Brunswick Beacon, 10.31.24
In 1964, the Civil Rights Act ended segregation and employment discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex or national origin. In that same year, Republicans nominated Barry Goldwater, who voted against it, for president. Goldwater said Civil Rights should be left to the states. His campaign slogan was: “In your heart, you know he’s right.”
LBJ’s response was: “In your guts, you know he’s nuts.”
Today, no American man would accept forfeiting his civil rights as he travels from state to state, as happened under Jim Crow laws. But, like Goldwater, Trump thinks a woman’s right to control her own body should depend on what state she’s in. Sixty years after Jim Crow died, Trump resurrected it — for women!
Trump bragged, “I was able to kill Roe v. Wade.” But, when polls showed that two-thirds of Americans support choice, Trump made this bizarre claim: “Everybody, Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, and Conservatives, wanted Roe v. Wade terminated, and brought back to the States.”
Melania’s just-released memoir eloquently proved her husband wrong, asking: “Why should anyone other than the woman herself have the power to determine what she does with her own body?”
Trump’s termination of Roe v. Wade repealed constitutional privacy rights women enjoyed for 49 years and imposed Jim Crow-like laws on women in 21 states so far.
After Texas imposed its abortion ban, pregnancy deaths soared 56%. Infant mortality rose 13%. Idaho even banned women from traveling to another state for an abortion.
Project 2025 is the blueprint for a Trump second term. It would eliminate women’s protections against discrimination in education, hiring and wages, ban abortion nationwide, threaten doctors with jail time, endanger access to IVF and contraception, and monitor women’s pregnancies.
Trump is asking you to elect a 34-time convicted felon and adjudicated rapist who robbed your daughters and granddaughters of civil rights their mothers and grandmothers enjoyed for nearly 50 years.
In your guts you know that’s nuts.
Linda McConnell Baker
Leland
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