I don’t believe it’s time to panic. Yet. There’s a not so funny thing about the fundies. It’s the assumption that what they want or believe in is always going to win.
You have opened a can of worms that you’re really going to wish had stayed closed. For most of the history of this country we operated on the I’ll protect your rights in order to protect my own plan. Between the Tea Party, the radical libertarians, the fundies and five highbinders on the Supreme Court that’s been turned upside down.
Yes, the court rules on what is the law. However, that law holds only as long as the rest of us choose to obey. And yes we risk anarchy, I’m not sure if that would be worse than what we’re facing now.
The court ruled last week that Massachusetts law mandating buffer zones around abortion clinics stifled free speech. That public sidewalks were just that, public. Well from where I’m sitting that means that anybody can demonstrate as long as they’re on a public sidewalk. Since so called pro life groups have been known to shout, spit, scream, physically block and generally try to make access impossible it could be argued that the rest of us have the right to do the same thing. Picket Hobby Lobby and any other business that pulls the same stunt. Shopping malls are private property so your pickets may be stuck half a block away on “public” property but get out there anyway.
Next up is the right to discriminate based on “deeply held religious convictions.” Man oh man, you did not want to open that can of worms. What’s to stop the rest of us from returning the favor?
Picture this. Potential employee or renter is being interviewed. “Are you a Southern Baptist?” “Do you belong to the local Four Square or Open Bible Standard churches down the road?” “Any chance you belong to that mega church on the other side of town that keeps posting those anti gay signs?” “Too bad, no place for you at this table because_______” Then sit back and wait for the screams of outrage.
Folks you opened the door. Don’t be surprised if some of the rest of us choose to walk through it. The pro slavery supporters in the 1850’s kept pushing. Bleeding Kansas, civil war on the Missouri border long before Fort Sumpter, the Dred Scot decision, the call for a federal slave code, the Freeport Doctrine (Stephen Douglas’ admission that slave owners could take their slaves anywhere they wanted but couldn’t keep them if their neighbors chose not to cooperate) finally knocked so many holes in the body politic that four years of bloody war was just the beginning.
Reconstruction, Jim Crow, the Klan, and lynchings. We still not only have politicians like Rand Paul who argue that telling a business owner he/she has to deal with anyone with the price of a widget that they have to be served violates their rights but cops that operate on the idea that BWB (breathing while black or brown) is cause to open fire.
Do I want to another civil war? Good god/dess no. Do I believe that it’s long past time to grab some folks by the short and curlies, sit them down and point out a few facts of life? Damn straight. The most important fact is that their rights are protected when EVERYONE’S rights are protected. Incidentally several groups were already floating the idea that no matter how the court ruled if they didn’t’ like the results they just might choose to ignore the laws on the books.
Time for another reality check. That door swings both ways too. You aren’t the only ones who get to choose which laws to obey and which ones to ignore. That’s the road to anarchy with no guaranty that your ships won’t get sunk along all the other little boats.
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