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On Tuesday, Republicans in North Carolina overrode Gov. Roy Coopers veto to pass a strict limit on bodily autonomy in the form of a 12-week abortion ban.

In addition to this new limit on abortion, the law extends the waiting period for people seeking abortions to 72 hours and puts onerous new rules on clinics. As intended, the net effect is to limit access to abortion and other reproductive health services to everyone but those with the time and resources to seek care outside the state.

North Carolina Republicans are obviously not the only ones fighting to ban, limit or restrict the right to bodily autonomy, whether abortion or gender-affirming health care for transgender people. All across the country, Republicans have passed laws to do exactly that wherever they have the power to do so, regardless of public opinion in their states or anywhere else. The war on bodily autonomy is a critical project for nearly the entire G.O.P., pursued with dedication by Republicans from the lowliest state legislator to the partys powerful functionaries on the Supreme Court.

You might even say that in the absence of a national leader with a coherent ideology and agenda, the actions of Republican-led states and legislatures provide the best guide to what the Republican Party wants to do and the best insight into the society it hopes to build.

I have already made note of the attack on bodily autonomy, part of a larger effort to restore traditional hierarchies of gender and sexuality. What else is on the Republican Partys agenda, if we use those states as our guide to the partys priorities?

There is the push to free business from the suffocating grasp of child labor laws. Republican lawmakers in Arkansas, Iowa, Missouri and Ohio have advanced legislation to make it easier for children as young as 14 to work more hours, work without a permit and be subjected to more dangerous working conditions. The reason to loosen child labor laws as a group of Wisconsin Republicans explained in a memo in support of a bill that would allow minors to serve alcohol at restaurants is to deal with a shortage of low-wage workers in those states.

There are other ways to solve this problem you could raise wages, for one but in addition to making life easier for the midsize-capitalist class that is the material backbone of Republican politics, freeing businesses to hire underage workers for otherwise adult jobs would undermine organized labor and public education, two btes noires of the conservative movement.

Elsewhere in the country, Republican-led legislatures are placing harsh limits on what teachers and other educators can say in the classroom about American history or the existence of L.G.B.T.Q. people. This week in Florida, Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a bill that bans discussion in general education courses at public institutions of theories that systemic racism, sexism, oppression and privilege are inherent in the institutions of the United States and were created to maintain social, political and economic inequities. He also signed a bill that prohibits state colleges and universities from spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs beyond what is necessary to retain accreditation as educational institutions.

Nationwide, Republicans in at least 18 states have passed laws or imposed bans designed to keep discussion of racial discrimination, structural inequality and other divisive concepts out of classrooms and far away from students.

Last but certainly not least is the Republican effort to make civil society a shooting gallery. Since 2003, Republicans in 25 states have introduced and passed so-called constitutional carry laws, which allow residents to have concealed weapons in public without a permit. In most of those states, according to the Giffords Law Center to Prevent Gun Violence, it is also legal to openly carry a firearm in public without a permit.

Republicans have also moved aggressively to expand the scope of stand your ground laws, which erode the longstanding duty to retreat in favor of a right to use deadly force in the face of perceived danger. These laws, which have been cited to defend shooters in countless cases, such as George Zimmerman in 2013, are associated with a moderate increase in firearm homicide rates, according to a 2022 study published in JAMA Network Open. Republicans, however, say they are necessary.

If someone tries to kill you, you should have the right to return fire and preserve your life, said Representative Matt Gaetz, who introduced a national stand your ground bill this month. Its time to reaffirm in law what exists in our Constitution and in the hearts of our fellow Americans, he added. We must abolish the legal duty of retreat everywhere.

It should be said as well that some Republicans want to protect gun manufacturers and dealers from lawsuits. Gov. Bill Lee of Tennessee did just that this month after a shooting in Nashville killed six people, including three children, in March signing a bill that gives additional protections to the gun industry.

What should we make of all this? In his 1941 State of the Union address, Franklin Roosevelt said there was nothing mysterious about the foundations of a healthy and strong democracy and that he, along with the nation, looked forward to a world founded upon four essential human freedoms. Famously, those freedoms were the freedom of speech and expression, the freedom of every person to worship God in his own way, the freedom from want and the freedom from fear. Those freedoms were the guiding lights of his New Deal, and they remained the guiding lights of his administration through the trials of World War II.

