In this chapter of The Rise and Fall of the US Empire: Abortion.

This post is probably only interesting to US citizens and residents.

We knew Roe v Wade was going to fall. It is reprehensible that the federal government wasn’t able to get its act together in time. There should absolutely be federal law covering this and the ruling even called it out as the preferred way to settle the case.

So, what happens now?

I believe the biggest trap right now is that progressives and moderates, frustrated by federal gridlock, take out their frustrations by not voting or by voting for a third party. Voting third party is the equivalent of not voting due to the first past the post nature of US elections. This will absolutely hand power to the people who are guaranteed to make this worse. The fascist theocracy wing of the Republican party has smelled blood and they’re out take over. This is clearly seen in the massive purge happening within the Republican party.

Yes, the Democratic party is a shit show. Not least of which is because they are continuing with business as usual while an ever growing faction in the Republican party attempts to turn the US into a fascist theocracy. Trump may have opened the floodgates, but this has been a long time coming. McConnell, Gingrich and others have been working long and hard on undermining democracy in order to move to one party rule. The Democratic party somehow seems to believe it’s all part of the political game and aren’t taking the threat seriously. This is like serving cake to the guy who’s about to cut your head off.

Biden calls McConnell his “good friend” while McConnell backs an attempted coup and generally blockades attempts to remedy it. This is reminiscent of the French knights at the battle of Crecy. The fundamentals of US politics have changed and the Democratic party are still treating it as a genial competition between equals, instead of the cutthroat life and death competition the Republican party is undertaking.

And yet, despite all of that, the choice remains: back Democrats, despite the incompetence, or allow anti-democratic Republican candidates to take power. What about helping more reasonable Republicans get seated? All well and good, but the Republican party has been busy purging them. I don’t see a path to improvement there until the Republican party suffers a humiliating defeat. Looking for a third party to save the day? First past the post makes that path untenable, it’s simply taking votes away from the least worst of the two parties who can win.

Make no mistake, this the time to choose between heavy participation in politics or getting out of the country. Mailing (physical, not email) or calling representatives needs to be a weekly task. Get involved in elections and local legislation. Go to town halls and council meetings. If you’re in a place with politicians you trust, travel to be involved. Fund those who can travel, if you are in the fortunate position of being able to earn large sums of money. Don’t like the Democratic candidates? Back better ones. The writing is on the wall and the supreme court just highlighted it.

We know that popular laws are not enacted, while those favored by the rich are Both wealth and income gaps are extreme. Health care is the joke that leads to bankruptcy. Good education is only available to the rich. As is leisure. The Republican plan is to exacerbate all of these problems under the guise of “personal freedom”.

It is also long past time for a general strike. Shut the country down. This is about far more than abortion.

Clearly, nothing short of shutting the country down is going to galvanise lawmakers to make the necessary changes. We’ve already seen a significant number of progressive bills stymied. Including the all important John Lewis Voting Rights Act. The Democrats waste time trying to court a disinterested Republican party and the lack of leadership at the top allows for dissent over trivialities to fracture the party internally. Meanwhile, the Republicans gleefully laugh as the Democrats strangle themselves with the filibuster. A rope they should have cut long ago.

As for the problem at hand, there’s lots of groups putting in time and effort to keep abortion available. For example: Abortion Funds

There’s also some states who are trying to ban travel for abortion, which is going to have a chilling effect, even though the supreme court has explicitly mentioned interstate travel as permissible. I would advise against calling this “camping”, that’s acquiescing to the tyrants and making it more difficult for those in need.

Yes, the immediate problem is abortion. That is, I’m sad to say, the least of our worries. How are you going to participate, on a weekly basis, to change this path?