So you know the Supreme Court rather gutted the Voting Rights Act. Just so you can get an idea, here's a link to the test Louisiana gave to voters (actually, BLACK voters) in the 1960s.
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_vault/2013/06/28/voting_rights_and_the_supreme_court_the_impossible_literacy_test_louisiana.html
See if you can pass it. See if you can figure it out on the FIRST READ. I have to tell you: I took the GMAT - the test they give you before you're accepted into a graduate program. And I have 2 Master's degrees.
It took me several reads of some of these questions. And I wasn't in a stressed situation where someone was likely timing me. But this was considered "fair."
I ask you: Want to know how many WHITE Louisiana voters had to take this test? I can bet that the answer is "not many, if any."
The swiftness with which so many jurisdictions (Texas, I'm talking' to you!) subsequently passed voter restrictions after this verdict was stunning. Scary. Amazing, since 90+ percent of those states have so many more problems: gun violence, poverty, lack of jobs...and on and on.
The speed of this kind of legislation is only followed by the legislation against the collective US population of uterus-owning individuals. That's us, ladies. Texas (again) is calling yet another "special session." Thirty days in which the Texas Republican party insists it's going to pass legislation virtually eliminating access to abortions by women, setting an arbitrary "20-week" limit. And by golly, they ain't takin' any guff from the wimmenfolk. That danged "democratic" socialist crap had better NOT be evident. Because that's not "decorum."
God knows, we have to have decorum. Instead of common sense legislators, the majority of whom have external plumbing, working on legislation involving jobs, schools, infrastructure or the like, they're passing laws - and demanding that we all act like meek little sheep while they do it -- all relating to vaginas and "lady bits."
And it also is obviously of no interest at all to Texas that this special session is going to cost millions. Millions that could, perhaps, be better spent on the people of Texas in oh, I don't know - maybe job training programs? Maybe funding some local infrastructure projects? Maybe literacy programs?
Back to the basic lack of logic in this legislation. It's like the basic woman's uterus gets pregnant by itself. What? You didn't know we could do that? According to Texas and Ohio (I'm looking at YOU, Kasich - sneaking the Ohio law in, buried in other legislation because you're too chicken to see if it'll stand the scrutiny of daylight!) - well, according to Texas and Ohio, we women are just too dumb. Not only that, apparently, every time I'm upright and have my eyes open, I'm "asking for it."
God forbid I'm just minding my own business. Because apparently, men just trip over their zippers. Men obviously want a woman. Any woman. No matter her age, background or wherever she happens to be at any time of day or night. Because men are always tempted by women.
Now, if I were male, I'd be offended at this legislation. Notwithstanding the fact that the legislation has been passed by mostly white, older males, notwithstanding the fact that the legislation is demeaning to women.
I mean, think about it. It's telling us that "men can't control themselves." Ok, yeah, they aren't going to be slut-shamed. But they just "can't control themselves" when a woman walks by. No matter what the woman is wearing. No matter what time of day or night. No matter whether you're a 55-year-old slightly overweight woman or a 20-something walking across a college campus. The woman always, always, ALWAYS is "asking for it." And men can't control their ability to control themselves...
It all makes my guts roil. Are you angry? If you have a uterus, you should be. And if you're a white voter, you should be. Jim Crow is aimed at the minorities, but don't think that it couldn't happen to the rest of us. Baby steps. That's all it takes till those in power want more.
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