There are, I think, four freedoms we can glean from the Republican program.

There is the freedom to control to restrict the bodily autonomy of women and repress the existence of anyone who does not conform to traditional gender roles.

There is the freedom to exploit to allow the owners of business and capital to weaken labor and take advantage of workers as they see fit.

There is the freedom to censor to suppress ideas that challenge and threaten the ideologies of the ruling class.

And there is the freedom to menace to carry weapons wherever you please, to brandish them in public, to turn the right of self-defense into a right to threaten other people.

Roosevelts four freedoms were the building blocks of a humane society a social democratic aspiration for egalitarians then and now. These Republican freedoms are also building blocks not of a humane society but of a rigid and hierarchical one, in which you can either dominate or be dominated.

More:
Opinion | The Four Freedoms, According to Republicans - The New York Times

New election results suggest voters are mixed at best on the GOPs educational culture wars.

Tuesday nights school board elections in Pennsylvania and Oregon again showed how classrooms continue to be a front in the Republican Partys broader culture war, a battle it has pursued in states across the country with mixed results.

In an Oregon school district in the predominantly rural Clackamas County, where students have protested a recent onslaught of book bans, several parental rights candidates lost their bids for the school board. However, GOP-backed school board candidates in southern Pennsylvania who backed book bans and policies targeting trans students survived primary challenges and will advance to the November elections.

The races are part of Republicans national push to politicize once-sleepy school board races, using them as a vehicle to curb discussion of race and gender issues in the classroom and give parents more power over curriculums. Across the country, school board members backed by the GOP have banned seminal works of literature, from Toni Morrisons The Bluest Eye to Margaret Atwoods The Handmaids Tale, but not without backlash.

Nationally, parents have become increasingly worried about the GOPs book-banning push and have cooled somewhat on the curriculum concerns that dominate Republicans education platform. An April Fox News poll found that 77 percent of parents are extremely or very concerned about local school board book bans, an 11-point increase since May 2022. Though 73 percent of those polled remained anxious about what is taught in public schools, thats 7 points lower than last year. Other polls conducted in recent months show similar results. Actual election results also cast doubt on Republicans school-focused strategy: In Illinois and Wisconsin, a key swing state, school board candidates who ran on culture war issues largely failed in April.

That tracks with Tuesday nights losses for three parental rights candidates, including two incumbents, in Oregons Canby School District. A total of 36 books were recently removed from the school districts libraries following parental complaints about their descriptions of promiscuity, assault, and mature sexual content.

Incumbent Canby school board member Stefani Carlson promised more restrictions on content offered through school libraries as a pillar of her candidacy, as well as offering more transparency to parents in terms of classroom curriculum. I will continue working to remove inappropriate sexually explicit and obscene material, she wrote in a pamphlet distributed to the district. But voters instead backed the approach of her challenger, who promised to be a voice of reason dedicated to advancing the goals of the District without creating chaos.

The two other parental rights candidates, one of whom was explicitly backed by the Parents Rights in Education political action committee, advocated for increasing parents role in setting school curriculums. They also both lost.

But it wasnt all bad news for GOP-aligned school board candidates. In Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, GOP-endorsed candidates dominated their school board primaries just as the districts consider policies including trans athlete bans and additional restrictions on library books.

In the Warwick, Pennsylvania, school district, many of the GOP candidates were associated with the local Facebook group Warwick Parents for Change and the Lancaster County chapter of Moms for Liberty, groups that have been a vocal presence in local meetings in advocating for anti-trans policies and restrictions on library books. If GOP candidates ultimately win in Pennsylvanias Manheim Township district, they could consider a ban on trans student-athletes participating in sports teams that correspond to their gender identity that was previously under consideration. That ban already exists in the nearby Hempfield district, which has also voted in favor of banning books with sexually explicit content and where GOP candidates will also advance.

In 2021, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin showed how education can be a winning issue for Republicans, even among voters who have previously swung Democratic. He upset incumbent Democrat Terry McAuliffe in what has long been a blue state by capitalizing on parents frustrations with school closures during the pandemic and with how schools teach about race and racism. Youngkin campaigned on eliminating classroom discussion of critical race theory an academic framework that examines the role of racism in US culture and institutions.

