Are you as worried about the future of the country as I am? Are you as angry? Are you as frustrated? Do you feel as helpless or as impotent? Raise your hands. Ooh, that’s quite a lot of you. Now, please lower your hands if you think the solution to this country’s problems lie with the Tea Party, the Libertarian Party, #RandPaul2016, or any similar anti-government offshoot.

Suddenly I am writing to two people.

Well, like my mama always said, when the blogosphere hands you an audience of two, make the most of it by creating a passionate, angry, intellectual three-way. I look forward to your comments, you two.

It’s difficult for me to know where to begin. Of course I am writing today because of the recent Hobby Lobby ruling by the Supreme Court, but that is not the only reason. That decision, for those of you that don’t know, (and if you don’t know, why the fuck haven’t you been paying attention?), states that closely-held corporations have the right to express their sincerely-held religious beliefs when it comes to offering contraception to their employees through their healthcare plans, meaning that they don’t have to offer it. Here are the highlights of Ruth Bader Ginsberg’s dissent. If you don’t want to read them, she basically says–and I’m paraphrasing–“Fuck you if you think this isn’t a huge deal that is going to open a Pandora’s Box of lawsuits. And fuck you if you think access to contraception isn’t a basic necessity of healthcare. And a HUGE fuck you if you think saying that a corporation’s founder’s religious beliefs have more weight than the medical needs of the people he employs is not a huge deal.”

Basically.

The right-wing, naturally, sees this as a victory for freedom-loving Americans everywhere who hate government-overreach, but they fail to persuasively explain whose freedom was being hampered in the first place. As best as I can tell, corporate freedom was being hampered. How right-wing Americans can see this as a victory for actual people escapes me, as I’m sure it escapes them because I seriously doubt they’ve spent more than fifteen seconds thinking about the horrifying ramifications of this ruling.

“The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.”  ~ Sandra Day O’Connor, 1992

I SHOULDN’T EVEN CARE ABOUT THIS ISSUE.

I mean, as a forty-something lesbian who is never going to have to worry about being unexpectedly impregnated, this issue should generate this type of response from me:

But see, the thing is, I’m a weird American. I try to support the rights of minorities and the oppressed. I try to live by the ideals so easily promulgated by the Republican Party that they seem incapable of actually supporting. And while I may be a lesbian, a group perhaps considered by some to be separate from real women, I am, at a more fundamental level, a feminist. Which means I support the rights of ALL women.

Even the ones who like penises.

The Republican Party is so fucked up on such a rudimentary basic level that I genuinely do not understand how anyone can support it. I particularly cannot understand how women, African-Americans, or gays can call themselves Republican. Support of the Republican Party, in my eyes, means that you are a deeply flawed individual incapable of seeing the big picture. If you are a Republican, it means that you are either a)a selfishly rich prick who cannot believe that you are being asked to contribute tax money to the country that made you great; or b)a deeply religious white person who cannot believe so many people of color are developing political power in this immigrant nation of ours.

Now that I’ve alienated you, hear me out.

Most of us white people are not rich. If you’re reading this, you’re not rich. If you were rich, your butler would be reading it to you. So, believe me, to quote my overlord Bill Clinton, I feel your pain. You are struggling to get by, just like the rest of us. Some of you couldn’t even afford to buy that second home after the housing market collapsed. Some of you had to put your kid in state school rather than send them to Georgetown or  Duke or Emory. I GET IT. Times are tough.

Some of us white people are literally the working poor. We live paycheck to paycheck. We have no education. We are lucky if we have health insurance. Some of us live at the whims of a corporation that employs most of the people in our town, paying us non-union wages as they pollute our air and water, immune from prosecution because they own our local politicians. In the case of North Carolina’s governor, Pat McCrory, who was employed by Duke Energy for thirty years, they ARE the politicians.

I know you’re struggling. But, believe me, turning to the Republican Party–or the Libertarian Party, for that matter–is NOT the answer. And I have to believe, on some fundamental level, you understand that. You really do.

