So, last Tuesday, local elections happened. Several things of note: New Jersey democrats went from a small minority in the state government, to a large minority (though still a minority), surprising basically everybody. Several states that already had the Medicaid expansion elected new governors who have vowed to remove it. And, in Houston, transgender people's rights were removed.
I take a lesson from New Jersey: if you're legal, register and VOTE! The statistically most common reasons for not voting are, I believe, my vote doesn't matter, there are thousands of people voting. How could I make any difference? Well, NJ is how. Nobody thought so many Dems would take seats. But they did. Why? Because people who wanted them to, showed up and voted them in.
The other reason, is that certain areas are making it basically impossible to vote, calling it protection against "voter fraud". Look up the numbers yourself; there have been less than 10 actual cases of voter fraud in the last decade or so. That is so statistically tiny that it won't even show up in percentile data analysis.
The Houston thing got me thinking. The act was voted down, basically because the anti-rights people terrified the populace by essentially threatening that rapists (no, not "sexual predators"; see the George Carlin bit on Euphemisms) would just dress in women's clothes to get in the women's bathroom.
My first thought about this was: "Wait. People planning to commit the worst, vilest crime that can be committed against someone is going to not do it in a bathroom because they're not supposed to be in the women's bathroom?" Really? The most heinous crime will be prevented by a social norm keeping men out of bathrooms?
To me, this seems transparent, make up something to be scared of, and tell them this law will make it happen. Whether or not it's going to be true or not. It's kinda nasty. Unfortunately, it seems effective.
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