Thursday, March 31, 2016

Condescension

con•de•scen•sion

[kon-duh-sen-shuh n] 
noun
1. an attitude of patronizing superiority; disdain.
2. behavior that is patronizing or condescending.
3. voluntary assumption of equality with a person regarded as inferior.

Just when you thought that the right could not get any more condescending toward half the planet they go and succeed – by really failing to hide what they so deeply believe: Women are incapable of making their own choices. 

In the pander-fest that is the Republican nominating process, the front-runner suffered another bout of verbal diathermia and endorsed the idea that women who have abortions should be subject to “some form of punishment” if the right ever succeeds in outlawing the procedure. Let me go on the record: I abhor this position for its premise that the Right should ever succeed in interposing the government between the woman and her healthcare provider… They claim to hate “Obamacare” because it puts Uncle Sam between you and your doctor – it doesn’t – but then they want to step in and put themselves between the woman and her doctor. So no, in no way do I believe that This position is a “good” one – I simply believe at least makes some sort of sense – if an action is against the law, obviously all the willing participants in that act should be held liable. 

But who has ever accused the right of holding logical positions. The entire party pounced. They denounced this position saying that the candidate was “out of touch” with the aims of their movement… but was he!? Is this not the same movement that fosters an environment that encourages, if not actively inciting, violence against women’s healthcare clinics? Let’s face it! The so-called Pro-Life movement is only interested in “live” until it reaches the cervix, after that it is someone else’ problem.

Hours later The Orange One “explained” his position saying: “The woman is a victim in this case, as is the life in her womb…” And now we have come full circle and have exposed the condescension of the Right. Assuming for the moment that Right is capable of returning us to the bad-old-days prior to Roe V. Wade where abortions very often killed the woman as well as the fetus, this stand is hypocrisy plain and simple. Look at any other issue about which the right is passionate: “Three Strikes Laws” and “Zero-Tolerance” policies – though highly misguided and steeped in institutional racism – at least make sense in that they punish all the willing participants in a crime. 

The right has once again shown their misogynist attitude. What? Do they think that women are too stupid to actively decide to have and seek-out a practitioner of a medical procedure? And again, what business is it to the Right what the medical decisions of a woman are? I am reminded of the old bumper sticker I once saw: “If you cannot trust me with this choice, how can you trust me with that child!?”

Today, a special message to women: wherever you are please speak-up tell the Right that you are neither as stupid nor as frail as they seem to think you are! 

Don Bergquist – March 31, 2016 – Lakewood, Colorado, USA


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