It
couldn’t have been clearer than in the GOP response to President Biden’s State
of the Union address. While the president at least paid some lip service to
policies meant to help working people, Sarah Huckabee Sanders delivered a bigoted invective against LGBTQ people, teachers, and more in her response.
It
would be laughable if their culture wars didn’t have a deadly impact on
people’s lives.
As
if overturning Roe v. Wade weren’t enough, 20 GOP state
attorneys general are now targeting pharmacy chains for
fulfilling mail orders of the abortion drug mifepristone. The pill is now used
in more than half of all abortions nationwide, likely in response to the rapidly disappearing access to
surgical abortions.
Although Republicans claim they’re working in the interests of women’s health, these pills are safer than penicillin or Viagra — and going through pregnancy and childbirth is far more dangerous to women’s health than abortion. No wonder both infant and maternal mortality are higher in states with harsh anti-abortion laws.
The
GOP’s war on transgender people has also gained steam. They are battling the right
of transgender people to transition via surgeries, hormone supplements, or
other medical treatments recommended by doctors. It’s a shocking attack on
people’s right to be who they want and need to be — one that targets young
people in particular.
GOP lawmakers in Texas have introduced 35
anti-LGBTQ bills, three of which would classify this medical care as child
abuse. The Trevor Project has found that “86
percent of transgender and nonbinary youth say recent debates around anti-trans
bills have negatively impacted their mental health.” This cruel debate has
further encouraged bullying — and the risk of suicide.
Their
third major battlefront is the classroom.
Claiming
they are fighting a college-level academic approach to history called critical race theory, GOP leaders such as Florida
Governor Ron DeSantis are busy banning books and classes at all levels
of education. DeSantis’s latest assault is a ban on a new AP-level high school African American studies course that the College Board spent years devising and was set to
pilot in 60 schools across the country.
Around
the same time, Republicans took aim at Representative Ilhan Omar (D-MN), unceremoniously
stripping her of membership in the House Foreign Affairs Committee over false
charges of anti-semitism — even as Reps. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA)
and Paul Gosar (R-AZ), whose
antisemitism is well documented, are now poised to regain their committee seats.
In
a speech on the House floor, Omar
rightly pointed out that the Republican attack was about “who gets to be an
American.” She called out the GOP for its earlier culture war aimed at the
nation’s first Black president, Barack Obama, and for spreading rumors that he was a secret
Muslim and not a natural born U.S. citizen.
The
message that emerges from the conservative party is that if you’re not a
straight white man or in service of their supremacy, you’d better fall in line
— or face prohibition and the threats of violence.
All
the while, congressional Republicans are hoping to cut support to American families by
taking the economy hostage.
According
to the Washington Post, “the party has focused its
attention on slimming down federal health care, education, science and labor
programs, perhaps by billions of dollars.” And some have pitched deep cuts to
Social Security and Medicare.
These extremists are aggressively attacking marginalized people and hoping voters let them off the hook for their regressive economic policies. In truth, both are deadly.
Sonali Kolhatkar is the host of “Rising
Up With Sonali,” a television and radio
show on Free Speech TV and Pacifica stations. This commentary was produced by
the Economy for All project at the
Independent Media Institute and adapted for syndication by OtherWords.org.