Radical Solidarity

I finally had to do it: I turned off NPR.

Don't get me wrong, I still love the BBC, Fresh Air, the interviews, the odd and quirky coverage of things that I might not otherwise notice. I just can't handle the news anymore. Not any news. Specifically, I can't handle hearing any more about the vacancy on the Supreme Court, and the one, only, over-riding, over-arching issue of our day: abortion.

Abortion is a real sore spot with me. I will say up front that I am morally opposed to abortion, but legally supportive of women being able to make that decision themselves. Until I see or hear evidence that convinces me that outlawing it is practical, constitutionally defensible, and supported by a large majority of Americans, I support the "rare, but legal and safe" goal. Neither the "pro-life" movement, nor the "pro-choice" movement has ever made an argument that convinced me of their position. In the absence of any "proof," my default choice is to not muck around with someone else's life.

So here's my bitch: To hear people on talk radio, television and the web tell it, abortion is the be-all-end-all issue in American jurrisprudence, politics, public life. Abortion is terribly important to people that care about it, and that's perfectly fine, but the fact of the matter is, abortion is just one issue in a much bigger picture. The specific right to choose to have an abortion (or denying others that right) is not the issue people should be worried about, and focusing on that specific issue is just allowing the Americans to be divided and conquered faster.

The President has been persuing the power for his agents to investigate anyone, to any degree, in complete secrecy, with no judicial oversight. He has already won the right to hold people incomunicado, denying all rights to due process or council. That means that the FBI could investigate you, the President could have you locked away, and no one would know why. The courts have been supporting not only that power, but the power of government to seize your property and give it to other private parties "for the public good." That Soviet-like power to strip human rights, property rights, legal rights in the name of national or public good, makes all other issues trivial.

People at both political extremes care about abortion in a deep and genuine way, but the fact is, the preservation of the rights underlying the Roe decision are much more important than the decision itself ever was. To put it another way, the question isn't whether or not abortion is right, but whether or not we still believe in personal privacy, personal property, and a fair and open legal process when individual freedom collides with collective good. Infringement on reproductive rights may be a symptom, but it's not the disease. Sooner or later, that disease will errode the whole body, no matter what it adds after "pro-."

Both "liberals" and "conservatives" stand to lose their fundamental rights. Liberals will lose the right to choose what to do with their own bodies, conservatives will lose the right to choose what to do with their property, and both will lose their privacy. It won't be "can you or can't you pray in school," but whether or not the government decides from your med and psych records, that you need to be "educated" in some special way; or even, perhaps, whether or not your employer can use those records to hire, fire, or promote you. It won't be "can my land be developed," but who will get to develope it and reap the rewards. It will be the right to life, liberty and the persuit of happiness on your terms, or a life of servitude and consumerism on the terms of whichever big money interests control the party that happens to be in power. If they can take the rights of your opponents, they can take your rights too.

But hey, that's fine. The right wing Christians will scream about the "right to life," and their opponents will scream about the "right to choose," and neither group will end up with either right.