Excellent column. When I read columns that say we’re just not listening to Trumpers, and that they’ve been left behind (Nicholas Kristof, I’m looking at you), I always point out that the Trumpers around ME here in Augusta, GA are upper-middle class and ostensibly educated. The attribute they have in common is evangelicism. Yes, they have, as you say, been primed to accept the ridiculous, to embrace authoritarianism, to be manipulated. My grandmother, a loving woman who lived in Illinois where I grew up, was a Southern Baptist who believed the zip code and fluoride were Communist plots in the face of all the evidence my mother could muster. She was otherwise “normal.”Truly, it deserves its own entry in the DSM.
Don't ignore the GOP's stealthy actions aimed at contraception. It started with declaring IUDs to be causing abortions because the fertilized ovum -- which has all the rights and privileges of anyone of voting age -- does not implant and is excreted with the uterine lining during menstruation. Health insurers are no longer obligated to cover IUD insertion which leaves the woman to come up with a few thousand dollars to pay the full freight (not to mention an extra charge for removing it should there be complications). There are more, and the Heritage Foundation is involved in the scheme.
Taking advantage of the fact that few people understand the process which results in pregnancy, they have set their sights on oral contraceptives which also prevent implantation and the next target will undoubtedly be all hormonal contraceptives. Apparently our nation was great when the only available contraceptives were condoms. We can't go back.
Excellent column. When I read columns that say we’re just not listening to Trumpers, and that they’ve been left behind (Nicholas Kristof, I’m looking at you), I always point out that the Trumpers around ME here in Augusta, GA are upper-middle class and ostensibly educated. The attribute they have in common is evangelicism. Yes, they have, as you say, been primed to accept the ridiculous, to embrace authoritarianism, to be manipulated. My grandmother, a loving woman who lived in Illinois where I grew up, was a Southern Baptist who believed the zip code and fluoride were Communist plots in the face of all the evidence my mother could muster. She was otherwise “normal.”Truly, it deserves its own entry in the DSM.
Don't ignore the GOP's stealthy actions aimed at contraception. It started with declaring IUDs to be causing abortions because the fertilized ovum -- which has all the rights and privileges of anyone of voting age -- does not implant and is excreted with the uterine lining during menstruation. Health insurers are no longer obligated to cover IUD insertion which leaves the woman to come up with a few thousand dollars to pay the full freight (not to mention an extra charge for removing it should there be complications). There are more, and the Heritage Foundation is involved in the scheme.
Taking advantage of the fact that few people understand the process which results in pregnancy, they have set their sights on oral contraceptives which also prevent implantation and the next target will undoubtedly be all hormonal contraceptives. Apparently our nation was great when the only available contraceptives were condoms. We can't go back.