The Culling of the Unfit: Fascism and the BCRA

– 1 –

The Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), the Senate version of ACA reform, is a disaster for women. I don't fully understand all the details; the worst will be in the states that pass waivers that allow pre-natal and maternity care to be withdrawn, but the Medicaid cuts and the defunding of Planned Parenthood will affect all states. If a woman is even middle class and does not have maternity coverage through their employer, this will affect her life. She may be unable to afford pre-natal care, or any care for a pregnancy with complications. Women will die. Children will be born disabled.

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I do not see how this can be an accident. There is too much message discipline, too much clarity in the goals chosen. I do not see how this could have been achieved without planning. This is a deliberate part of a program of "culling" the unfit and purifying the race, with all the old ugly misogyny included in it. Or perhaps the misogyny is the point, and the eugenic idealism the excuse. Someone, several someones, somewhere, has a vision of a purified American with women enslaved and without black or brown people, without weakness or illness.

Ironically, I don't think Trump is a member of the organized movement; he could never be trusted to keep the secret. But Jared Kushner might be. The Koch Brothers, certainly. Senate Majority leader Addison Mitchell McConnell. Attorney General Jefferson Beauregard Sessions. Erik Dean Prince and his sister Elisabeth Dee DeVos. Perhaps Neil Gorsuch. Perhaps Richard Cheney. (Notice the family connections. They cannot trust anyone not tightly bound to them.)

The cruelty is the point. The tax cuts are the excuse given to the rich, to gather their support, but the deaths are necessary for the movement's vision to be realized. Calls for compassion are lost on the leaders. They are fanatics, as fanatical and hypocritical as the leaders of Da'esh, and they would rather see the world in flames than lose control. 

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The Democratic opposition shows no signs that they know what they are fighting. The opposition believes the fascists have normal goals: money, power. The Democrats still believe they can negotiate, even now. I do not see how this can be so: the leaders of this movement are ridden by a fanaticism that brooks no compromise.

– 4 –

To win, resistance must go into this clear-eyed, understanding what we are fighting. We must learn more of this movement and its leaders. I do not know if the knowledge will lead to victory, but I am certain that ignorance will not. If this is a true fascist movement, dedicated to purifying the race, simply withdrawing health care will not be enough. They will go on to ethnic cleansing, to mass deportations and mass killings. We must oppose it.

I do not believe the Republican leaders are reachable. They are either believers, or so committed that they cannot back out. The Republican followers, though, those might be reached.

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And, finally, to the Republican followers, if any of you are reading: turn back. I say again: TURN BACK. You have not yet committed yourself wholly, you are not yet complicit in atrocity. Do not become so. If you believe in honor, consider that honor lies in loyalty to your country and its ideals, not to this madness that would destroy it. If you can, stop, turn back. I promise you that if you do not you will regret it.

– Addendum –

The Nazi program of eliminating the unfit was called Aktion T4. You can read about it at the Britannica's web site. (Thanks to Mnemosyne at Balloon Juice for the cite.)