“None of us are free, if one of us is chained” - Solomon Burke

You can’t say that Donald J. Trump doesn’t keep his promises. You can’t say that he never delivers for his constituents. Granted, Trump was an abject failure during his occupation of the White House. He didn’t drain the swamp or ever finish his big, beautiful wall. He was a complete and total embarrassment to the United States and an ugly stain on our history but on 6/24/22, a day which will truly live in infamy, he had his crowning achievement. As promised, his court, the Supreme Court, overturned Roe vs. Wade.

Your cute little protest vote for this “man” because you didn’t like the cut of Hillary Clinton’s pants suit has resulted in this catastrophic decision by this shameful court. Make no mistake, this is on you. Own it. ‘Let’s vote for somebody who is not a politician.’ ‘We’ll show those Washington insiders like “crooked Hillary” a thing or two.’ You never thought the “Presidential Apprentice” would win and if he did you didn’t care. Fuck you. Put your damn American flag away. You don’t deserve to display that symbol of democracy on the back of your gas guzzling pick-up truck. Being a member of a cult does not make you a patriot.

When Trump’s biggest business triumph, selling red hats to troglodytes, came to fruition on this fateful day, he made American great…again. Great, as in 1950’s “Father Knows Best” great.

The 1950’s were great…if you were a straight, white, Christian male. Outside of that, you were screwed. On 6/24/22, we returned to those beloved days of American history when civil rights of all kinds were just a pipe dream. Progress was limited to the modernization of household appliances, making life a little easier for those fertile women whose primary function was to bear baby boomers.

Much of the longing for these seemingly simpler times comes from the fact that we had in those days a large, healthy middle class. By the time Happy Days was getting ready to jump the shark, President Reagan was well on his way to making sure that average Americans will never again share such a large slice of the American pie.

It was intrusive government that Reagan, the Republican Party and true conservatives objected to in the first place. But that only applied to business. A woman’s body…not so much. The thought that government, any government can regulate something so personal was settled 50 years ago, or so we thought and so said the Trump appointees to the Supreme Court; Justices who lied in their confirmation hearings when the subject came up.

How could this happen? Easy…people who invoked the name of God got involved. The human use of that timeless deity has a pretty bad track record when it comes to human rights.  I’m sure history buffs recall that these are the same people who claimed God told them to accuse woman they didn’t like of witchcraft and then, if found, guilty of said crime, burned them at the stake. That’s right, tie a woman to a stake in the town square, gather a crowd (not hard to do when you can provide this type of quality, family entertainment) then set the offending person on fire. Hallelujah…

It was more entertaining than the scarlet letter “A” for adulterer that could be pinned upon the Godless female fornicator. It was always the Christians who had a brutal and cruel response for any woman who was suspected of enjoying sex.

Of course, the largest and oldest terrorist organization the world has ever known is also a "Christian" based enterprise, the KKK. They added hanging to their pyrotechnic displays and limited their angry wrath to mostly our African-American population. But make no mistake these Christians also hated Jews, Catholics, non-northern European immigrants, and miscegenation in any form. That’s a lot of hate. I thought Jesus of Nazareth was a little more tolerant and forgiving. At least that’s how I interpreted his history when it was first presented to me as a young child.

What we do know about this Supreme Court’s reversal of Roe vs. Wade is that it is born of this Americanized version of Christianity, which actually is a grotesque continuation of the European notion of male superiority. It’s built right into the bible, which was translated by and for wealthy Western European men, to help control not only women, but those of lesser financial stature.

This is where such notions as God the Father was first introduced to us. He, of course had a Son who predictably was born to a virgin. Sounds good…so we just ran with it and hoped woman will never learn to read, think and/or be educated in any way.

The almost unimaginable historical insecurity of males in our culture is pretty hard to fathom. However, when viewed in this context it is how we get Roe vs. Wade overturned. It is how we get a grotesque, cartoonish, charlatan as President who put these justices on the bench in the first place.

What does Trump care about woman’s rights? He doesn’t. What does he care about any theological notions as it applies to Roe vs. Wade? He doesn’t. He cares about his own power and for now we are still in a democracy and he needs a base of support. His strongest and most loyal support comes from Evangelicals and other Christian religious sects. I defy anyone to find a more hypocritical bunch of lemmings.

These folks are not pro-life, as they would have you believe. They are anti-woman. It is as simple as that. I would think it would be difficult to blow up health clinics and kill doctors, then tell folks that you are pro-life with a straight face. Just own it, you are anti-woman. Say it out loud. See how that sounds on the second Tuesday in November. For the time being, woman are still allowed to vote in this country. Let’s hope they exercise that franchise in great numbers this coming election cycle.

Much of America already screamed out loud their anti-woman sentiment during the election cycle of 2016 when Citizen Trump was recorded in a backstage converstation that was made public. In it he discussed in great detail his views on “pussy grabbing.”  

He dismissed those vile comments as “locker room” talk. I suspect Commander Bone Spurs has never been in a locker room. I have. No real man ever in a billion years would speak such words. Because real men have real mothers and many have real wives and real women friends. Many, myself included, have all of the above, as well as real daughters and in my case a real granddaughter. While real men don’t advocate real violence, I strongly suspect if somebody in a real locker room ever uttered words so vile and revolting, exceptions would be made.

What Trump meant by “locker room” talk, was men’s clubs. These all-white, rich, snob filled bastions of conservatism are to what he was referencing. I am not familiar with these places as they are a favorite gathering place of Republican “men.” Life is simply too short to spend any time with these types.

Remember, the political party that engages in gerrymandering of Congressional districts and makes it harder to vote is a party that knows it is wrong. It knows it is in the minority. They know their ideas and policies are not popular. If this were not the case, then they wouldn’t have to resort to these tactics in the first place.

These horn honking, flag waving, gun and God worshipping phony patriots are loud, obnoxious and at times violent. Yet, we abdicated this power to these slack jawed imbeciles when we didn’t show up at the polls in November, 2016. Granted, Secretary Clinton still won by 2.8. million votes but it wasn’t enough. It was low voter turnout that gave the Presidency to Benedict Donald and ultimately the grotesque decision the court rendered on June 24th.

The most recent misguided bombshell by the court is just the latest example of a majority of Americans being dictated to by a minority of its population.

The greatest tool they have to keep us from voting is apathy. The other side in this battle for our democracy forwards the notion of a false sense of equivalency. The idea that both parties are the same. Both parties are corrupt. ‘They are all crooks.’ This is to make you believe that your vote does not matter. This is how we get otherwise rational people proudly declaring that they are an Independent or my favorite, “I’m not political.” Really?…You live in a Democracy. You may want to rethink that choice or there is no hope for our survival as a working democracy.

It is why on the SAT tests in school they ask you to pick the best answer. They don’t say pick the perfect answer. Maybe our public education system was training us to function in a Democracy. It is also why the Republican party is so anti-public schools and pro-religion. Faith is by its very definition antithetical to critical thinking. However, education is an ally to a thoughtful citizenry.

This court isn’t done stripping away civil liberties and freedoms from the people they don’t like. They are just getting warmed up. They may even take away our right to vote.

Remember Trump was endorsed by the KKK and the American Nazi Party. Did you really think this was going to turn out any different? You knew that and voted for him anyway. Oh, that’s right…you just don’t care. I almost forgot. I do care and don’t you forget it.  

- David Mac