It’s definitely time. It’s actually past time for mostly conservative middle aged, older white men, and especially ministers, to take some serious responsibility for coercing the voting rights of others since the Reagan era. I am speaking to those men and female counterparts who have coerced their families and flocks to vote Republican since the Reagan era and in recent years for Trump by using the abortion issue as a weapon of abuse to get their way. It is overdue for these people to finally take ownership for abusing the critical thinking capacities, the consciences of their families and flocks, and for convincing women that “only good Christian/Catholic women vote Republican” which is a crock of **it.
60 percent of the American Catholic Church, 76 percent of Hispanic Catholics/other Christians, and 95% percent of Black Catholics/other Christians are Democrats and have never voted Republican since the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. I believe the right-wing of the Republican party has taken 15 to 20 Bible verses which speak of women being quiet, sexuality, and allowing women to make choices, and they have waged war on the poor and the disenfranchised who are supported and defended by 2,000 Bible verses, the Gospel, and Catholic Social Teaching.
Currently, Congressman Chip Roy (R-TX) is leading the charge to pass the most comprehensive voter suppression bill called the Save Act. In this bill, millions of women who changed their maiden name to a married name will be in a much more difficult position to vote in upcoming elections if this passes because we will be required to show a matching birth certificate with our current ID. Women received the right to vote during women’s suffrage in 1920. The attempts to retroactively remove civil rights, including women’s voting rights, are criminal acts to millions.
Starting in 2016, I did not understand what the word misogyny meant, much less that I had years of internalized misogyny to work through. After breaking free of this internalized misogyny starting in 2016 when I first rejected Trump, I finally understood that I had a brain and I had writing abilities. Voting coercion is only one type of patriarchal abuse I am speaking of which Republican ministers and laypeople have committed over decades. Starting during the first Trump term, I finally had the privilege of meeting more moderate to progressive clergymen and clergywomen who encourage freedom of conscience, they actually respect the minds of women, and they use Church teaching/Biblical teaching as a guardrail or framework, not as a weapon of abuse and especially not as a political weapon like many far right Republicans I have known over the years. These moderate to progressive ministers, including female ministers, have salvaged my faith because they have treated me like a rational-thinking human being who has thoughts, feelings, and value.
The long-term effects of pro-Trump coercion to abuse the Republican vote over the abortion issue has led to electing a traitor like Donald Trump who is not only destroying our country but placing the world in danger. It’s funny; the few pro-Trump ministers I have confronted over this shrug responsibility and say they never talked about politics. The effort to deny, downplay, and erase accountability is quite customary among mostly white conservative toxic patriarchal men, clergymen, and their supporters. They act badly and then deny they ever did anything wrong.
Far right Pro-Trump men and supporters, you have abused your positions. Own up to it!! I know what a real man and a good man looks like, and he doesn’t look like Donald Trump. I have been married to a real man for 30 years who is a real husband and father. I love you, Grant Nichols.
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