I was happy to hear Liz Cheney reverse course on her opposition to marriage equality, telling “60 Minutes” that she was wrong to come out against marriage back in 2013 when running for Senate
ARE WE THERE YET?
Am I the only one who thought the election of Joe Biden, combined with the appalling spectacle of January 6, signaled the end of Trump and his favorites? Even after it became clear that some remnants of the man and a few of his zealous fans remained active, I considered them zombies. November 2024 is a long way off, I thought. Who knows what the Republican Party will send our way at that point? Whoever they come up with, it certainly won’t be the crazed egomaniac former guy with his 80th birthday in sight.
Now I feel as if I’m watching one of those horror movies where the bad guy is lying dead in the other room and the surviving victim has sunk her head in her hands with relief. (Of course, the victim must always be female.) But but but. The bad guy’s not dead. Girl! Wake up! He’s getting to his feet and he’s still coming for you!
I’m a congenital optimist, which has generally been a useful and positive trait over the course of my life so far. But it might be letting me down at the moment. Did any of you read Robert Kagan’s Washington Post editorial titled: “Our Constitutional Crisis is Already Here?” Kagan notes the complacency that historically greets dictators. People don’t take them seriously as they approach. They don’t believe their national institutions will break. They don’t think their fellow citizens will allow such a takeover. I’m that person. And the problem here is that Trump’s return from the dead is made possible by the cohesive bloc of rabid supporters that he pits against the rest of us and our fractured majority.
So could he use a GOP-led Congress to wrest power from a Democratic President-elect in 2024?
Nah.
WHERE ARE WE?
It feels as if there’s a new nastiness in the air.
I suppose I thought that once Trump and his minions swallowed their venom and slunk back into the Everglades, their followers would thin out and return to the fringes while a new generation of young center-left Americans took their place in society.
Instead, I’m seeing stories that were commonplace in the 90s, but less so in the early 2000s. Overt homophobia. Conservative school boards. Bashings and murders. Anti-trans bills racing through state legislatures and onto Governors’ desks.
I also live in Texas, where as you know we just banned reproductive choice with a law that lets random people obtain $10,000 for suing anyone who facilitates an abortion. Hey, that’s Texas. But what the hell is the 5-4 Supreme Court doing by allowing that law to remain in force while it’s being challenged? That’s a rogue majority that we can never really predict in the future. Could it repeal Roe? Sure, I guess. Hell, maybe it could repeal Griswold v Connecticut and we could let states ban contraceptives again.
Could it repeal Obergefell?
Nah.
MORE NASTINESS NEWS
By the way, did you see that an abortion doctor in Texas has been sued by a disbarred former lawyer who is currently under house arrest in Arkansas for some reason that I haven’t researched. The lawsuit, which in theory could net him the aforementioned ten grand, is incoherent, but since the doctor deliberately performed the abortion in order to test the bizarre statute, I imagine the Hog State weirdo will have a good case.
Meanwhile, in nastiness news, do you remember the school district in the Portland suburb of Newberg, Oregon, that banned rainbow signs and flags along with any other political or “controversial” messages in the classrooms? The school board reaffirmed their policy with a 4-3 vote in late September. Really? As we said before in these very pages, the only way a rainbow sign is “controversial” is if people disapprove of their GLBT students and classmates.
Oh, and a similar thing is going on at a school in Irving, Texas (Dallas area) where again, the authorities banned all the safe space and rainbow stickers that had long been a presence on the MacArthur High School campus. It sounds as if a new principal took command of the scene and determined that safe spaces were inappropriate, or at least the stickers and signs sent a bad signal.
Then, in a mysterious development that I can’t figure out, the Gay Straight Alliance sponsor, Rachel Stonecipher, and another teacher were both missing from class for days. Stonecipher told the press she couldn’t comment on her disappearance, but said the students shouldn’t worry on her behalf. Several hundred kids staged a walkout to protest the situation in late September.
SISTER, SISTER
So, I think marriage equality is finally a reality in Switzerland, but to be honest, I grew tired of the dilly dallying up in the Alpine country that couldn’t be bothered to oppose Hitler. Welcome to the club. You’re about ten years late as far as the rest of Europe is concerned.
Also, some additional areas in Mexico may have joined the fold. Mexico’s marriage equality progresses on a state by state basis, and considering that the country has 32 states including Mexico City, it’s a slow dance. Global Marriage Equality says Sonora is the 23rd state to authorize same-sex marriage either by court order or legislative action.
And speaking of slow dancing, I was happy to hear Liz Cheney reverse course on her opposition to marriage equality, telling “60 Minutes” that she was wrong to come out against marriage back in 2013 when running for Senate. At the time, her sister Mary and Mary’s long term partner Heather, publicly expressed their disappointment and shock. After all, Liz had been perfectly friendly to both of them for years prior to cozying up to the Wyoming electorate, so her turnabout was a slap in the face. To her credit, today’s Liz Cheney made no excuses, simply admitting that she made a mistake.
“I was wrong. It’s a very personal issue—and very personal for my family. I believe that my dad was right. And my sister and I have had that conversation … Freedom means freedom for everybody.”
Okay then.
