Posted on 06/27/2022 4:37:54 PM PDT by Ennis85
As thousands of members of our LGBQT+ community poured into Dublin for a joyful celebration of diversity, it was hard to believe what was unfolding on the other side of the Atlantic. A second day of protested and riots erupted in cities across the US as news sank in of the Supreme Court's overturning of the landmark Roe VS Wade case which, for the past 50 years, has delivered abortion rights to woman.
Donald Trump may have failed in his pledge to make America Great Again, but he has been true to his word protecting the unborn. He filled the Supreme Court with conservative judges whose values could deliver his pro-life legacy.
Once victory was sealed in that sphere, Judge Clarence Thomas, the court's longest -serving member, wrote that the time had come to 'reconsider' the court's past rulings giving rights on contraception, same-sex marriage and same sex-relationships.
Just as democrats feared, Roe VS Wade may become a wedge issue for the erosion of the other constitutional rights that underpin the fabric of liberal America, the right of privacy in personal decisions. It may be hyperbolic to compare a country that is in the process of closing down abortion clinics in 26 States with Gilead, the fictional country of Margaret Atwod's The Handmaid's Tale, where women's fertility is tightly controlled by a ruling male elite. But it's clear that, when it comes to progressive legislation, the US and Ireland are opposite directions.
The success of referenda to repeal the constitutional ban on abortion and to approve same-sex marriage reflects our rejection of the moral authority of the Catholic Church.
But while the Weekend's Pride celebrations are a satisfying sign of our secular and inclusive character, they also disguise tensions that often simmer, unnoticed, under the surface. These tensions exploded over three days when Liveline debated trans Rights, generating a febrile atmosphere more reminiscent of messy US culture wars than usually staid RTE radio. The row between trans activists belligerently insisting that trans-women are women and feminists refusing to budge on their right to safe spaces seemed straight out of the US playbook, and was a starling reminder of how easily polarised debate and intransigence can happen here.
The upshot was that Dublin Pride severed its relationship with RTE, accusing the station of 'stoking the flames of anti-trans rhetoric', while Liveline's Joe Duffy, up to now on the right side of social issues, was unfairly cast as a hate-mongering bigot who wanted to make life hell for society's most vulnerable people.
It is better for society that disagreements, no matter how uncomfortable, are ventilated rather than papered over for the sake of a false solidarity But discussion must also be respectful. People must not be demonised or bullied or belittled.
In the US, Donald Trump was propelled to power in part by the frustration of millions of blue-collar and conservative voters who felt they had been silenced for their beliefs and sidelined economically during Barack Obama's presidency.
It will be that same constituency, unappeased by the feeble Joe Biden, who will bring Mr Trump to the White House for a second time, or if not him, then Florida governor Ron DeSantis, who hopes to beat Mr Trump to the Republican presidential nomination with his even more right-wing ideas. In the process, the culture war will be escalated, and hot-button issues such as gun control, gender identity, patriotism and critical race theory will be pursued for their appeal to the conservative political base.
But what might this mean for us? Our country's liberal transformation is solid. Unlike Americans, who have enjoyed personal freedoms for so long that they might be blind to the effect of draconian laws on their lives, our memory of social control by religious means is vivid.
We are far from naive about how restrictions on abortion or same-sex marriage strike at the heart of women's rights and gay rights. But we may by complacent about how easily our public life could be infected by the bitterness, sexism and xenophobia practised daily by Donald Trump. The tit for tit between Pearse Doherty and Leo Varadkar in the Dail about their various brushes with the law and internal party business gave us a taste of the mud-slinging which the US endured under President Trump and which, if Mr. Trump and his supporters have anything to do with it, will become a feature of the US political landscape again. As the pressure on Leo Varadkar intensifies with Sinn Fein edging closer to power, the temptation grows for him to indulge in the kind of personal campaigning that Sinn Fein and Donald Trump are so expert at.
Sinn Fein's support is growing inexorably. A harsh economic winter of spiralling fuel prices and possible ration, as well as a cost-of-living crisis and a homeless problem that housing Minister Darragh O'Brien cannot hope to stem, will further enhance the appeal of its populist rhetoric. Yesterday's Irish Mail on Sunday revealed tentative talks are taking place between Sinn Fein and Fianna Fail about a coalition. As an extraordinary political realignment takes place, it's imperative that we protect our discourse from the toxic influence of discourse from the toxic influence of Donald Trump and his ugly tendency to set people at each other's throats in pursuit of votes or of victory in the culture wars.
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