Republicans want to gaslight you into thinking they’re looking out for you
“Across the nation, Republican governors and legislators are showing Americans what conservative leadership looks like. What it means to respect the people we serve. To hear them out. To stand up for them and walk alongside them,” Reynolds said. That’s some grade-A barnyard expletive.
Just two days after saying that pablum, Reynolds signed into law on Thursday a bill that immediately banned transgender women and girls from competing in women’s sports. She has called it a “fairness issue.” How is keeping athletes from competing in their sport “fair”? Iowa now joins 10 other states prohibiting transgender athletes from women’s sports.
Among those states are Texas and Florida, where Republican governors have unleashed an assault on LGBTQ children and their families. A week before Reynolds’s happy talk, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott directed state agencies to investigate parents of transgender children receiving gender-affirming care. A judge partially blocked the order on Wednesday, but the stay only applies to the plaintiffs already caught up in Abbott’s shameful order who have sued to stop him.
We shouldn’t be surprised by this Texas-style cruelty. Forcing its residents to report anyone who protects the health and respects the dignity of trans kids is a logical next step for the state that offers a “bounty” on those who facilitate abortions.
In Florida, the “Don’t say gay” bill, which would forbid discussion of sexual orientation and gender identity in schools, is one step away from heading to Gov. Ron DeSantis’s (R) desk. While DeSantis has signaled support for the bill, he has yet to explicitly say he’d sign it.
But, c’mon, a guy who harangued high school students into taking off their masks at an event Wednesday because “we’ve got to stop with this covid theater” is clearly capable of this sort of cruelty. See also how he championed a bill that would shield White students from the “discomfort, guilt or anguish” that could come from learning the real history of this country and the inescapable role race plays in it.
These actions by DeSantis and Abbott stand in stark contrast to the sanctimonious gaslighting of Reynolds. “We are standing up for parents and kids,” she said. “Most of all, we’re respecting your freedom. … You shouldn’t have to wake up every morning and worry about the next thing the government is going to do to you, your business, or your children.”
Without a hint of irony or self-awareness, Reynolds said, “The American people are left to feel like they’re the enemy.”
I have a hard time believing that Reynolds’s definition of “the American people” includes anyone not White, straight and cisgender. Of course anyone who isn’t those things feels like they’re the enemy: They are being attacked by public officials who push legislation that treats them as exactly that.
If this is “what conservative leadership looks like,” it’s hideous.
