It seems Republican State legislators’ quest to make abortion either illegal or extremely difficult to obtain is a more common theme in our news cycles. Each GOP governor seems to be trying to top the far-right, ‘pro-life’ antics of other ‘Christian’ leaders. No woman is immune to their efforts to clamp down on the right to control her own body. The red flag that is raised in my mind is: Why the hell do they care so much about fetuses when those already born are obviously of little importance?
While claiming to be governments who have adopted Christian ideals, one crazy Teapublican administration after another in these Red States are making it downright perilous to simply be a woman . Restricting abortion and contraception are priority number one when it comes to these white, male conservatives. Ironically, these very same states have the most abysmal statistics on child care and education yet the majority of citizens continue to vote GOP, creating a perpetual cycle of poverty.
Prominent ultra right-wing agents of ‘pro-life’ values, like Koch Brothers’ funded ALEC and religious organizations like The Council on Biblical Womanhood and Manhood (CBMW) lobby against all contraception and abortion rights for any woman. Once the child is born, programs like SNAP and WIC are savagely cut to leave both women and children in dire poverty. These children are disproportionately comprised of minorities like African-American and Hispanic Americans. Ultimately, minorities make up a far greater percentage of the prison population. The composition of prison populations is not conjecture, it is the unfair and racist truth.
The United States has the largest prison population, not just percentage of imprisoned citizens, but actual numbers, on earth, bar none. We certainly pay handsomely for this dubious honor: In the past two decades, the money that states spend on prisons has risen at six times the rate of spending on higher education. The Religious Right is very well aware of this fact. Pat Robertson pointed out on his TV show, The 700 Club, “We here in America make up 5% of the world’s population but we make up 25% of the [world’s] jailed prisoners.” The increased disparity between rich and poor in this country, with a more profound impact on minorities, creates a society which sustains the world’s highest rates of incarceration, thus keeping prisons operating over capacity. The ever-growing gap between the U.S. and the rest of the world is relatively recent. In 1980 the U.S.’s prison population was about 150 per 100,000 adults. It has more than quadrupled since then. Something has happened in the past 30 years to push millions of Americans into prison. The answer: The War on Drugs. (AKA the war on minorities)
Today’s Republican Party has been known for implausible claims like fetal masturbation, rape cannot result in pregnancy and pro-life means pro-death penalty, thus appearing wrought with insanity and contradiction. One might conclude the GOP and its minions are incapable of such a calculated and diabolical plan, but this goes back to the Nixon and Reagan administrations who were a bit more savvy than the Todd Akin/Louis Gomert crowd. Fortunately for today’s Tea Party clowns, their predecessors were much more calculating. Sensible Americans need to know it’s best to never underestimate your enemies, no matter how gaff-ridden they appear.
These folks have been cutting funding in every way possible to prevent upward mobility for Americans who are poor minorities. When a woman is saddled with a child from a young age, it is nearly impossible for her to break the cycle of poverty. They know this. They also know exactly how to appeal to the religious fundamentalists’ principles that motivates even the poorest women to vote for misanthropic misogynists who only seek to increase white, male dominance. Simply look at the principles espoused by prominent Protestants and you’ll understand how they justify their cruel legislation.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) , the father of the Protestant schism, along with a slew of prominent Christian leaders throughout history have intensely misogynist beliefs. Along with his anti-Science quote: “Reason should be destroyed in all Christians”, he seemed to fear and distrust women, like today’s GOP, who believe women should not be in control of their own sexuality. He said, women…“to the end, should remain at home, sit still, keep house, and bear and bring up children.”
Once they’ve justified keeping women in their rightful “place,” they can work hard keeping the dreadful minorities, especially the African Americans, in dire conditions that facilitate the unchecked expansion of the for-profit prison complex. GEO Prison Group actually almost got away with having a football stadium named after the corporation at Florida Atlantic University as it shows obscene profits. The private prison industry rakes in over $5.1 billion per contract, significantly greater than the $760 million 2004 price tag.
California actually receives $50,000 from the state coffers per prisoner, while each student in the public school system only garners $8,667.00 per year. Prison is big business and the GOP knows that every unwanted pregnancy is a potential inmate that will earn their friends beaucoup bucks. One simply needs to follow the money to discover the GOP’s supposed Christian ‘right to life’ is merely a ruse. If the attention is not focused on their deliberate efforts to subjugate minorities, women and children, they can continue to hoard massive profits unbeknownst to the general populace. The GOP has played their insidious hand rather well, and if people realized how diabolical the system is, legislation to combat this strategy (perpetuating the cycle of poverty) might have a chance. If you can follow the money, you’ll see every impetus for GOP politics is based on their worship of the Almighty Dollar.
