They have sown the wind...
When I was a little girl, the GOP had a reputation for being planners, long-term thinkers. Slow to act, deliberate, cautious. The Democrats, on the other hand, were considered a bit on the hasty side, so anxious to advance their agenda that they often moved too strongly and abruptly before the electorate was ready for that much change.
How strange, that the roles have so thoroughly reversed in my lifetime.
The GOP now seems to have no memory, and no concept of a future that goes beyond a few days, weeks, months. Victory this minute, no matter what the cost.
But I have a memory. A very vivid memory.
I have a memory of a time when my older sister's classmate didn't show up for school one day. And then we heard she'd died from some mysterious, unnamed condition. And finally the truth was shared, only in whispers- she'd died from a self-induced abortion. She was 15.
I have a memory of a time when my mother was denied a mortgage because even though she had a stable full-time job and an income adequate to make the payments, she was a divorced woman and she did not have a man to co-sign the mortgage agreement.
I have a memory of a time when her delightful co-workers at the carpentry shop broke into my sister's locker and urinated in her work boots to hint to her that people who didn't have penises weren't supposed to be union carpenters.
I have a memory of being laughed at and shamed when the priest at the Catholic school I attended visited our class to ask for volunteers to serve at the altar during Mass, and I volunteered. I was too stupid to realize a penis was required to serve God.
I have a memory of being catcalled and hooted at when taking a walk with another woman, and holding hands, by a carload of pissant privileged adolescents who hollered homophobic slurs at us. (The woman I was holding hands with was my mother...)
I have a memory of being discouraged from enlisting in the U.S. Navy because women could not serve in the specialties I was interested in, and would not be allowed the sea duty required to qualify for promotions.
I have a memory of being told that it was okay for me to do badly in math, because I was a girl and girls just weren't good at math. I was not allowed to sign up for the summer remedial courses, as they were already full. Of boys, apparently.
I have a memory of being date raped.
I have a memory of being called "whore", "bitch", "slut", "skag", "hosebag", "dog", and other epithets and told that I was too ugly to be any kind of a success.
I have many, many memories of being told to keep quiet, not to be 'aggressive', not to be 'unladylike', not to be "bitchy", not to take offense when men commented crudely on women in my presence.
I have memories of teachers and bosses letting me know in ways subtle and not-so-subtle that if I would gratify them sexually I would be considered for better grades, promotions, etc.
I have a memory of a good friend's mother committing suicide some months after being given a hysterectomy without her permission, to cure her "mental dysmorphia" and mood disorders.
I have a memory of the woman two houses up knocking at our back door and asking if we had any burn ointment because she'd had a "terrible accident" with the stove. The "terrible accident" also blacked her eye and sprained her wrist.
I have many, many more memories of what it was like before Roe v. Wade, before women like Ruth Bader Ginsburg fought for equal rights under the law for human beings born without a penis.
I am not the only one with those memories.
We.
Will.
Not.
Go.
Back.
The GOP has NO idea what it is awakening.
None.
Because between the time of those memories, and now, millions of women have experienced a small modicum of equity... a little freedom, a little control over our choices and destinies.
And millions of girls have grown up expecting nothing less. Millions.
No, we will not go quietly.
The GOP has somehow believed it could oppress "minorities" with impunity... there would always be enough powerful white men with privileges to protect, to enable them in their evil.
But women are not a "minority."
If they thought we were uppity back in the seventies....?
They ain't seen NOTHIN' yet.
The whirlwind is coming.
determinedly,
Bright
= new reply since forum marked as read
Respect.
Your post is outstanding. One of the best, very best, I have read on what it was like before Angels like RBG fought for our rights.
Whatever I can do: WE WILL NEVER GO BACK!!!
This is war! 
Fight with all activist groups I had time to join, pour my heart and soul for equality, fairness and eracism just to have it all rolled back to regurgitated 1960's KKK style nutjobbery now, in da name ub Jeebus. 
We've come too far, fought too hard, lost our brothers and sisters in arms, lived through a previous ignored pandemic by some of these same fux, shamed the Westboro idiots into irrelevancy, made common and scientific sense all along
Just to have it all torn down by blithering, hate filled idiots now.