Other than death, the biggest fear we have is that we will not be able to provide for our families. The fear of not being able to provide for our families propels us to endure jobs that we hate, to work two or three jobs, to travel 1,500 miles across international borders to make money. The workers of America have a genuine fear of being homeless, of losing everything. I get that. And the Republican & Libertarian Parties stoke those fears in you. But they don’t do it because they have your interests at heart. They stoke those fears so that you will be their political clout as they promote a pro-business agenda. Fearing people with different skin color is not the answer. Fearing people who are on welfare is not the answer. And loving Jesus certainly isn’t the answer. Jesus tells you to endure your suffering with grace and humility, as you will be rewarded for it in the afterlife. How is THAT for some shit? The highest power in the universe is telling you to shut up and take it and if you’re good and obedient you’ll get your reward in Heaven? I mean, I’m no expert on slavery but…fuck THAT. You fight for what you and your family need NOW.

The problem, of course, is that the “fight” has been divided between whites and people of color. (When I say “people of color” I am referring to Hindus, Mexicans, Muslims, Blacks…anyone who isn’t considered “Caucasian” these days. I hate calling them “minorities.” I think that word is diminutive and, since they clearly outnumber Caucasians, or soon will, it’s an oxymoron as well.)

White Americans don’t seem to understand the pyramid of capitalism. They don’t seem to understand capitalism, period.

Capitalism, in its purest form, is not designed to make you rich, honey. Oh, no.

Capitalism, in its purest form, wants to exploit you as a worker for the lowest wage it can provide you, with the minimal amount of comfort required, and it wants to spit you out when you become a burden upon it.

It hates unions and any rights that you wish to demand.

In short, capitalism is not your friend.

You should know this, of course, because you should have been taught American and World history. You should know how your great-great-grandparents and great-grandparents and grandparents suffered to make your life better. You should be proud of their struggles. You should admire their fight to unionize workers. You should support unions, because you should know that unions helped shaped the Middle Class that you sorely long for.

Except you don’t know any of it. You don’t appreciate your history. You think unions are trying to destroy America, and you think things like social security are destroying the American dream.

Except when you take your mother to the bank to cash her social security check, you don’t really hate America for it, do you? Of course not. You think she earned it. SHE’S not the one ruining America. It’s all the people of color that are ruining it. Not your mother, or your brother with one leg. They EARNED their checks. Because they’re Americans. And WHITE. It’s everyone else that doesn’t deserve the government handout.

It angers me how you can’t take your situation and apply to it a person of color. It makes me sick how you think “you earned it” while everyone who isn’t white is “milking the system.”

God, I’m so angry at you. I’m so angry at your fear, at your inability to love, at your close-mindedness. And yet you’re the Christian ones! I’m the atheist, the defiled one. How is it that I care more universally for people, despite fears for my own existence, than you do?

Oh, I’m scared to live. Believe me. There are a hundreds of reasons why I shouldn’t be here. I am an open target. To rape. To violence. To being attacked with no one to protect me. I live with fear every day. I refused to drive my car yesterday after I discovered that oil was dripping from it. I mean if that doesn’t scream cowardice, I don’t know what does. Childless, I know that I am going to live without familial love. I know that I am going to die alone. I know that I am going to be forgotten. Atheistic, I know that I am not going to be raised into Heaven, whatever that means.

No, really, what that does mean? What if you HATED someone on earth? But you were married to them for 40 years? But, Jesus, Mother of Christ, you couldn’t stand her.The sound of her voice, her stupid opinions, the way she laughed, her terrible cooking, the sloppy way she gave a blowjob…oh, my God, when she died it was the happiest day of your life…and then YOU die and learn you are going to have to spend ETERNITY with that woman?

And you call that Heaven?

Sigh.

I wish white Americans could realize which side their bread is buttered. It’s not on the side of the Republicans. The Republicans SAY they want to enrich you…but they only say that so you’ll vote for them.

Now, the Democrats since Bill Clinton have sung the same tune…which is revolting. The Democratic Party is as much in the pocket of corporate business as the Republican Party is. Maybe that’s why you are repelled by the Democratic Party. Because you realize what corrupt lackeys they are for the corporate entities you profess to hate. Which is true. But why can’t you see it when it happens in your party?

