The old biblical idea that women are supposed to “submit” to men

In an opinion piece in last Sunday’s Detroit Free Press Jeff Wattrick discussed America’s immigration policy. That policy is currently built around keeping “bad” people out by treating everyone at the border as “bad.” The discussion and action around immigration is all about how scary they are, how they are “invading” America, and how they are taking things from those already here. Texas is trying to usurp federal policy at the border. At the same time there is a labor shortage with people saying “no one wants to work anymore.” In response to that politicians push a higher retirement age and less restrictions on child labor. Wattrick wrote: “Instead of approaching immigration as a security problem, we need to treat it as a labor issue.” Immigrants grow the economy. They’re more likely to open their own business. They want to work, to provide for themselves and their families.

What if we threw out this system and just made it easy for people to move to the U.S.? Replace paramilitary border patrols with clerks who process migrants’ entry and hand out green cards. Make it legal, rather than illegal, to come here and find work or a better life. Make it easier for immigrants to pay taxes and participate in American life without the fear of deportation.

Communities like NYC that receive buses of immigrants from Texas say their social service programs are stretched. But if we let immigrants immediately work, that won’t be as big of a problem. We won’t worry about worker status and visa distinctions. There won’t be illegal immigrants. For those worried about security this would improve it. Border patrols could focus on people who are actual threats. No need to scour the border area for those who snuck across and are now in danger in the desert. There would be no need to sneak.

With every wave of immigration, nativists have made fear-based arguments against allowing immigrants in their backyards. Every time, those arguments have been proven unfounded, and our nation benefited from the immigration waves feared by so many. Greg Abbot’s border stunt is no different. Our response should finally learn from previous hysteria, and just say yes in my back yard to immigration.    Otherwise, this “crisis at the border” will never end.

I add that what’s going on at the border is not a security issue, it’s a white supremacy issue. People like Abbott don’t want more non-white residents. But they’re quite eager to welcome more white Europeans. I heard recently (don’t have a link) that a good chunk of the economic growth since the pandemic is because of the immigrants we welcomed in that time. Dartagnan of the Daily Kos community wrote about the recent ruling by the Alabama Supreme Court that says embryos shall be considered children under the Wrongful Death to Minors law from 1872. Dartagnan, with the help of Ruth Marcus of the Washington Post, went through the decision to show how much the language is of Christian Nationalists, the people who want to force America to become their version of country under the rule of their god. Marcus wrote:

The longer-term danger—indeed the apparent longer-term goal—is to raise and expand the definition of unborn personhood, to go after birth control methods and reproductive technologies that involve fertilized eggs. Will fertility clinics be permitted to dispose of unused frozen embryos? Could states prohibit in vitro fertilization altogether? Will IUDs, birth control pills or the morning-after pill be banned?

The short answer to all of those questions is yes. Dartagnan wrote:

Their ultimate goal is, and has always been, a nation in which all women and anyone who might become pregnant is forced to carry their fetus to term, no matter what stage of pregnancy. A nation in which any person who assists them in preventing or terminating that pregnancy will find themselves targeted by the crosshairs of the law.

This decision should not be considered an outlier. Many people want the nasty guy in for a second term because he will fulfill their Christian Nationalist goals. Kerry Eleveld of Kos wrote that shortly after that ruling major Alabama hospitals declared they would pause in-vitro fertilization. Shortly after that candidate Nikki Haley said she agreed with it, then backpedaled a bit. Yes, a lot of Americans use IVF – and a lot more who would want to keep the procedure legal. This is enough of a problem for Republicans that former nasty guy aide Kellyanne Conway warned Republicans a few months ago there is massive support for IVF. So candidates shouldn’t talk about it. But the Alabama Supremes made sure they will have to talk about it. Mark Sumner of Kos discussed what else Republicans want to do to make things worse. The national Supremes are deciding the fate of the abortion drug mifepristone. The end of abortion rights means up next is a war on birth control – groups are already launching propaganda campaigns saying the pill is far more dangerous than decades of experience demonstrate. That’s the same lie they’re using against mifepristone. The Heritage Foundation isn’t whispering their goal. I don’t know who is being quoted.

