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Allen's avatar

Racism and greed are drugs stronger than any opioid. Trump exploited American’s addiction to both.

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MDA's avatar

I think this is a case of "it doesn't affect me" voting. Until it does. Time after time in the reporting on cases of women denied abortion care for miscarriages, ectopic pregnancies, fatal fetal anomaly, or fetal demise, there are those who have said "well I didn't think this was abortion". I predict in another 10 years the majority of women will not be able to find an OB within an hour's drive of them. This is already the situation is large parts of the rural US. It will only get worse. These women will not connect the lack of trained doctors to their votes.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

It's a very good point. We often ignore the darkness in the room for the perceived darkness elsewhere. There is one reason women won't be able to get the reproductive care they need in this country -- Republicans. At some point that has to matter, wouldn't you think?

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MDA's avatar

It will matter eventually. But a lot of women and their families will be hurt in the meantime. For now it’s primarily hitting low income women of color. There is a big racist component at work here, as usual.

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Kent Anderson's avatar

Perfect example. Remember the story about North Dakota? Their only abortion clinic was in Fargo. Well, after Roe, they were going to move to Morehead - Minnesota (right across the Red River). After some very loud screaming (and a judges' ruling), the clinic stayed in Fargo, until the landlord raised the rent. Fuckers. Plus, would you drive from Minot or Dickenson or Beach - literally clear across the state - to get an abortion?

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Sarah Maldonado's avatar

As someone who has seen abortion rights from the 60’s when I went from OK to CA with a family member to obtain a legal abortion there to save her life when it was illegal here and then in the 70’s after Roe and I aided two friends by driving them for care here, and now knowing currently I would be arrested for aiding in many states, I do not understand what happened in this election. I have marched locally and know there will be a big march in Washington on Inauguration Day, it does seem futile. What has happened, indeed?? My button says “I will not go quietly back to the 1950s”, but no one cares if I’m quiet or not…

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Barry Friedman's avatar

And we're headed back there, anyway -- unfortunately.

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Sarah Maldonado's avatar

Yes, we are…

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TCinLA's avatar

You failed to mention that all of those states you mentioned have been thoroughly gerrymandered.

Who do we blame for that? We should blame Obama, since he is the guy who made Rahm Fucking Emanuel his Chief of Staff. Within a month of Obama taking office in 2009, Emanuel had fired Howard Dean - creator of the 50-state strategy that gave them the 62-seat Senate majority that got us Obamacare - and shuttered Obama For America, the best grassroots campaign I ever saw. Then in 2010 - the decennial year that governed reapportionment - Emanuel declared they would only support "winnable" races, ceding the battlefield to Republicans. The Republicans took the majority of state legislatures, with Democrats dropping from 28 to 21 legislatures, and then they proceeded to gerrymander the vote. They also took a majority in Congress and knocked off thee Senate seats, restoring the Republican filibuster.

We've been in the hole ever since 2010 because we voted for a wonderful guy in 2008 who was the most politically naive president ever elected (he's even admitted that now). By the time he figured out Republicans really did want him dead in 2012, it was too late.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

I agree, except there are still women with vaginas and uteri who are voting for those who hate those aforementioned vaginas and uteri. These women could make those who hate women-hood pay -- and they're not. Gerrymandered districts or not, the mystery seems to be why. Former Senator Sherrod Brown, for instance, wan't gerrymandered out of his seat. He lost to a guy who's opposed to reproductive rights. How do we blame Obama or Emanuel for that?

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TCinLA's avatar

The senate seats are different, that's true.

In "information deserts: (read: rural districts without a local paper) Trump won by 80-90% of the vote. Also, the Republican alternate media universe really is effective.

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Bruce K.'s avatar

Was unfair redistricting the "little trick" Mike Moses Johnson and Trumpy were chortling about one week prior to 05.November but wouldn't divulge the details of?

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TCinLA's avatar

Highly likely.

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Mike Phillips's avatar

Portugal is starting to look pretty good.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Every day it looks a little better

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Kent Anderson's avatar

So is that Yurt in the Indian Ocean.

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Palma E. Pustilnik's avatar

I keep telling y'all: America hates women. Strong women, weak women, women of color, fecund women, infertile women, ALL women. And yes, a lot of Americans are women who hate women.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

That pretty much covers it all -- and fucking sad is that? Most important of all, where do we go from here? What's next?

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Palma E. Pustilnik's avatar

A lot of women are going to die; a lot of women are going to suffer increased predation by abusers who feel more entitled and empowered than ever; a lot of women are going to be passed over for career advancement in favor of less-qualified men; the list is endless. And I'm exhausted.

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Jack Mahoney's avatar

How many educated Catholics secretly supported Galileo and Copernicus while declaring publicly that the Church speaks only God's truth? Also, it's not just that the R's mischaracterized abortion; in addition, they have accused even moderate Democrats of rabid socialism so often that the idea of some Montana rube willing to pull the lever that might elevate AOC into a position of leadership because doing so would eliminate draconian regulation against ending ectopic pregnancy might falter before also jettisoning the comforting, quasi-religious GOP bathwater.

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Barry Friedman's avatar

And I guess if neither you nor anyone you know will ever have an abortion, it's easy to see how the issue doesn't resonate. But that doesn't address the issue of why the women who need such protections vote against those who will support legislation that protects them.

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Jack Mahoney's avatar

Perhaps because they hate others more than they love themselves.

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wlipman@comcast.net's avatar

Next: what happened to all of the election integrity investigations?

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Barry Friedman's avatar

Oh, that, too.

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Terry Moran's avatar

People, they’re the worst!

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Terry Moran's avatar

Makes a guy want to clock where the exits are or might be.

Like Ireland.

Or Portugal.

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