Hello james,
Calling the Republican Party the dog that caught the car is a popular idiomatic analysis these days that doesn’t quite fully track. Not only is it an insult to the intelligence and morality of our fine canine friends, it fails to capture the enormity of the electoral problem facing the GOP as their deeply unpopular anti-abortion policies take root across the country.
Since the MAGA-packed Supreme Court repealed Roe v. Wade in the Dobbs decision, Republican-controlled states have unleashed a tidal wave of legislation curtailing reproductive rights. Most Americans staunchly oppose such bills but the GOP is now entirely beholden to the vocal theocrats who form the vanguard of their base. They have to deliver on the far-right policies they’ve been promising for years or they’ll be aggressively primaried.
This PR problem for Republicans exploded into the headlines last week when the Alabama Supreme Court, which is composed entirely of conservatives, handed down a disastrous ruling that says embryos frozen and stored for in vitro fertilization (IVF) must be treated as actual human beings under state law. Immediately, one fertility clinic after another began shutting down their IVF treatments, fearful of legal repercussions.
Hold Donald Trump accountable for inciting violence
To those of us who don’t subscribe to Christian Nationalist ideology — which is to say the vast majority of Americans — the Alabama ruling is patently insane. It also happens to be a direct and predictable result of the Dobbs decision.
Republican politicians are scrambling to distance themselves from this issue, insisting to voters that they wholeheartedly support IVF but the truth is that Democrats introduced a bill in 2022 to protect IVF specifically and it was blocked by Republican Senator Cindy Hyde-Smith. They can claim all that they want that they didn’t intend for this outcome. Their party’s voting record reveals the lie.
All of this amounts to a brewing electoral disaster for Republicans. Voters can see now that not only is the GOP anti-abortion, it’s quite literally anti-family. Their policies, if carried out across the country, will stop countless Americans from fulfilling their dreams of having children. IVF is the only conception option for many people — and now those people are being told that they can’t use it because the fringe religious nutcases who control the GOP say so.
This ruling and its consequences obviously fly directly in the face of the Republican Party’s messaging that they support “family values,” but the truth is that there are few things they hate more than families. They regularly vote against childcare and child tax credits. They vote against early education and universal pre-K. They vote against SNAP and Medicaid and half of the recipients of those programs are children. They pass laws that force young girls to give birth after being assaulted.
In fact, the only thing that Republicans hate more than families is accountability which is why they’re trying to slither away from the blast radius of this Alabama ruling. Unfortunately for them (and despite their very best efforts to change this simple fact) we still live in a democracy. Come November, we have the opportunity to hold them fully accountable by pulling the lever for Democrats.
Stay focused, stay energized.
Brian
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