"We Must Accept Death As a Consequence of Life": The GOP and the Trajectory of Material History

[Nevilledog]

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Jared Yates Sexton
@JYSexton
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The GOP has come to represent a white supremacist death-drive with no principles besides furthering empowering wealthy, white men.

The only thing it offers everyone else is a disturbing answer to the questions “who should suffer and who should die?”

jaredyatessexton.substack.com
"We Must Accept Death As a Consequence of Life": The GOP and the Trajectory of Material History
An awkward exchange in the Indiana legislature revealed more than terrible messaging
10:34 AM · Aug 21, 2022

https://jaredyatessexton.substack.com/p/we-must-accept-death-as-a-consequence

Early in August, as the Indiana legislature debated becoming the first state to pass an abortion ban in the wake of the fall of Roe V. Wade, tensions ran high. Though the passage was inevitable, Democratic members pressed backers on the brutal specifics of the bill, including Representative Rita Fleming, who made Karen Engleman admit the state would force a 10-year-old victim of rape to birth their rapist’s child.

However, the most revealing moment came when Republican J. Michael Davisson was asked what he would tell the children of a mother forced to carry a nonviable pregnancy to term.

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IN state Rep. Davisson (R) argues for requiring forced birth of non-viable fetuses.

Asked what he would tell children of a mother going through pregnancy resulting in stillbirth: "[None] of us are guaranteed tomorrow. We must accept death as a consequence of life."

August 4th 2022

2,922 Retweets5,559 Likes

Davisson’s response is incredibly disturbing and bizarre, but also telling. When it comes to forced birth, which is, besides cultural warfare and assisting the wealthy accrue more capital, is as close to Republican orthodoxy at the moment as anything else. You can wrap it up in religious stories, flowery rhetoric, whatever you want, but you cannot defend it. It is unvarnished cruelty.

And that cruelty is, as people have noted since the rise of Donald Trump, largely the point. But what is behind the cruelty? The gleeful, snarling cruelty that punctuates every speech, every tweet, every piece of legislation? Besides an obvious predilection within the party for viciousness and an environment of polarization that rewards it financially and politically, what exactly is at the heart of this?

*snip*

[vlyons]

1. Well yes, that is actually true

All living beings will die one day. But we don't have to accept that all living beings must live in misery. We don't have to accept that there's nothing we can do for the happiness and well being of others.

She was justifying letting a woman die from a pregnancy gone wrong. I don't have to accept that.

[LaMouffette]

2. Republican politicians' public concern for the sanctity of life ends at birth. Once a person is born

that person is on their own and not the Republican polticians' concern.

Privately, they don't really care about the unborn. They only care about using the unborn as a political tool to garner votes among people who actually do care about the unborn (but who similarly do not care about a person once he or she is born).

So it is unsurprising that Davisson is more concerned about prolonging an unviable pregnancy than he is about the welfare of the mother. She's already born. She is of no value to him. However, the stillborn infant she carries is valuable as a political pawn, but only as long as it is carried to term so that he can take a sanctimonious stand in front of Republican voters and "protect" it.

[Racygrandma]

3. Very well said

They do not care about the unborn, they are just a political tool. But boy you cannot convince them that is the case.

[LaMouffette]

6. Thanks! I think all Republican politicians must be required to take a class in method acting so that

they can successfully pull off acting like they believe things they really do not believe at all, such as all abortions are wrong and the lying yam won the 2020 election.

[peggysue2]

4. This attitude is Republican-wide

Following the Uvalde massacre, Ken Paxton said, 'life is short no matter what it is.'

Say that to a parent of a slaughtered child. I dare you!

Remember Lt Governor Dan Patrick suggesting the elderly should sacrifice themselves on the altar of capitalism? This was at the start of the pandemic and Patrick and his cohorts were panicked about commercial revenues dropping off. Because profit comes before human beings.

These people are ghouls, nihilists. They condemn themselves by their own words.

This is why we fight. This is why we must fight.

https://www.salon.com/2022/06/14/texas-attorney-general-ken-paxton-on-the-uvalde-massacre-god-has-a-plan/

[ck4829]

5. Absolutely meaningless statement - So, the GQP in a nutshell

[lonely bird]

7. Welp, Representative Davisson...

Howzabout if your kid gets cancer they don’t get treated? Death is a consequence of life. Or maybe your wife gets an ectopic pregnancy. Well, that’s just a consequence of life.

Yeah, I know I’ll get yelled at but fuck these disgusting people.