NC Republican Legislators play dirty to pass bill limiting abortion access

North Carolina Republican Legislators are speaking loud and clear.  

To Hell with civil rights.  Gay and women’s rights can take the same trip.  The unemployed can pack their bags and jump on the wagon.  North Carolina is home of conservative white dudes who have no compassion for most of the citizens of the state they are elected to serve.

North Carolinian’s are screaming.  It doesn’t matter.  They’re not listening.

Thousands have showed up for Moral Monday’s to show their disdain over the passage of laws aimed at making life worse for normal people. Hundreds have been arrested.  Protestors represent a diverse group of discontent citizens.  None of it matters.  Republican legislators are on a mission to prove their power.

When will it end, and what damage will remain after North Carolina voters send a few legislators into retirement. What is the point behind it all? Is it about asserting power over the weak, or do they believe in the pain they peddle like juice in a bottle sold by a medicine man?

The most recent addition of “we don’t care about you,” is a measure placing tougher restrictions on abortions. The state Senate passed the second reading of the bill on Tuesday by 27-14; a final vote today will send it back to the House for approval.

The bill will require abortion clinics to meet the same standards as ambulatory surgery centers and will force the closure of all but one clinic in the state.  It will place limits on health care coverage for abortions and require doctors to be present when women take the drug that induces abortions.

Critics of the bill point to the scheming that led to Tuesday’s vote. It was presented unexpectedly during a rare late-day committee meeting.  It combines numerous bills in different stages into one bill.  At 5:30 p.m., the measure on the committee’s calendar reflected a bill on the family law provision of the bill.  Critics argued the bill could interfere with U.S. law in foreign courts.

The committee quickly jumped on an amendment to the bill that dealt with abortion. 

“It seems to me that they’re trying to pass under cover of darkness legislation that would not otherwise be passed,” Suzanne Buckley, executive director of NARAL Pro-Choice North Carolina, told the Huffington Post.  They’re trying to pull a Texas.”

State Republicans have embraced the Charlie Sheen philosophy of life- WINNING.  It’s about winning at all cost. Change the state constitution, rob people of their voting rights, deny the role race plays in determining guilt in court cases, shortchange people money the federal government has approved, refute a woman’s right to decide related to her body – do whatever it takes to win.

This isn’t state politics.  It’s a game.  Citizens are pawns maneuvered like board game pieces to prove Republican dominance.  The people aren’t heard.  They keep screaming, but Republicans keep playing games reminiscent of Niccolò Machiavelli who made deception an art.

They’ve redefined “we the people”.  Democracy and independence is revamped into the image of white dominance.  Community is reconstituted as the forced moral agenda of a few.  The American Dream is relegated and defined by the voice of those with the power to manipulate those weakened by indifference.

Blame is used to confuse. Hatred hides the truth.  Winning divides.  Winning denounces the credibility of compromise.  Winning doesn’t care about the other side.

It just wants to win.

The abortion bill is an example of the mindset behind the closed ears in Raleigh.  They will do whatever it takes to win. 

The people keep screaming, but it’s hard to win when the other team uses dirty tricks.