Political dysfunction and social unrest have had America marching towards another civil war for years. And I have been in the vanguard of those sounding alarms in commentaries like “Tribalism and Dysfunction in American Politics,” June 24, 2018, “Impeachment Vote Is as Much About Tribalism as Trumpism,” November 3, 2019, and “Republican and Democrats Began Governing Like Sunnis and Shias. Now Washington Is Looking Like Baghdad,” January 17, 2021; and in my podcast “Online Comments and the Fate of Democracy,” June 13, 2021.
Unfortunately, I have watched in utter stupefaction as tribal skirmishes over everything from wearing masks to combating Covid-19, teaching critical race theory (CRT), and suppressing voting rights have animated this march of folly.
But I see no point in commenting on the suicidal absurdity of Republicans turning masks intended to save their lives into muzzles intended to squash their freedoms. With respect to both masks and CRT, however, it is farcically Orwellian-cum-Trumpian for Republican governors to impose cultural indoctrination by claiming to fight cultural indoctrination.
Barack Obama famously said he had a nightmare about an America divided between red states and blue states. Well, his nightmare is coming true – with blue states composed of people motivated by patriotism and intelligence; and red states composed of people motivated by superstition, ambition and ignorance. And there’s an inexorable fervor to this disuniting of the United States of America.
But leave it to Texas to make itself ground zero for the issues animating the march towards this second civil war that slaves states were for the single issue that animated the march towards the first one.
With respect to voting rights:
If you thought that infamous Georgia election bill smacked of Jim Crow 2.0, this Texas election bill will have you thinking KKK 2.0:
The Republican-controlled Texas Legislature on Tuesday passed a major bill overhauling the state’s elections, overcoming a six-week walkout by Democrats to cement Texas as one of the most difficult states in the country in which to vote.
The voting restrictions were a capstone victory in Republicans’ national push to tighten voting rules and alter the administration of elections in the wake of false claims about the integrity of the 2020 presidential contest. Gov. Greg Abbott, a Republican, vowed on Tuesday to sign the bill.
(The New York Times, August 31, 2021)
But the day of reckoning still looms. Trump’s voter-suppressing MAGA pawns are frantically passing laws to rig elections in red states across America. But what do they think is going to happen when they attempt to present Congress their trumped-up electors after rigging the 2024 presidential election? Do they think bona-fide electors from blue states are just going to roll out the red carpet for their two-legged orange calf to return as president?
Civil War II: Red States vs. Blue States! And, trust me, just as Trump himself dodged the fight on January 6, no Trump will be among the idiots fighting this war for his cause either. Oh, and Biden, not Trump, will be commander in chief. So, in the immortal words of Inigo Montoya – prepare to die, suckers.
With respect to abortion rights:
Just when I thought America could not become any more polarized and restive, along comes this certifiably combustible development:
The Supreme Court did not take action early Wednesday on a request to block a Texas law prohibiting most abortions after about six weeks of pregnancy, allowing the most restrictive abortion law in the nation to go into effect.
The law, known as Senate Bill 8, amounts to a nearly complete ban on abortion in Texas, one that will further fuel legal and political battles over the future of Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision that established a constitutional right to abortion. The law makes no exceptions for pregnancies resulting from incest or rape.
(The New York Times, September 1, 2021)
Mind you, Republicans in red Taliban states like Texas couldn’t care less that poor people will be forced to have unsafe abortions or unwanted babies. Because these same Republicans are hell-bent on abolishing state and federal welfare services that would help in both cases. This would be ironic if it were not so intentionally cruel.
But don’t get me started on the self-righteous hypocrisy that will play out … again. Because everyone knows that red-state Republicans who can afford to will not hesitate to pay for loved ones to travel to blue states to abort unwanted pregnancies.
And please spare me the glib references to contraceptives and abstinence to cope with this Talibanic law. Because its cruel intent is belied by not even allowing abortions in cases of rape and incest. Again, all Republicans know well the self-righteous hypocrisy that will follow in such cases.
But the gaslighting absurdity afoot should shame even Texas Republicans. After all, on the one hand, they claim that a law that mandates wearing masks violates their freedom, while on the other hand, they champion a law that mandates a woman have a baby against her will. American Taliban!
It’s arguable that the Supreme Court’s plainly unconstitutional rulings on slavery triggered the first Civil War. Therefore, you’d think it would avoid even telegraphing similar rulings on voting and abortion rights that could trigger a second one. Yet here we are.
The point, though, is that the confluence of skirmishes over masks, CRT, voting rights, and abortion has America restive and disunited in ways not seen since the years preceding the first Civil War. And what Abraham Lincoln said about a nation divided against itself is as true today as it was back then. This. Will. Not. End. Well.
Related commentaries:
Texas voting rights legislatures flee…
tribalism… impeachment… podcast fate of democracy…
Jan 6 insurrection… Georgia…
* This commentary was originally published yesterday, Wednesday, at 2:57 p.m.