The takeaways from this week: We will NOT calm down. We will NOT shut up, and we will NOT GO BACK.
And still, all week long we have to hear from pusillanimous “pragmatists” who wonder what all the fuss is about, or who want us to chill out. Hell no, we won’t.
This is no time to moderate our voices. This is no time to moderate our demands. Our goddamned opponents start their day by setting their fucking hair on fire and going out onto the streets and screaming about “dead babies” at people who are trying to access healthcare. Sorry, but I don’t think the proper response is to tink a spoon on a water glass and call for a civil dialogue.
We started out the week with James “I know how to swing an election” Comey telling us on Twitter “Democrats, please, please don’t lose your minds and rush to the socialist left.” As though he wasn’t the one who kidnapped America and threw it out of a moving van at midnight. And then the LA Times chimes in with “Democrats are entirely too focused on abortion.” Gee, I wouldn’t know why? Maybe because abortion rights are POPULAR with voters AND a fundamental liberty. So yeah, pragmatic and right—we think we’ll run with it.
As we also saw this week, even well-meaning voices end up clogging the gears when they try to reassure people with notions like “the era of coat hangers won’t really come back. We’ll have self-managed medical abortion available.” First of all, if you think the womb-sayers aren’t going to come for the abortion pill, contraceptives, and your uterus itself, you’re crazy. Second, if you have to exercise your “reproductive rights” by getting mail order drugs from out of state and trying to hide the box in your trash can so you don’t get caught when you’re done, I have news for you—you don’t have any reproductive rights.
And as far as getting us to shut up, well, to paraphrase our president “No shut up, no shut up, YOU shut up!” The sidewalk screamers who shout threats at clinic workers and patients are hiding behind First Amendment claims. No, we can’t shut them up, but we can shout them out. Justice Louis Brandeis said that the remedy for the abuse of free speech is more free speech—and fucking louder too. (I added that last part.)
LPJL’s tour-spiel took us to gorgeous Minnesota this week. And like we said, it’s a perfect example of a state that’s right on the edge between being a resplendent beacon of personal liberties, or a backward crap-hole run by nasty womb-raiders. Minnesota deserves better. Every place in America does.
This is the shit, people! We’ve got elections to win all over this country, a Supreme Court pick to stop, and a whole slate of Constitutional rights and liberties to guarantee. If we’re not going full-bore-screaming-ovaries RIGHT NOW, then when TF are we gonna do it?
