Roe v Wade

Too early to tell, actually, but a leaked report suggests that the Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe v Wade and/or Planned Parenthood v Casey. I almost wrote a post last summer suggesting that I was ready for Roe v Wade to go, but it didn't feel necessary. Okay, well, now it is.

This is a good thing because, in the long run, abortion will actually be a legal regulated perfectly ordinary consumer good rather than just a political football for the Partisans to manipulate. Indeed, getting rid of Roe v Wade should be the final nail in the coffin of our current two-party system. 

The reason modern Democrats are what they are is because of Roe v Wade; to a lesser extent, the reason the Republican Party is what it is is because of the political target that abortion offers. For both parties abortion is the cornerstone of their identity, their rhetoric and (most importantly) their fund-raising. Kicking abortion back to the States will create a bunch of places where abortion becomes legal so quickly that it no longer remains a partisan issue. And other places where it is such a losing fight that the political will will necessarily move on to other topics. In short, abortion will no longer be the cornerstone for either the Republicans or the Democrats (*). 

For example, will Republicans fight legalized abortion in California? Not for long. Why would they bother? It is guaranteed to be a losing issue and unlike the Democrats, the Republicans aren't going to spend their time on that level of pointless political theater. The Republicans used to rage against Social Security but by 1950 or so, they gave up. No one on the Right complains about Social Security any more (**) and abortion, too, may play as a down home talking point in a handful of places but it'll never be mentioned in others. 

On the other other hand, will the Democrats fight illegal abortion in, say, Idaho? Yes, because they live for losing issues and because, for now, there's so much essence built up on the Left around abortion (and Leftists are addicted to Identity). Over time, even those states will allow abortion because eventually it won't make much sense to not allow the same services that other states provide. End result: abortion will be legal in every state and no one will even think about it or care. Now that might take 100 years but even those places will lose their resolve to fight modernity. As it becomes less of a cultural flashpoint, no one will remember what they love/hate about abortion and it will just become another storefront in the strip mall. 

Abortion is absolutely and completely the province of the Partisans, not the People. By striking down Roe v Wade the Supreme Court has removed the duct tape holding this issue together and each of the 50 states will have to come to their own conclusions. The Blue states will legalize it and never look back; the Red states will criminalize it but over time will eventually catch up to the other states. The only way to make abortion perfectly legal is to get rid of Roe v Wade.  

Oh, well, the next 2-4 years or so will be an absolute political mosh pit as both the parties dig in to fight 50 fights rather than pretending to fight one (this also coincides with the continuing decay of the mainstream media and the steady decline of the Baby Boomers). But once the dust clears, abortion will be legal and we'll never have to talk about it again. And both the parties will be transformed, if not completely destroyed. 

I really never thought the Supreme Court had the balls or the wisdom to make this move. I thought the Court (especially under Roberts) would go along to get along and keep the accepted practice rather than actually force our political system to clean up the mess the Partisans have made. The Partisans have feasted for decades on this 50/50 issue and now that is going away. What will be the new talking points? What will be the cornerstone of the fund raisers? It'll be abortion more than ever for the next few years but after that....who knows?

The People will finally get to decide what they want. The Blue State People will undoubtedly choose legal abortion right away; the Red State People will take longer, but they will choose legal abortion, too, over time. In the end, abortion will be legal and we'll look back on the Roe v Wade period as the decades when the political parties held the nation hostage. 

The Supreme Court has done the right thing here: they have allowed abortion to be legal rather than just a tool for the Partisans to manipulate the People. I'm kinda shocked they had the good sense to do this. knowing full well that in the short term it will lead to chaos. USA is a place of permanent chaos, we should not be worried--hell, we were going to obsess over something stupid for the next 2-4 years anyway, might as well get this abortion thing over with. Finally, the People have the ability to rise up and reject the Democrats and the Republicans and we can create a new world of political coalition for the 21st century--the 19th century is finally over! (***)

I've thought (for 20 years at least) that the only thing in the political mainstream that would look exactly the same for the rest of my lifetime would be abortion. Why? Because under Roe v Wade it was exactly where both parties wanted it to be: legal but precarious, available but something you needed to worry about, something you have but something you could lose (or take away), a coinflip forever suspended in the air (the greatest hypnotic device available to the Partisans). The Supreme Court has removed that now, which will force both parties to become something new. And abortion will be just another consumer good rather than a weapon of worry. 

Politicians for years have been warning against "forever wars". Well, thanks to the Supreme Court the greatest American "forever war" of all is heading into the final showdown. And we have nothing to lose but our partisan chains. 

(*) Don't get me wrong: this will take a while. The next 2 years or so will be as hyperbolic as American politics has even been--yipes! But it will subside and as it does, I would love to think the People will recognize that political parties don't do anything they need done anymore. 

(**) Though that could come back. Social Security makes rich people richer and poor people poorer. It punishes people for being dumb enough to get a job. Rather than creating savings, it robs the working class of savings and gives the gov't virtually unlimited ill-begotten spending on the backs of American productivity. It is the worst thing that has ever happened to the working class of America since slavery. The only reason Republicans gave up fighting it is they finally realized that they were all wealthier because of Social Security--and it was Democrat voters that lost out the most. Democrats have been raping the American worker's paycheck for decades now and telling him that the money is being saved just for him...smh....unbelievable how the Liberals honestly see themselves as kindly and helpful when they've been perpetuating fraud like this on the most vulnerable people in our society. And getting away with it! Getting rewarded for it!

We'll see, though, how the theft mechanism of Social Security meshes with the digital world, where people--even working people that have hitherto been hypnotized by Democrat bullshit--can instantly see how much money they've made, lost and had taken from them. When the People finally take control of their lives--and their capital! Their labor!--they'll realize the Democrats are a bunch of shakedown artists and that the Republicans are their hapless dupes. 

(***) I would contend that the modern political parties go back to the election of 1896 (McKinley over Williams Jennings Bryan). From 1897 to 1933, the Republicans held the White House for all but 8 years (1913-1921). From 1933 to 1969 the Democrats held the White House for all but 8 years (1953-1961). From 1969 to 2009 the Republicans held the White House for all but 12 years (1977-1981, 1993-2001). Woodrow Wilson (Dem), Dwight Eisenhower (Rep), Bill Clinton (Dem) were uniquely popular personalities whose proteges could not win election; Jimmy Carter (Dem) is an example of how badly Watergate shattered the Republicans and how unattractive the job of the Presidency was in 1976--Carter was a fluke who was merely biding time for Ronald Reagan to regain the necessary support. 

Obama (the likable) and Trump (the unlikable) showed the system was out of touch with our new media structure. All we can accommodate now is beloved media stars (would you be shocked if the 2028 election is btw Tucker Carlson and Rachel Maddow?) because "controlling the narrative" is a 24/7 job that no on can do effectively and while the Media effortlessly gives us new stars, it is harder than ever to be popular enough to create the kind of coalition needed to be POTUS. For better or worse, we have finally severed the connection between the Parties and the Media--though it will still spark off something awful for the rest of the decade. Do you think either Party is capable of dominating the White House for several decades any more? I don't. The parties are collapsing because Roe v Wade was the last thing making either party relevant. 

Now we can create anew. The Parties are dead. Ideally the Age of the Individual is finally here with the necessary technology capable of ensuring that all people have the best access to education, information, finance and professional opportunity without having to kowtow to pointless social conventions, bogus financial management or gov't interference. It is the social conventions that are shattering, the chrysalis is opening....are we gonna be a butterfly or just a dead caterpillar?