptacles and baby generators, and if things go as they plan, that belief will soon have the force of law- Roe v. Wade be damned.
Who says you can’t turn back the clock?
