In view of what has been happening in Washington, it seems important to look at the larger context in which we women are losing our rights, as well as our social safety net and livelihoods. We find ourselves in the middle of a war on democracy, justice, freedom of speech, science, reality, and sanity, between 2 cults: the MAGA cult on the right, and the gender cult on the Left. In this post, I will focus on the former; I’ll deal with the gender cult in a subsequent post. In both cults, women lose, but in different ways.
The MAGA cult wants to strip us of all of our reproductive rights, our right to divorce our abusers, our right to equal pay for equal work, our dignity as single mothers, our right to choose our partners, our right to live free from fear of male violence and sexual assault, and have even gone so far as to suggest we should be stripped of our right to vote. The MAGA cult would enshrine fetal so-called “personhood” into law, while denying and even criminalizing our right to choose to be child and pregnancy free, and would even deny us birth control. Being anti-abortion and anti-ERA have been articles of faith for the religious Right, which comprise a huge portion of MAGA, for over 40 years. Anyone wanting to learn more about this threat, particularly from the religious Right, should watch the documentary, Bad Faith. The current administration in Washington has been enabled largely by an unholy Trinity of Christian Dominionists, Big Tech, and Billionaires like the Koch Brothers, and, of course, Elon Musk.
While Vance’s role seems to be relegated to being the administration’s attack dog, Musk is given free rein to destroy our government agencies, along with his band of unqualified, pubescent hackers. It is P. T. Barnum meets Revenge of the Nerds. Trump the lying huckster and Musk the incompetent self-promoting technocrat, narcissistic sociopaths selling their followers on the phony narrative of going after the “swamp” and “waste, fraud, and abuse” when they are the quintessential examples of corrupt plutocrats, dismantling every agency and department that stands in the way of their greed and exploitation. If they really wanted to do away with “waste, fraud, and abuse”, they could start by ending Elon Musk’s government contracts. In any case, it is truly amazing that anyone believes the hype that’s coming from the Trump/Musk traveling circus. But they dare not utter one word of protest or risk being shamed, humiliated, and banished from the cult. Total, unquestioning loyalty is required of Trump and Musk’s minions.
Corporate welfare in the form of government subsidies, grants, tax breaks, and giveaways are where the real money is going and how these criminal billionaires are growing fat off the taxpayer’s dime, selling America’s assets off to the highest bidder while sending all the watchdogs and laws and agencies meant to protect the 99% to the trash heap. Goodbye Inspectors General, Goodbye Consumer Financial Protection Agency, Goodbye ethical attorneys at the U.S. Department of Justice, Goodbye programs that help the poor and middle class, Goodbye environmental protections, Goodbye to access for journalists, Goodbye to impartial law enforcement, Goodbye to everything the average American depends on in the name of “bringing down the deficit”. This is the billionaires’ idea of “Making America Great Again”.
A lie this huge ought to be obvious by now and this administration would be a hilarious clown show were it not for the reality that actual people all over the world are being harmed, and women, (and children) more than any other group, are once again the major recipients of this harm. This is particularly true for single mothers and older women, the poorest of the poor, who depend on the social safety net for survival. The MAGA cult is enamored with billionaires and vulture capitalism, and blatantly displays its male supremacy. In this world might is right, human beings are commodified, women are chattel, and every interaction transactional. The only values are money, profit, and power, and every action is only worthy if it can be “monetized” or can enhance their domination.
George Carlin warned us that the owner class was coming for us, years ago now, his words compellingly prophetic.
Both political parties are complicit in this sellout to corporate ownership of our government and ourselves, which began long ago, but with this duo and their loyalist enablers we are witnessing a massive transfer of wealth from the poor and middle class to the ultra wealthy that is breathtaking in its scope. It is nothing short of a heist, hidden behind a shell game intended to distract from their true intention: to transform our democratic republic into a kleptocracy run by dictators hellbent on returning us to feudalism.
Jon Stewart’s monologue on DOGE’s budget cuts is also on point:
Silicon Valley and Big Tech have had these designs for a long time it turns out, and billionaires have been plotting to enrich themselves by impoverishing the rest of us for decades. But now it is coming into full fruition with the Trump/Musk traveling circus who are more than happy to allow the Christian fundamentalist, nationalist, dominionists to turn women into handmaidens as payment for their services in helping them gain power. We must resist with every ounce of our individual and collective strength or we will lose everything, including ourselves.