“It seems to me that a good place to start would be a feminist movement against the pill, and for rewilding sex, returning the danger to sex, returning the intimacy and, really, the consequentiality to sex.” Conservatives have to lead the way in restoring sex to its true purpose, & ending recreational sex & senseless use of birth control pills.

Sumner translated:

If that sounds at all confusing, what she’s saying is that women shouldn’t be able to have sex without being concerned about becoming pregnant. That’s the “rewilding,” the “danger,” and the “consequentiality” she wants. The goal of the Heritage Foundation, the Republican politicians it empowers, and the judges it selects is to end the option of sex for any purpose other than reproduction. They’re not hiding this. They are proud of it. And if that means women surrender every ounce of agency in their lives … well, that’s the goal, after all.

And all of that is to go back to the old biblical idea that women are supposed to “submit” to men. In the comments of a pundit roundup exlrrp shared a meme showing a carton of 2½ dozen eggs on a car seat and the caption, “Using the car pool lane in Alabama today.” Kos of Kos wrote Speaker Mike Johnson, faced with a tiny majority and few accomplishment his caucus can run on, tried to rally them – with a sermon. He talked about the moral decline in America.

It is a sign of Johnson’s myopic fundamentalism that he thought a Biblical sermon would rally a group of politicians sweating their endangered majority. ... If Johnson were so concerned about society’s diminishing religiosity and its effect on conservatism, what exactly has he done as speaker to arrest that decline? In fact, his merry band of cruel nihilists might be a major reason that evangelicals are abandoning their faith! One researcher methodically tracked the increasing dissatisfaction that younger, more liberal evangelicals feel toward rigid bigotry of their faith’s orthodoxy. The plain hypocrisy of self-identified Christians like Reps. Matt Gaetz and Lauren Boebert (as well as former Rep. George Santos) makes further mockery of their supposed faith. Their eagerness to use falsified information in their witch hunt against Hunter Biden is beyond absurd. And their crass worship of Trump, perhaps the most morally bankrupt human in the country, is the final nail in that coffin.

The sermon fell flat. One Republican said, “I’m not at church.” Another said it was “horrible.” Joan McCarter of Kos wrote the reaction was more than just grumbling. Republicans appear to be turning on their leader. A big part of their dissatisfaction with his leadership is the looming partial government shutdown on March 1. Getting spending bills passed is hampered by poison pill riders – “guns, abortion, equity programs, stripping Mayorkas’ salary.” Johnson can’t pass spending bills with Republican votes without them and with them the bills will fail in the Senate. So he’ll have to turn to Democrats to get spending bills passed. And that will have to be on Democrats’ terms. Which is what led to the ouster of McCarthy. With all that I need a laugh. Thankfully Bill in Portland, Maine, in his Cheers and Jeers column for Kos, quoted some late night commentary. A sampling:

Clip of network news reporter: Alexander Smirnov was arrested Wednesday, charged with lying about financial ties between the president, his son Hunter, and the Ukrainian energy company Burisma…allegations that have been central to the Republicans' impeachment push. Guest host Desi Lydic: Not only was this guy lying about Joe Biden getting bribes, the FBI says he was also working with Russian intelligence. Yeah—Russia again! Can we please get a new storyline? Just once I want to hear that Bhutan is meddling in our elections, just to mix things up. I mean, didn’t we just find out that aliens are real? Maybe they want to get in on this. —The Daily Show "The attorney general of New York Letitia James…said that if he doesn’t come up with the money, she might seize Trump Tower. Turns out one of the downsides to putting your name on everything you own is everyone knows who owns it. It would be refreshing to see a woman grabbing his assets for a change. When you're attorney general they let you do it. You don’t even ask, you just seize. You grab 'em by the property." —Jimmy Kimmel