GOP Hallmarks: Cruelty and Disdain for the Majority

Republican controled legislatures, particularly in Florida, continue to demonstrat that one of the hallmarks of today's GOP is cruelty towards women, cruelty towards LGBT youth and individuals, and cruelty towards immigrants.   The other hallmark is a total disdain for the desires of the majority of voters both in red states and nationally.  Driving this agenda are the evangelical/Christofascist extremists and white supremacists that now control the the base of the Republican Party.  In Florida, the majority did not want a ban on abortions after only six weeks and most do not support the efforts to erase LGBT citizens under DeSantis' "don't say gay" law that now applies to all grade k-12.  Most do not support the war against Disney, Florida's largest employer and a tourism dynomo for the state.  It's all about pleasing the party base and to hell with everyone else, especially women.  It's little wonder this base of the GOP embraces authoritarianism as they only way to force throught its ugly agenda. A piece in The Atlantic looks at the effort to ban abortion nationwide while a piece at CNN looks at Florida's cruel - and likely illegal - assault on immigrants.  First these highlights from The Atlantic: 

The unpleasant reality facing the anti-abortion movement is that most Americans don’t actually want to ban abortion.

This explains why the pro-life summer of triumph, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade, led to a season of such demoralizing political outcomes. Voters in Montana, Kansas, and Kentucky in November rejected ballot measures to make abortion illegal; just last month, in Wisconsin, voters elected an abortion-rights supporter to the state supreme court.

Yet the movement’s activists don’t seem to care. Thirteen states automatically banned most abortions with trigger laws designed to go into effect when Roe fell; a Texas judge this month stayed the FDA approval of the abortion pill mifepristone, setting in motion what is sure to be a drawn-out legal battle; and some lawmakers are pursuing restrictions on traveling out of state for the procedure—what they call “abortion trafficking.”

[A] new generation of anti-abortion leaders is ascendant—one that is arguably bolder and more uncompromising than its predecessors. This cohort, still high on the fumes of last summer’s victory, is determined to construct its ideal post-Roe America. And it’s forging ahead—come hell, high water, or public disgust.

The groups this new generation leads “are not afraid to lose short term if they think the long-term gain will be eliminating abortion from the country,”

Doggedness and moral conviction have always characterized the anti-abortion movement. Activists have sustained their energy for 50 years “by believing that success was possible, even in the absence of clear victories,” Daniel K. Williams, a history professor at the University of West Georgia, told me. Dobbs gave this new generation a taste of victory. Activists like Hawkins are bolder now. Without Roe, they reason, anything is possible.

Hawkins’s master plan to completely eradicate abortion in America begins with passing as many state controls as possible. She calculates that 26 state legislatures contain enough anti-abortion Republicans to be amenable to a strict ban of some sort, and her organization is pushing an “early abortion” model, which means that it drafts and supports legislation restricting abortion either entirely or after six weeks. Hawkins claims credit for pressuring reluctant Republican state leaders in Florida to take up the six-week abortion ban that Governor Ron DeSantis signed late Friday night.

Yet American culture seems to be moving in the opposite direction. The Dobbs ruling, though exciting for anti-abortion activists, was so enraging for abortion-rights supporters that, in some places, they responded by enshrining the right to abortion into state law. These and other political losses suggest that the pro-life movement is already overreaching—and generating a backlash. “It’s breathtaking to see people so motivated and so well funded to push an agenda that is so incredibly unpopular,” Jamie Manson, the president of the abortion-rights organization Catholics for Choice, told me. The months since Dobbs have exposed a fundamental tension between the outcome that abortion-rights opponents want and the one democracy supports.

Post-Roe, we can expect these hungry, mobilized activists to seek new conquests. But even as they do, pro-life leaders will have to wonder whether they are guiding their movement toward righteous victory—or humiliating defeat.

The piece at CNN looks at DeSantis and Florida's new cruelty directed towards immigrants which may well damage Florida's economy.  Again, the wants of the party base are all that matter and morality and humane treatment of others are nowhere on the GOP radar.  Here are excerpts:

In the coming weeks, Florida’s Republican-controlled legislature is expected to pass a package of immigration measures championed by Republican Governor Ron DeSantis. These proposals are the harshest crackdown on illegal immigration by a state in over a decade. “We need to do everything in our power to protect the people of Florida from what’s going on at the border and the border crisis,” DeSantis said at a February press conference.

Unfortunately, the proposals from DeSantis will not help solve the border crisis, let alone protect residents of the Sunshine State. The measures he is backing are likely unconstitutional and certainly impractical. They will harm undocumented immigrants, their families and other Floridians. If enacted, the measures hold the potential to seriously damage the state’s economy, as its agriculture, hospitality and service sectors depend heavily on immigrant workers. The American Immigration Council estimates that immigrants make up over a quarter of the state’s labor force.

Under the proposed legislation, people sheltering, hiring, or transporting undocumented immigrants would face felony charges. Hospitals would be required to ask patients their immigration status and then report it to the state. The measures would invalidate out-of-state drivers’ licenses issued to undocumented immigrants.

If some of these ideas sound familiar, that’s because several states have tried to enact similar laws in the past. Arizona, Alabama and Georgia tried their own versions of strict immigration laws, only to have them largely struck down by the courts. The Supreme Court was clear in US v Arizona (2012) that immigration policy is the jurisdiction of the federal government, and it is hard to see how DeSantis can get around this established precedent.

Because Florida’s proposed immigration measures are written so broadly, all kinds of everyday activities could become a crime for people living there. This would include citizens and legal residents, like a pastor who gives an undocumented immigrant a ride to church, a landlord who rents to a family with an undocumented member, or a person who hires an undocumented caregiver for their elderly parents. The measures would also force state and local law enforcement officers to act as immigration agents, diverting time and resources away from serious offenses.

The provision of the proposed law involving hospitals is especially problematic. If Florida hospitals begin asking patients’ immigration status, it will lead to undocumented people avoiding medical treatment for themselves or for their children. . . . You don’t have to be a medical expert to recognize that Florida’s plan could result in serious emergencies, needless suffering and the possibility of a broader public health crisis.

It’s no wonder that the DeSantis plan is generating pushback among some Floridians. Religious leaders are concerned that the proposals could hinder their outreach efforts in immigrant communities. Some conservatives view these immigration measures as a potential intrusion by big government, while Latino advocacy groups see them as an invitation to racial profiling by law enforcement.

The plan by Gov. DeSantis to punish undocumented people in his state is both divisive and destructive, and goes against his state’s long tradition of being a haven for immigrants. His legislation represents an attack on Florida families, immigrant communities and American citizens.