Sex and the Republicans
The Republicans running for president this year are really, really obsessed with sex. Not only their own sex lives but everybody else's. They want to proscribe what you can do and with whom you can do it and they especially want to control women's bodies and their ability to make decisions about their bodies. As I noted yesterday, they would like to take us back to a time when women had no rights, when they were chattel at the mercy of their lords and masters. In Republican thought, this is the way the world was intended to operate. Intended by God, of course.
The surging Rick Santorum, the latest not-Romney, is particularly pernicious and strait-laced in the way he views sex. First of all, in Rick's world, there would be no contraceptives of any kind allowed. Sex would only happen within marriage and only for the purposes of procreation. I can see a few problems with that idea.
For example, what about post-menopausal women? Are they just supposed to give up sex once they no longer have the possibility of conceiving? What about men married to post-menopausal women? No sex for them either, I suppose.
What about married couples who, for whatever reason, are infertile? Is their relationship to be chaste with no sex allowed?
I'm not sure Rick has thought this all the way through to its logical conclusion.
To what can we attribute this Republican obsession with matters sexual? Based on news stories about members of the party in recent years, it is obvious that they often do not live up to the standards they would impose upon the rest of us. Still, these proponents of "small government" are eager to send government snoopers into our bedrooms and to monitor the monthly menstrual cycles of every woman of child-bearing age to ensure that if one of them conceives, she is forced to carry that fetus full-time regardless of the circumstances or consequences for the woman or the child or the family.
There is no government more intrusive than one which attempts to regulate one of the most pleasurable and intimate activities in which its citizens can engage and this is exactly the kind of government these guys would give us if they could. Let's make sure they can't.
The surging Rick Santorum, the latest not-Romney, is particularly pernicious and strait-laced in the way he views sex. First of all, in Rick's world, there would be no contraceptives of any kind allowed. Sex would only happen within marriage and only for the purposes of procreation. I can see a few problems with that idea.
For example, what about post-menopausal women? Are they just supposed to give up sex once they no longer have the possibility of conceiving? What about men married to post-menopausal women? No sex for them either, I suppose.
What about married couples who, for whatever reason, are infertile? Is their relationship to be chaste with no sex allowed?
I'm not sure Rick has thought this all the way through to its logical conclusion.
To what can we attribute this Republican obsession with matters sexual? Based on news stories about members of the party in recent years, it is obvious that they often do not live up to the standards they would impose upon the rest of us. Still, these proponents of "small government" are eager to send government snoopers into our bedrooms and to monitor the monthly menstrual cycles of every woman of child-bearing age to ensure that if one of them conceives, she is forced to carry that fetus full-time regardless of the circumstances or consequences for the woman or the child or the family.
There is no government more intrusive than one which attempts to regulate one of the most pleasurable and intimate activities in which its citizens can engage and this is exactly the kind of government these guys would give us if they could. Let's make sure they can't.
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