Republicans, Ramen & Reproductive Rights
You’re a starving college student. You are sick of your
Ramen-every-day-and-night diet and you want to make a little extra cash. On your way to class you see a flyer posted from
the Psychology Department that says “Volunteers Needed for Simple Experiment -
$25 possible compensation.” $25?! Jackpot!
The psych major geeks don’t tell you the reason for the
experiment, they simply escort you to a room with four walls. On a shelf placed high up on one of the walls
– seemingly out of reach – is your $25.
On the floor is a crumpled up $10 bill.
The Sheldon Cooper wannabe says to you, “There is no time limit this
experiment. Take as long as you need to
get the $25, but if you decide you can’t figure it out, by all means help yourself
to the $10 and the experiment will be over.
Good luck.”
Alright, no problem.
You’re a Poli-Sci major – way smarter than those future shrinks. The 25 bucks looks to be about 7 or 8 feet
off the ground. You’re an impressive 5’6”
so that means you only have to jump about…well, who cares, that’s why you’re
not a math major. You played peewee
basketball so let’s see your best Air Jordan impression. Oh, so close! Okay,
there are no chairs, so there goes that idea.
Hmm. Can you stand on your own
shoulders?
After what seems to be a few hours (they took away your
watch and there is no clock on the wall), you are completely frustrated. Angrily you take your $10 and go buy 400 more
packs of Ramen. On the way out you ask
them what the purpose of the experiment was, and apologetically they say that they
cannot tell you that. For the rest of
the day you rack your brains on what they were trying to prove to no
avail. But at least that beef Top Ramen
is delicious.
Now a successful female college graduate and still somewhat
hungry Poli-Sci major, you hear on the news that Republicans don’t want women
to have abortions. They claim this is
for moral reasons, and you give them the benefit of the doubt. On another report, you hear that Republicans
don’t want you to have the resources you need to obtain contraception. Wait a minute. Beep beep back the truck up. Thoughts fill your head.
1)
WTF?
2)
Republicans are in cahoots with the Psych
Department to boost Ramen sales!
3)
Why would someone tell me that I am not allowed
to make choices about my own body and then tell me I’m on my own if I want to
use birth control?
4)
…WTF?!
Now perplexed by this “GOP Catch 22,” you find yourself as
confused as the day you took part in that experiment. Why would someone tell you they want you to
do something and then not give you the resources to do so? It’s almost if they…want…me to fail?
And there it is.
The Republicans’ views on abortion and contraception only
seem counterintuitive if you don’t know the motives behind their words. Do they actually think humans will refrain
from having sex? Absolutely not. With the exception of loveless right wing
marriages subjected to a lifetime of missionary, sex is fun. Republicans know this, and they want you to
have sex. Furthermore, they want you
getting pregnant. But you must keep the
baby, even if you are in no position to provide for him or her or offer them a
solid chance at a healthy and successful life.
“That makes no sense,” you think. “Why would they want such a thing?”
Because the baby mentioned above is the future worker that
Republicans – and more importantly their very wealthy financiers – dream about. Knowing that it will be very difficult for
that baby to receive quality education and therefor little chance at upward
economic mobility, someday they will be forced to get a job “that is just good
enough” to make ends meet. Since
Republicans don’t believe in social or economic assistance, that baby might
have to pick up a second job just to get by.
And they probably won’t be able to afford birth control, and so the
cycle continues.
This may seem extremely devious, but that’s only because it
is. Only when you think in this context
do Republicans’ words and actions make sense.
They want you to fail. They want
you to fail because it precludes upward economic mobility and builds our
underpaid, overworked enormous workforce.
Who then succeeds in the end?
Ask someone from the 1%. (If you ever meet one.) http://bt2032.blogspot.com/
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