Educational culture wars have become part of the Republican national playbook, and bans on critical race theory have proliferated across red states and have become a flashpoint in school board races. The GOP has since expanded its education wars to also include bans on the discussion of LGBTQ issues in the classroom, making it easier to ban books that discuss race and gender or criticize US history, preventing trans student-athletes from participating in school sports, injecting Christianity into public schools, and allowing parents to take their tax dollars away from public schools and put them toward private or charter schools through school choice programs.

Its not clear, however, that Republicans focus on education is continuing to pay dividends. In addition to suffering the losses in Pennsylvania and in Illinois and Wisconsin last month, 35 parental rights candidates were defeated in New York school races last year. That meant that many of them decided not to run again this year, with many seats going uncontested in Tuesdays school board elections in New York.

Excerpt from:
Why Republicans school board takeovers are faltering with voters - Vox.com

George Santos is far from the first member of Congress to be indicted while in office. Both chambers and both parties have endured their share of scandals. In 2005, for instance, F.B.I. agents discovered $90,000 hidden in the freezer of Representative William Jefferson, who was under investigation for bribery. He refused to step down, wound up losing his seat in the 2008 election, and was later sentenced to 13 years in prison. James Traficant was expelled from Congress in 2002 after being convicted of bribery and racketeering. Bob Ney resigned in 2006 because of his involvement in a federal bribery scandal.

But in one way, Mr. Santos is different from other members of Congress who have demonstrated moral failures, ethical failures, failures of judgment and blatant corruption and lawbreaking in office. What he did was to deceive the very voters who brought him to office in the first place, undermining the most basic level of trust between an electorate and a representative. These misdeeds erode the faith in the institution of Congress and the electoral system through which American democracy functions.

For that reason, House Republican leaders should have acted immediately to protect that system by allowing a vote to expel Mr. Santos and joining Democrats in removing him from office. Instead not wanting to lose Mr. Santoss crucial vote Speaker Kevin McCarthy pushed a measure to refer the matter to the House Ethics Committee, notorious for its glacial pace, and the House voted predictably along party lines on Wednesday afternoon to follow that guidance.

If the House doesnt reverse that vote under public pressure, its incumbent on the Ethics Committee to conduct a timely investigation and recommend expulsion to the full House, where a two-thirds vote will be required to send Mr. Santos back to Long Island.

Mr. Santos was arrested and arraigned in federal court last week on 13 criminal counts linked primarily to his 2022 House campaign. Mr. McCarthy and other members of the Republican leadership effectively shrugged, indicating that they would let the legal process play itself out, as the conferences chair, Elise Stefanik, put it.

In addition to expulsion, the Republican leaders have several official disciplinary measures they could pursue, such as a formal reprimand or censure, but so far, they have done little more than express concern. Mr. McCarthy has several tough legislative fights looming, including negotiations over the federal budget to avoid a government default, and Mr. Santoss removal might imperil the G.O.P.s slim majority. In effect, Mr. Santoss bad faith has made him indispensable.

His constituents believed he held certain qualifications and values, only to learn after Election Day that they had been deceived. Now they have no recourse until the next election.

The question, then, is whether House Republican leaders and other members are willing to risk their credibility for a con man, someone whose entire way of life his origin story, rsum, livelihood is based on a never-ending series of lies. Of course they should not be. They should have demonstrated to the American people that there is a minimum ethical standard for Congress and used the power of expulsion to enforce it. They should have explained to voters that their commitment to democracy and public trust goes beyond their partys political goals.

At least some Republican lawmakers recognize what is at stake and are speaking out. Senator Mitt Romney of Utah reiterated his view that Mr. Santos should do the honorable thing and step aside, saying, He should have resigned a long time ago. He is an embarrassment to our party. He is an embarrassment to the United States Congress.

Similarly, Anthony DEsposito and Mike Lawler, both representing districts in New York, are among several House Republicans advocating his resignation. Representative Tony Gonzales of Texas has gone a step further, calling for Mr. Santoss expulsion and a special election to replace him. The people of New Yorks 3rd district deserve a voice in Congress, he wrote on Twitter.

Mr. Gonzales gets at the heart of the matter. Mr. Santos has shown contempt for his constituents and for the electoral process. Mr. McCarthy and the other Republican House leaders owe Americans more.

Read more from the original source:
Opinion | George Santos Must Be Held Accountable by Republican Leaders - The New York Times

Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina will announce his candidacy for president on Monday and will enter the race with around $22 million cash on hand, making him one of the most serious competitors for the front-runner, Donald J. Trump, even as Mr. Scott has hovered around 2 percent in Republican primary polls.

