Is Sisterhood Powerful?

South Dakota is set to make abortion illegal within its borders as of July 1, 2006, setting off a legal chain reaction that will ultimately end up in the Supreme Court, thereby threatening to overturn Roe v. Wade. Women in this state will only be "permitted" the choice of abortion if their lives depend on it -- they will otherwise have no choice in cases of rape, incest, unwanted pregnancy, or for any other reason.

What's wrong with the USA these days? The voting plurality has gotten way too puritanical for my delicate sensibilities. The puritanical strain in American culture and society has always repelled me. At times like these, I really wish we had a parliamentary system with more political choices than the two big dominant parties. The Republicans are effectively bullying anyone who disagrees with their agenda, acting like Christian Shiites, angling to dominate everyone and everything else with their primitive but very clear ideology. Margaret Atwood, among many other writers, warned us of this tendency years ago, apparently to little avail.

The Democrats, an unruly coalition at best, are too moderate and wishy washy as of early 2006 to put together an effective counterforce against the Republicans any time soon. In a parliamentary system, we would be able to join real alternative parties and form real coalitions, and perhaps even manage to provide true alternatives.

Within the existing system, if the Democrats choose Hillary Rodham Clinton in the 2008 primaries, let's be pragmatic -- she'd be attacked even more mercilessly than John Kerry in the leadup to the general election, and then lose to some droning nabob replacement for the current Republican president, our very own all-American Mussolini. Clinton is really too moderate, her personal style too abrasive for the plurality of voters -- only hardline Republicans seem to be able to get away with an abrasive style at the national level without consequential political backlash. Though it would certainly be entertaining to see Hillary and Bill return to the White House in reversed roles, the Democrats had seriously better figure it out fast if they want to get back in power and stop the regressive trajectory launched by Republicans.

As for the women's right to abortion, I am a heterodox Catholic convert: I believe strongly that of course women should have that right throughout the entire United States. Will enough people fight to keep the right guaranteed since 1973 by Roe v. Wade? We'll find out soon enough. Time to take to the streets again, become more active, do more before it's too late. Whatever it takes, make it happen. And don't you know it. . . . .