The Fine Art of Minding Your Own Damn Business!

 

by Pa Rock

Citizen Journalist

Is someone who is accepting of new ideas that seem to be following the moral arc of justice toward the betterment of society "enlightened" and worthy of praise, or is that person "woke"  and begging to be scorned and vilified?

Not everyone is on board with the composition of the moral arc or the direction in which it is heading, and that is the crux of the Great American Culture War.

The culture war has several fronts, but during the recent political campaign it was the conflict over transgender rights that seemed to draw the most fire.  Republicans whipped up a whirlwind of hate over the idea that anyone except God Almighty could determine a person's gender, and if God chose to bring you into the world with male genitalia, you were a male and would remain so all of your natural life.  The same was true for females.  If a baby was born equipped as a female, then that is what "she" would remain, even if from "her" earliest memory onward she had known that "she" was actually a boy who had been born into the wrong body.

Transgender stories and issues proved to be electoral gold for the Republican Party, and their politicians milked fears of transgender individuals in restrooms, locker rooms, and on sports teams for all they were worth - all the while completely ignoring burgeoning sex scandals surrounding multiple cabinet nominees of their own party.

Earlier this month Sarah McBride, a Democrat from Delaware, was elected to become the first transgender member of Congress, and even tough the election was over, some Republicans in Congress could not concentrate on legislating when they could instead be prancing around in front of news cameras and manufacturing social media memes as they gleefully attacked a colleague they had yet to even meet.

Rep. Nancy Mace, a Republican congresswoman from South Carolina, rushed to declare that the new member of Congress must not be allowed to use women's restrooms in the Capitol, and Mace said she would push for a congressional rule to keep her out.  Rep. Mace said her push for the ban was "absolutely targeted" as Rep. McBride.

Not to be outdone in the hate department, regular blowhard, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia, said that she would fight the newcomer if she found her in one of the women's restrooms.  Maybe Netflix should look into booking it.

House Speaker Johnson of Louisiana, A Republican and a man who would be ill-advised to fight either Mace or Greene, quickly enacted a rule to bar transgender individuals from using any restrooms in the Capitol other than those aligned with their birth gender.  Every member of Congress has a personal restroom in their office, so hopefully Rep. McBride can relieve herself in her office restroom without the potty police kicking down the door to see if she is standing or squatting.

Okay, let's recap:  first we had the government snooping around in our bedrooms, and now it is in our bathrooms.  What's next?  Will the FBI be in our laundry rooms going through dirty clothes hampers searching for evidence of cross-dressing or missed periods?   Attorney General Gaetz is going to love sorting through those photo files!

I guess I'm getting too old.  I can remember when members of Congress actually at least pretended to work at legislating, and when people were content to practice the fine art of minding their own damn business!