The unspoken Republican credo- Why make things better when you can make them suffer?

Abject cruelty isn't everything for the GOP; it's the ONLY thing

Silly wabbit—you thought we were done with Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL), didn’t you? Yeah, you thought there was no way she could embarrass herself more than she did with the Republican response to President Biden’s State of the Union Address. Go ahead. You can admit it.

Au contraire, mon ami….

It appears the aforementioned Sen. Britt wasn’t about to go away. No, she was merely looking for the right moment to unload a shitload of crazy in an utterly unhinged Handmaid’s Tale moment. And when she did….

You might remember last summer when 19 Republican state attorneys general attempted to force blue states to hand over information on pregnant women from red states who’d gone to a blue state provider to obtain abortion services.

Yeah, that proved to be about as popular as a raging case of Chlamydia. Once blue state attorneys general stopped laughing at the absurd request, they raised their middle fingers in unison and told red state attorney generals what they’d done with their wives the night before.

It looks like there’s another effort to breathe life into that corpse.

If the latest proposal from Alabama’s senator passes, when women show up in a doctor’s office with a positive pregnancy test, they or their doctors may enter them into a registry that can be easily searched by state law enforcement officers looking for women who might leave the state to get an abortion. If they want counseling or help, they’ll be directed to a “crisis pregnancy center” run by a church that will try to convince them that abortions cause cancer or some other such BS.

Ho-Lee Schitt. Is that some Prime-Time, Grade-A, top-shelf, first-class Handmaid’s Tale shit or what??

As might be imagined, Sen. Britt’s proposal has not been well-received by any lucid human with a sense of decency.

U.S. Sen. Katie Britt (R-AL) is being ridiculed on social media for a new piece of proposed legislation that, while billed as a child support bill for new moms, is being panned as yet another dystopian intrusion into women's pregnancies.

Britt, who came to the forefront of the political conversation following her heavily-mocked response to President Joe Biden's 2024 State of the Union address, announced the More Opportunities for Moms to Succeed (MOMS) Act. The bill would create a registry of pregnant women, who would then be steered to support services that include "crisis pregnancy centers" — usually faith-based groups designed to shame or trick women seeking abortions into keeping their pregnancies anyway.

"To all of my fellow moms out there, my goal is to give you and your children the opportunities to thrive and to live your American dreams," Britt said in a video announcing the policy.

So, either Sen. Britt is utterly devoid of self-awareness, or she has the IQ of an apple turnover. Perhaps in her lair on Earth-2, her MOMS Act seems like an excellent way for moms and children to experience “the opportunities to thrive and to live [their] American dreams.” Here on Earth-1, where the desire to ensure freedom from Big Government intrusion into the private lives of citizens used to be a hallmark of the GOP, Sen. Britt has taken a plunge off the deep end.

And, just in case you might have forgotten how cringeworthy Sen. Britt’s SOTU response was, allow me to refresh your memory:

That was probably uncalled for, but you’re welcome, anyway.

In no conceivable scenario does a registry of pregnant women have any positive utility or purpose. This is especially true when, as Sen. Britt mentions, one of the purposes is to steer women to “crisis pregnancy centers,” which exist primarily to trick women into reversing their decision to have an abortion. Additionally, the fact that most “crisis pregnancy centers” are run by faith-based groups should be a matter of concern…to anyone not named Katie Britt.

[I]t didn't go over the way she was likely hoping on social media.

"Handmaid's Tale sh-- right here," wrote Allison Gill, the veteran and political commentator behind "Mueller, She Wrote." "What happened to the party of 'small government'?"

"Katie Britt: Introduced a bill to create a federal database of pregnant women. Also Katie Britt: Opposes federal database of gun owners," wrote Shannon Watts of Moms Demand Action.

Yeah, that whole “party of small government” thing? You didn’t ever really believe that was what the GOP was after, did you? Not even when Reince Priebus was doing his best Alfred E. Neumann “What, me worry?” sales job did I believe—even for a moment—that Republicans weren’t all about total and absolute political control over everything they could lay their hands on.

How does one propose a national registry for pregnant women and yet oppose a federal database of gun owners? How can that sick contradiction be viewed as anything but seriously fucked up and the product of Sen. Britt being a wholly-owned subsidiary of the National Rifle Association?

At least she’s in good company. Most of Congress, and virtually the entire GOP, is owned by the NRA.

WHAT corruption?

I’m old enough to remember when Republicans spoke seriously (or at least acted that way) about being the “Party of Small Government.” They were all about getting the government off the back of the little guy. That’s all of a piece with the tenets of classical Conservatism, which holds that the fundamental role of the federal government should be limited to defense, economic, and foreign policy.

Today’s GOP, of course, wants nothing to do with the “Party of Small Government.” As previously mentioned, it’s all about total political, religious, and social dominance. Women should no longer have control over their reproductive functions, as women’s bodies should be considered property of the state.

America is the property and playground of good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual Patriots. All others need not apply and indeed should only expect to subsist on what crumbs fall from the tables of good, God-fearing White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual Patriots.

Of course, this is today’s Republican Party we’re talking about. Why would they improve things when they can increase suffering—or, better yet, inflict gratuitous suffering where none previously existed?

(Then again, things could always be worse, right?)

Today’s GOP doesn’t have policies. They have no ideas for how to make America a better, kinder, or more compassionate place. At their 2020 convention, they didn’t even bother to put forward a platform. They decided that their platform would be whatever Lord Stumblefuck wanted. He is the GOP, and the GOP is him, so whatever he deemed necessary and appropriate was what the party would deem necessary and appropriate.

The one thing today’s GOP excels at, however, is finding ways to inflict gratuitous suffering upon Americans who aren’t wealthy White Conservative Christian Cisgender Heterosexual Patriots. They have no problems passing billions in tax breaks for their wealthy benefactors who occupy “C” suites. Still, they’ll rail against social welfare programs as “SOCIALISM!!!!” because it’ll do the worst thing imaginable in their estimation. It’ll create dependence upon government largesse.

The irony (and hypocrisy) shouldn’t be missed—because it’s astonishing. Republicans will hand out billions to the already wealthy even as they rebel loudly against earmarking millions for social welfare programs.

So, precisely who’s becoming dependent upon government largesse?

Republicans have no problem with suffering. They rather enjoy it—as long as they’re the ones creating it.

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