But the only party that will shift to workers is the Democratic Party. And, believe it or not, despite your grandiose beliefs and your $86,000 a year salary as a policeman, you’re a Democrat. The only reason you think you’re a Republican is because you’re afraid of immigrants and you don’t feel settled. You think you’re supposed to be protected because you’re white and you’re an American, goddammit. Well, goddammit, that’s not how it works! And that ‘s not the Democratic Party’s fault.

You know. I have been struck by the nationalistic beauty of the World Cup this past month. Have you been watching the World Cup? If you’re an American Republican, probably not, as that would mean admitting that other countries exist, that a global sport exists, and they are better at that sport than we are. So, of course, if you’re a Republican, you haven’t been paying attention to it.

You don’t have to be afraid of people, is I think what I’m trying to say.

I know we have this sort of ingrained fear that this man over here is going to take our stuff because he has a unibrow and smells like curry…but that’s not always true.

Republican people–your rights are being attacked by the leaders you have elected into office.

When you voted for that Republican, did you realize that you were going to have to ask whether or not your birth control was covered in their health care plan? Did you realize you would have to ask whether or not they were devout Catholics when you went for the job interview? Did you know that, when trying to get a job, your atheism and need for birth control, would be squared against that corporation’s beliefs? Did you even think a corporation had beliefs? I certainly didn’t. I was pretty sure they had no morals. All they want to do is make money. But, no. They have feelings.

That should scare all of us. Even those that hate government intervention.

Republicans call that “freedom”. The rest of the industrialized world calls that “insane.”

80 percent of women have used birth control in this country. This ruling is not isolated. It doesn’t relate to some abstract minority. It affects all women. Like it or not, we get our healthcare from our employer. Liberals don’t like that–we think that gives too much power to the people that employ us, as well as making our healthcare depend upon employment. Us liberals think that’s stupid. You should be entitled to affordable healthcare whether or not you have a job. But, whatever. Now, though, the Supreme Court says that the place you work at can refuse to cover fairly basic coverage for you. This should scare all women. Please refer to the quote from Sandra Day O’Connor that I referenced above. If you’re too disinterested to scroll up, here it is:

“The ability of women to participate equally in the economic and social life of the Nation has been facilitated by their ability to control their reproductive lives.”  ~ Sandra Day O’Connor, 1992

Having access to affordable birth control doesn’t make a woman a slut. It doesn’t make her hungry for sex. The fact that Republicans would even think that is revolting.

I know some women–Catholic women–that seem proud of this ruling. They seem to think it is the right thing. I feel sorry for them. I feel sorry that their passionate belief in conception is resulting in the further imprisonment of women. But I feel sorry for America as, what, five members of the Supreme Court belong to Opus Dei? Catholics strongly believe in procreation…and that is displayed on today’s Court. Of course, their love of life hasn’t compelled them to stop executions around the nation…but I suppose I should save that for another outrage.

I know I have taken too much of your time. Thank you for staying with me. I just have one more point to make and then you’re outta here.

Women do not rape men to have sex. It is, for the most part, incredibly easy for a woman to find a man to fuck her. MEN desperately want to have sex. They want it so bad that they fuck sheep and horses and cows and dead people and children. They don’t care. They want to fuck. They need to fuck. And somehow they blame all that passion on women. Women like sex well enough, but never enough to fuck a sheep. Or so I’ve learned in my experience.

And yet, this medicine has been invented–in recent years–that gives women the power to let those horny men, who want to fuck anything that moves the power to fuck them, this liberating medicine is being treated as a device on the right to make women feel bad about themselves.

Well Jesus Christ, ladies. You just need to stop it.

You shouldn’t have to live you life like that Dugger woman who spit out 22 children. That should be the exception to the rule. The Opus Dei leaders of this Supreme Court want that to be the rule.

Listen. It’s your vagina. You’re the one putting a penis in it.

Why am I the one that’s angry?