(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Dissent is being stifled at alarming new rates [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.', 'Backgroundurl Avatar_Large', 'Nickname', 'Joined', 'Created_At', 'Story Count', 'N_Stories', 'Comment Count', 'N_Comments', 'Popular Tags'] Date: 2023-04-26 Today, Wednesday April 26, I saw two very troubling events happen on my timeline. The first was in Montana. Montana has been moving forward with anti-trans legislation, specifically laws that would attempt to define “woman” and “man” in the state code, instituting a gag order around transgender care from state employees, and of course, banning gender-affirming care for minors. Montana’s first transgender lawmaker, Zooey Zephyr of Missoula, had been speaking out against these measures. She defended drag shows as an expression of art by the LGBT community, encouraged dozens of Montanans to come to hearings and speak against the bills, and, in regards to the bill banning care, said that some Montanans would rather die than be forced to de-transition. “You’ll have blood on your hands,” was one of the last things Zephyr said on the floor. The Republicans had had enough. Montana Speaker of the House Matt Reiger accused Zephyr of “breaching decorum” and demanded Zephyr apologize and rescind her statement. The Montana Freedom Caucus, which many of Zephyr’s own colleagues are members of, intentionally misgendered her in a scathing statement. Zephyr spent the next week unable to speak on the floor, Reiger refused to recognize her, depriving her constituents of representation. Today, to a closed session because the halls would continuously fill with “Let Her Speak” chants, the House officially censured Zephyr for her “outburst.” The second sparked this column. Senator Megan Hunt in Nebraska’s unicameral legislative house, was reported to the state Accountability and Disclosure Commission. For background, Hunt had joined Senator Michaela Cavanaugh’s filibuster of the legislative session in an attempt to block passage of LB574, a bill that would ban gender affirming care. While Cavanaugh had started the delaying action with a declaration that she would “make it painful for everyone” if the legislature did not table or otherwise reject the bill, Hunt has become the more vociferous in its opposition. Hunt has a transgender child, and has repeatedly told lawmakers of the assembly “dont talk to me, take me off the Christmas card list” and has shown real contempt for her colleagues in a similar fashion to their contempt for children such as hers. Now on day 68 of the 90 day session, she is being accused of having a conflict of interest in regard to 574, since she has a transgender child that would be directly affected by passage of the bill. The ridiculousness of the accusation is only matched by its alarming precedent. “You cant vote on a bill that would affect you personally” is a precedent that can rapidly be extrapolated to mean “gay people cant vote on gender issues” and the same could be used for race, or really, anything a too-powerful legislative leader wishes to silence dissent. It’s all a pattern. It started rather innocuously as all things are considered. It started by calling democrats and their allies “socialists”. Now that that buzzword no longer has the sting they went with “groomer”. That worked pretty well, actually. A fun fact about me is I believe most elected Democrats are cowards. They’re terrified of not being liked by everyone. Manic commitment to big tent politics means they’d rather accomplish nothing at all then do something that might upset one small piece of their voter base. Standing up for LGBTQ rights in the face of “groomer” chants was minimal, but I believe the attack lost its steam with Mallory McMorrow last year. Another abominable act was the expulsion of the “Tennessee Three”, lawmakers who shut down a session leading in a group of chanting activists after a mass shooting. You could practically see Republicans salivating at their chance to chastise the two young black ruffians who led the crowd. They didnt even pretend there wasnt a racial component to the expulsion, the white woman of the Three was spared expulsion. Then there’s Ron DeSantis in Florida attempting to assert state authority over a private corporation. Sure, they can pretend their efforts are all about reasserting control over Reedy Creek, but only the intentionally dense would pretend his moves are attempts to silence the company’s dissent against his beloved “Dont Say Gay” bill. These incidents are all the same, and they signal a dramatic shift in the political sphere. I’m not going to wax poetic about “times gone by” but legitimately, it didnt used to be this way. The Republican Party has gone full anti-speech. Anti-dissent. Anti-opposition. The opposing party is no longer an equal to be worked with, but adversaries to be actively attacked. Like when Scott Walker signed a bill limiting the powers of the governor when he was about to be replaced to hamstring Tony Evers in Wisconsin. Republicans are no longer tolerating basic tenants of our democracy. If they cant make the rules, they take the ball and go home. Sure, the Tennessee Three got their jobs back. But Zooey Zephyr has to work remotely now. Anti-trans bills are FLYING through legislatures. Anti-protesting bills are passed every time there’s a civil rights protest. In 2018 the first bill the Republican U.S. Senate heard was one penalizing anyone trying to boycott israel. Now Republican Supreme Court justices are having massive ethical violations aired to the world and they claim there’s nothing the legislature or executive can do to police them. Roberts has carved his own little fiefdom and the Senate Judicial dems have decided to whine and show their bellies and ask everyone to vote a little harder next time. I dont really have a conclusion to this article. Just pointing out that it IS HAPPENING. We all need to square ourselves with the knowledge that our democracy is being rapidly unravelled. “Vote Harder” is no longer a viable solution. Non-violent protests are being curbed. They want to live in a world with no one opposing them. They WANT their bills to chase opponents out of their states. The situation is becoming untenable and I dont see a solution to it. Biden could miraculously pass the voting provisions of 2018’s HR1 tomorrow and it wouldnt staunch the bleeding. (Side note, if you’ve donated to any of the Dems running for Senate in California you should be ashamed of yourself. You specifically do not deserve congress that gives a crap about you. Google “Sherrod Brown” or “Jon Tester”. It’s really not hard to put your money toward a candidate that matters) [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2023/4/26/2166090/-Dissent-is-being-stifled-at-alarming-new-rates Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/