After announcing his campaign in his hometown, North Charleston, Mr. Scott will head to Iowa and New Hampshire, the first two states of the Republican nominating contest. Mr. Scotts campaign has reserved around $6 million in advertisements across television and radio in those states, according to an adviser with direct knowledge of Mr. Scotts plans. The Scott campaign also plans to spend millions of dollars on digital ads that will target Iowa and New Hampshire voters and will run through the first Republican primary debate, scheduled to be held in August.

Mr. Scott, the most influential elected Black conservative in America, has a compelling life story around which he is expected to build his campaign. He portrays his rise from poverty to become the first Black senator from South Carolina and the only Black Republican in the Senate as an embodiment of the American dream.

Mr. Scott rarely criticizes Mr. Trump directly, but his message could not be more different from the former presidents. While Mr. Trump talks ominously of retribution his promise to gut the civil service and law enforcement agencies that he pejoratively calls the deep state Mr. Scott prefers the sunny language of Ronald Reagan.

Americans are losing one of the most inspirational truths we have, which is hope hope that things can and will get better, hope that education and hard work can equal prosperity, hope that we remain a city on a hill, a shining example of what can be when free people decide to join hands in self-governance, Mr. Scott said in a speech last year at the Reagan Library on the future of the Republican Party.

America stands at a crossroads, he said, with the potential for a great resetting, a renewal, even a rebirth where we get to choose how we will meet the potential of today and the promise of tomorrow.

There is little evidence, so far, that Mr. Scotts message strikes a chord with the populist base of the modern G.O.P., which for the last several years has been led by a former TV star who likes to fight. For years, the Republican base has fed on apocalyptic talk that often casts Democrats as enemies bent on destroying America. In a party dominated by Mr. Trumps message of American carnage, Mr. Scotts talk of the importance of unity, hope and redemption can sound like a message from another time.

Mr. Scotts campaign will have to balance his inherently optimistic message against the brutal realities of Republican primary politics.

We will be authentic to Mr. Scotts optimistic vision, but were also not in any way afraid to draw contrasts where we need to, said the adviser with knowledge of Mr. Scotts plans.

Mr. Scott will have more than enough money to find out if theres a bigger market for his ideas than the polls suggest. His support for pro-business policies has made him a favorite of the Republican donor class, and he has billionaires like the Oracle founder Larry Ellison who was aligned with Mr. Trump while he was in the White House who are willing to put millions of dollars behind his campaign.

See the article here:
Flush With Campaign Cash, Tim Scott Is Set to Join '24 Race - The New York Times

All but three Republicans in the Oregon state Senate have now made themselves ineligible to serve another term under a voter-approved state law intended to prevent walkouts.

Six Republican senators, including Senate Minority Leader Tim Knopp, R-Bend, hit their 10th unexcused absence on Thursday morning. Three other Republicans and an independent senator reached that threshold earlier this week, meaning one-third of the Senate is now barred from serving another term because of a constitutional amendment voters approved last year.

Republicans initially said the walkout stemmed from the Senate failing to comply with a state law that requires bill summaries to be written at an eighth-grade reading level, though theyve since acknowledged that theyre also protesting Democratic bills around abortion, gender-affirming care and guns.

On Thursday, Democrats all stood when called on for attendance and remained standing until after a somber-faced Senate sergeant at arms returned from a fruitless hunt for missing Republican senators around the building.

This walkout must end, said Senate President Rob Wagner, D-Lake Oswego. The people of Oregon desire it. Democracy demands it.

As they have on previous days, Republican senators showed up at the Capitol after Wagner conceded that they couldnt be found. Minutes after the floor session ended, Knopp walked into his office, where stacks of pink slips delivered by groups who wanted the walkout to end rested on a table behind an office manager.

Activists with a coalition of progressive groups, including the American Civil Liberties Union and Our Oregon, dropped off more pink slips, cake and happy retirement balloons at the Senate Republican office later in the morning.

Distraught Democrats huddled in a conference room off the floor for more than an hour after giving up on voting on bills. Senate Majority Leader Kate Lieber, D-Beaverton, told reporters after that meeting that she was sad because she enjoyed working with Republican colleagues who will be unable to serve.

