Many’s the time I’ve bumped into this little nugget when it comes to the US. They are not as homogeneous as some other countries are. In Canada, sure we have our own provincial identities, but we also respect that some laws span the country itself, and are not up for scrutiny by each province unto itself. If you are married in Alberta, you stay married even if you move to Ontario. If Nova Scotia says racism is a hate crime, then it’s a hate crime country-wide, and we’re cool with that.
The US? Not so much.
Brigid clued me into this years ago on HCTV when she talked about ‘State’s rights,’ and to this day it still boggles my mind how Texas could have one set of laws that make something illegal that would be fine in, say, Montana or Colorado. So, if you play that out, a gay married couple in California could find themselves not legally married should they choose to move to Texas or some other red state. I’ll grant you that’s a generalization (which I hate), but you get the idea.
Laws in one state don’t necessarily apply in another.
How many aging politicians in those red states cranked a batch in their collective shorts when Rowe v. Wade was overturned? How many people cheered when a 49 year-old technicality was finally erased? Hell, and not just red states. The media also probably blew a wad when they realized they could ejaculate a load of prose so purple you’d think it had been beaten like a red-headed stepchild.
Again, this boggles my mind that a medical procedure in one state is considered criminal just one state over. How can you call yourself a country when you’re really nothing more than a bunch of cats living on the same bit of land as each other?
49 years though…nearly half a century this has been going on, and has there ever been any thought to codifying it into law? I know Obama ran on that promise and…well…yeah. But surely in the past there were others who wanted to. If the will had been there, I’m positive they would have made it law and all the religious fuckwits out there, and the moral hypocrites would have had their balls cut off before they could say anything.
What we’re seeing/hearing today could have been prevented, but for one thing: leverage.
If parties knew that Rowe v. Wade was hanging by a thread, why not snap it up? Over the years there had to be enough of a majority to push it through, but no one ever has. Why? Because it was such a juicy peach of an election promise. Vote for me and I swear that I’ll codify Rowe v. Wade into law, then you can yank your baby out anytime you want and no one can do anything about it. Then, when they’re elected, they calmly put it back on the shelf for next time. Just like BLM, just like the LGBT community…just like all the other tricks of the trade they use…it was just another gimmick.
However, thanks to Trump and the Supreme Court, they no longer have that magic bullet. Now, it’s every state for itself.
Some places are refusing any kind of abortive procedures from ectopic pregnancy to miscarriage. Some places are refusing to administer epileptic medication because it may induce a miscarriage. The fear is real, the media’s lapping it up, and the politicians…well…what do they care since they can get all this shit done anyway. They’re above all those petty laws we plebs have to obey. Pretty sure if some Texas governor’s daughter got knocked up that she’d have that thing ripped outta here faster than Ben Shapiro can advertise ExpressVPN. Dude, seriously, lay off the coffee.
But this is the land of states rights. Each place is an island unto itself. It’s not a melting pot. There is no real adherence to the idea of a country; there never was. The founding fathers tried to make it work and it ultimately failed. No one trusts the government, no one believes the media, and each state is left to fend for itself now in terms of reproductive rights for women. It boggles the mind. The only thing that makes the US different from, say the EU is you don’t need a passport to visit another state…yet.
Not being part of it helps me to see things a little more objectively, I think. In truth, I can’t wait for the midterms in November. I can only hope that if things happen the way everyone thinks it will, my guess is the country will tear itself apart. I can see urban centers being put to the torch as the knee-jerk reaction from the left ignites into a powder keg. Of course, they’ll burn down their own cities since none of them have the guts to travel to a red state. Either way, I predict another episode of – as Henry Rollins put it – The Shit is On Fire Show.
People talk about the great nation that is the US, but these days, ‘great’ only refers to its size, not it’s merit. It has some bright points I will grant you, but seeing the political wrangling, the corporate over-reach, and the culture of ‘me me me’ unfolding, it’s easy to see why everyone’s looking down them now, like watching a child throwing a tantrum.
I’d say ‘grow up,’ but since when has America every listened to anyone?