I thought about commenting on this story when it first got going. The refusal of the Republicans to re-up the Violence Against Women Act was so perfect an example of how unmoored they have become from the basic business of not making their country worse, it seemed worth noting, particularly since fully half of their by now inevitable tantrum simply involved not wanting lesbians and transgender[1] women to count as, you know, actual women.
What made me hold back in the end were the Republican's objections to the way the bill deals with the rape of Native American women upon tribal land. Because I didn't understand them. Not in the standard Republican way of not understanding why they were being such horrible, horrible people. In the way that I don't actually know how the tribal legal system (or legal systems, more likely) actually function, how they interact with the American system, and without reading the specific provisions in the bill regarding how the transferal of legal authority was going to be handled - and almost certainly I'd need some legal schooling about what I'd read even if I'd tried - I can't be sure the Republicans didn't have a point about the how, as oppose to the why.
The fact that a white guy can drive onto a reservation, rape a woman there, and there be any question as to whether the worthless fucker will be thrown into jail is obviously outrageous. The fact that the Republicans show no evidence that they could give two shits about this is equally obvious. But precisely because I'm so heavily inclined to assume the worse of Republican legislators, I could only offer my suspicions here, not a clear-cut condemnation.
How fortunate for my biases and prejudices then that the Republicans have handily re-written the bill themselves, and cut out all reference to lesbian and transgender women. They've chopped out the provisions for tribal courts as well, of course, but as I say, I'm not qualified to judge that, merely to stare with narrowed eyes at Eric "Most Punchable Creature Ever" Cantor and "hmmm" suspiciously.
With the LGBT provisions excised, however, the Republicans are making a stronger statement than before. They are not merely objecting to those provisions, they've removed them in order to make a law they think worth passing. Because - and let's be clear - violence against women is only a problem when that woman was born with a vagina, and into which she only wants a penis inserted. Because - and let's be clear - the standard Republican position is that a person's right to not be beaten up is directly proportional to how much that person lives in a way Republicans approve of, and Republicans can think about without feeling all icky.
Because wealthy white heterosexual cis Christian male is the origin point of the entire spectrum of humanity, and the straight women are lucky enough to have a law that protects them even if they're black or poor.
Some days it is very difficult to believe the arc of history bends towards anything but our self-immolation. Some days it is very difficult to believe it won't be deserved.
[1] A word blogspot doesn't think exists, by the way, which pisses me off too.
No comments:
Post a Comment