Part of why Im so deeply saddened is because I really truly believe in democracy, and I do feel like Im watching with the front row seat a fracture in that democracy, Lieber said. No one gets everything they want in a democracy either. So when you have a minority who wants to veto the majority rule, it undermines the faith in democracy and the stability of our state.

Public sector unions and other Democratic groups succeeded in passing an amendment to the state constitution last year to prohibit any lawmaker with 10 unexcused absences during a session from serving in their next term.

Republicans contend that the new law violates the state constitution, and theyre raising funds to fight it in court. As of Thursday afternoon, their Oregons 13 Constitutional Defense Fund had reported raising just more than $1,200.

Six of the senators with 10 absences Knopp, independent Sen. Brian Boquist of Dallas and Republican Sens. Lynn Findley of Vale, Bill Hansell of Athena, Dennis Linthicum of Klamath Falls and Art Robinson of Cave Junction represent districts with elections in 2024.

Hansell announced his retirement earlier this year. Knopp said Thursday he needed to talk to his family and employer about running for re-election, but that he would do so if it were solely his choice. His Bend-based district voted overwhelmingly for Democratic President Joe Biden in 2020, and political analysts considered Knopps re-election a longshot before the walkout.

Republican Sens. Daniel Bonham of The Dalles, Cedric Hayden of Fall Creek, Kim Thatcher of Keizer and Suzanne Weber of Tillamook also have 10 absences, but their seats arent up for election until 2026. Both Thatcher and Weber represent swing districts.

Sen. Fred Girod, R-Stayton, has been excused for weeks for medical reasons, and Sens. Dick Anderson, R-Lincoln City, and David Brock Smith, R-Port Orford, have been on the floor. Anderson and Brock Smith are both up for election in 2024: Anderson in a coastal district that narrowly voted for Biden and Brock Smith in a conservative district in southwestern Oregon.

Wagner said he wont consider retroactively excusing absences if Republicans and Democrats reach an agreement. As of Thursday, the two parties had no plans to resume negotiations, with Wagner saying Democrats needed a day to collectively catch their breath and decide what to do.

Democrats will try to find at least one more Republican senator to join Anderson and Brock Smith on the floor and hope Sen. Chris Gorsek, D-Troutdale, returns soon from recovering from surgery, Wagner said.

Maybe now that theyre disqualified from running for re-election, theyll look to their district, theyll look to their service and say, I will come to the floor and debate, he said.

Knopp said he and other Republicans will return before the Legislature must adjourn on June 25, and theyll vote to clear procedural hurdles to make it possible to pass a budget. But Wagner said he wont allow that.

He went back and watched the speech Gov. Tina Kotek, then speaker of the House, gave in March 2020 when Republicans led by then-Minority Leader Christine Drazan, a Canby Republican who later ran against Kotek for governor, left the state for weeks to block a vote on a climate change bill.

Tina at the end of her floor speech said You dont get to come back with 12 hours left, Leader Drazan, and determine just the bills and the budgets that you want to vote, Wagner said. Thats not what democracy is. It just isnt, and so the same standard is going to apply here.

Lieber and Wagner said Knopp ultimately told them they needed to kill four bills: House Bill 2002, Senate Joint Resolution 33 and Senate Bill 27, all of which deal with abortion and transgender health care, as well as House Bill 2005, which would increase the minimum age to buy most firearms from 18 to 21 years old, ban untraceable firearms known as ghost guns and allow local government agencies to ban firearms in public buildings.

Knopp denied that he demanded the bills be killed, saying he thought they could be amended while declining to elaborate on what amendments he would propose.

The minoritys job is to hold the governing body accountable, and their job is to govern, Knopp said. I believe were doing our job.

Wagner left open the option of using other tools, including sending issuing subpoenas to compel senators to appear or asking Kotek to send Oregon State Police to bring them back to the floor, but he said hes not yet ready to do that.

Kotek on Wednesday said she would be willing to call lawmakers into a special session to pass a budget if the walkout persists. And she said she hadnt completely ruled out sending state troopers out to round up errant senators if needed.

Im not saying I wouldnt, she said. Im treating people with respect. Get back to work. I dont need to chase you down. Get back to work.

See original here:
One-third of Oregon Senate now ineligible for another term as Republican walkout continues Oregon Capital Chronicle - Oregon Capital Chronicle