Nearly everyone with a decent education has heard the story of the person who went up to Benjamin Franklin after the constitutional convention and asked him what kind of government they were giving us.
Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”
I would love to see what Dr. Franklin would say about 21st century America, particularly the reddest of the red states.
Texas.
The Lone Star State is in the news because of its new law banning all abortions after six weeks. Since many women don’t even know they’re pregnant after six weeks, in essence Texas is banning abortions.
That in itself is draconian enough, but Texas has gone one step beyond any reasonability, banning abortions even in cases of rape and incest.
Think about that one for a minute. A woman is raped, which is terrible.
Then she becomes pregnant from the rape, which is even worse.
Then the state tells her she must carry her rapist’s baby to full term and give birth.
And I’m not sure where Texas stands on this one, but in some states, the rapist has the right to demand parental status.
If this law is upheld, I would imagine we will see many women deciding to leave Texas for greener — or maybe bluer — pastures. It isn’t as if abortion is the only issue in which Texans are behaving foolishly. They now have laws stating anyone can carry a gun in public without licensing, registration or any kind of training.
They are also passing laws making it more difficult for non-whites to vote in elections.
None of these laws are supported by a majority of Texans. What we have here is older white men trying to hang onto power long past the time they should be losing it.
There isn’t much in this world that’s more pathetic than people trying to hang onto something that’s already gone, whether it’s power, money or status.
In the case of Texas, it’s certainly complicated by the concentration of wealth among older white men. They are doing their damnedest to preserve a world that is almost completely gone, and they’re using religious fanaticism to their own ends.
One of the arguments the pro-birth crowd use to oppose abortion is that if a woman doesn’t want to have a baby, she shouldn’t be having sex. But they completely abandon that ground when they say a woman impregnated against her will by Daddy, Grandpa or her neighborhood rapist has to have the baby.
There may be only one way women can fight back.
Google “Lysistrata” if you want the answer.
Maybe Aristophanes can provide the answer to help get our republic off the critical list.