Tuberville is Sending Republicans Down the Tubes


An Alabama Senator, Tommy Tuberville, has the power to hold up promotions in the military. He has held up all promotions for a couple of months and is determined to continue. He wants to stop women in the military from getting abortions paid for by the military's health care package. Several Republican pro military Senators want him to back off. He is determined to hold up all promotions until his religious views on abortion are followed by the military.

Every time I see a political leader like this make ridiculous religious demands I'm think back to many decades ago. I recall when Southern Baptists were flirting with abandoning the Democratic Party and switching to become Republicans. The TV face I recall is Senator Bob Dole. He said something like, "We welcome all into the Republican Party including those in the religious community." I remember thinking that brand of Christianity is not Bob Dole's brand. Does he know where this might lead.

Of course, Dole had no choice but to welcome the religious right. What happened next was the candidates became ever farther to the right. Redistricting moved it yet more right. The religious right became the Republican Party. Even our founding fathers knew religion was a dangerous human attribute and left a national religion out of the Constitution. If Bob Dole had known the southern Christian right would lead to a Tommy Tuberville would he have thought it wise to invite it in?

Reality is, today's Tommy Tuberville is not the end of movement of political leadership to right. There is a lot of space on the right and he and many others intend to move there. It will outlaw all abortion. Then outlaw all birth control. Following that are restrictions on career opportunities of women. Don't rule out racial segregation and interracial marriage. Our founding fathers were wise to fence off religion. If only today's Republican Party was as wise. 

Watching politics today, there are tiny signs of hope. Here in Iowa, Trump and DeSantis are both skipping the annual show of religious power. This is a convention of the religious right in the state. The Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds, a devout Baptist, will attend and sign an anti-abortion bill in a show of religious power over other women.

Women have been showing up at the polls and shifting the political winds a bit toward women's rights. In the meantime, the likes of Sen. Tommy Tuberville continue to harm our country. 

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