I often spend hours taking notes and collecting ideas for post that I literally have dozens of pages on differing ideas that never make it to the publish button. To make a post very often requires not just inspiration for me but a spiritual feeling that wells up then cannot be stopped. So it is for this reason that I start this post as an apology to any that follow. It should have been sooner.
The use of attacks on the right to liberty without fear for the Trans community has been something of a right wing conservative’s political bonanza in Republican States but most notably in Florida and Texas. Such states have governors and political party legislatures that created movements to attack the LGBTQ citizens of their State to further their political power. It is not a new method. It is a technique used by conservatives that is as ancient as civilization itself.
The United States and its conservative political parties have been one of the most discriminatory political movements in all of civilization. Yet, it is these conservatives that claim they are the sole patriots of liberty. How this dichotomy exists in this self declared, “Land of the Free”, is not such as perplexing as one might think. The United States political system not only allows for such discriminatory activity but actually thrives upon it. Conservative members of US political parties acquire political power through the acts of discrimination.
Conservatives are defined as persons who are averse to change and hold socially traditional values. A bunch of words that in reality lead to a contraposition proof to the existence of the United States in the first place. To clarify the term is more often used in mathematical proofs but is utilized here to provide insight in the fallacy of US conservatism’s claims as being the sole defenders of the Constitution and Liberty.
If the conservative viewpoint prevailed in 1776 then the colonies would remain loyal to King George. An American conservative in 1776 was not for the Declaration of Independence. So if an American was for freedom and liberty then they were not conservative.
So we have now a mathematical contraposition establishing by inference and a logical equivalency that only liberal Americans brought forth this nation. We can further claim that liberal points of view have advanced our freedoms that even the conservatives who always oppose changes in liberty, enjoy today.
The political success of conservative attacks on the liberties and freedom of the Trans community in Florida and Texas are an example of discrimination against minority groups that provide political focal points and add to the power of those in government. I use the term conservative because political parties have change of the years on who is the conservative and who is the liberal party. Both Democrats and Republicans over their history have found conservative viewpoints and discrimination as a means to power.
After the Revolution and before the Civil War the ability to maintain political power required the discrimination against Blacks. With nearly 700 thousand Blacks in the US in 1790 almost 18% of the total population the discrimination tactic of using Blacks as political pawns, not to mention white wealth, was found throughout the formation of the Constitution. In fact the revered Constitution as adopted in 1788 protected the importation of slaves until 1808. Article 1 section 9 was written purposefully ambiguous to hide the discriminatory act and it denied congress the power to restrict the importation of slaves until 1808. The clause was a compromise between the liberal Quakers from the North that wanted to abolish slavery and the conservative Southern representatives opposing any such nationwide emancipation.
The Southern representatives had found that discrimination against 18% of the population provided sufficient political power to change the Constitution in their favor. The subsequent banning of the importation of slaves in 1808 did not solve the liberal push for emancipation. Rather the Southern states resorted to a form of ‘breeding farms’ and breaking up of families to increase the supply and sell these new victims for profit.
The success of Southern politicians to protect slavery in the Constitution became so triumphant politically that by 1860 nearly 4 million Blacks were in the US with 89% of those enslaved. The population of the South’s free population was only around 5.5 million. This resulted in discrimination by enslavement against nearly a whopping 39% of the Southern State’s population.
This extreme percentage in a discriminated population provide so much political power to the Southern conservative politicians that the act of treason against the United States became the path of succession by Southern States resulting in the Civil War. Nearly 1.5 million persons, military and civilians, lost their lives to overcome this heinous act of discrimination against a segment of the population by a conservative viewpoint.
The numbers never lie in the result of power to discriminate
While the Civil War was the extremes to which proponents of discrimination in the United States have taken their beliefs and the horrors needed to correct their attacks on men’s liberty. Discrimination has never left the US political scene and use of discrimination as a crusade for political power persist to this day. It may take fewer and fewer numbers of those to be discriminated but political conservatives and radicals in the US have successfully used such practices for political power.
Throughout the 248 year history of the United States there are countless numbers of politicians using discrimination. Discrimination against segments of the population has become the crux of conservative politics even if they have had to rely on smaller and smaller percentages to achieve measurable results.
The reasons for these dwindling population numbers are mostly the result of the general population beginning to believe in the basic ideals of the Constitution and accepting those that are discriminated in the previous power grabs. Conservatives are pushed back from their claims and excuses of failures caused by the dangers presented by these smaller groups seeking to steal there own liberty. The greater US population has shifted and has accepted the rights to liberty protected by the Constitution for these attacked groups.
We want your labor and taxes but not you
During the 1800s Chinese immigrants began to appear amongst the citizenry of America. Many of them came over to provide needed labor for railroad construction that created an explosive growth in this country. But many came just for a vision of liberties promised by the Constitution enjoyed by Americans. They started business to support the communities in which they lived or like so many Americans sought instant riches in the mining for gold.
In the 1880s there were around 110,000 Chinese heritage citizens in America. This was basically 0.22% of the entire US population. However, this represented nearly 12% of the population of California where the majority of Chinese immigrants settled. However, the Chinese people had by that time been targeted by politicians desires for political power for over 50 years. In 1871 in Los Angeles Chinese-Americans lost not just their rights but 18 were murdered in a mass lynching.
In 1852, California Governor John Bigler asked the California Assembly to pass laws to stop Chinese immigration. Bigler argued that the Chinese could not be assimilated for racial and cultural reasons, and that they were therefore incapable of becoming good citizens. The California Supreme Court in 1853 declared that the testimony of Chinese people could not be used against white defendants, and a white man convicted of robbing and murder of a Chinese-American was released.
Jobs are very often the motive for political discrimination as in 1920’s, Colorado had only 939,629 total Latino population, about 1.2% of population saw a movement to strengthen the State border to prevent further immigration of Latinos into Colorado. The Colorado government arrested Latinos to deport them. The tragic result of this political fervor was that 60% of Latinos deported were actually US citizens.
Today the conservative State of Texas takes in nearly $4.9 billion in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants. Florida takes in nearly $1.9 billion in tax revenue from undocumented immigrants. Since these populations cannot vote the Conservative politicians are free to use them in political attacks and fear mongering. This is not limited to the State political arena. Nearly $100 billion in taxes are paid to the federal funds by undocumented immigrants making for an analogous situation for misrepresentation in federal politics.
The smaller the group the more political power or Good News for Bigots
Growing minorities often gain political power as a counter to the discrimination against them. Modern social media and loud megaphone type television media have enhanced the ability of politically motivated discrimination to find value in small niche minorities.
In 1860, the Black population was listed as 5.5 million free and 3.5 million enslaved, over 40% of population.
In 1880 The Chinese population was 12% (110,000) of Californians and only 0.22% Nationally. However, Senator John Miller and Representative Horace Page, both Republicans from California proposed The Chinese Exclusion Act (1882) which was the first major immigration law aimed at a specific nationality or ethnic group. It
banned the immigration of Chinese laborers and their families for ten
years. Most importantly, it excluded all Chinese immigrants from US
citizenship, and any Chinese who temporarily left the United States (for
example to marry) had to obtain a certificate of residence to allow
re-entry.
Sexual behavior in the 1970s indicated that 7% of males and 3% of females had homosexual experiences. Yet, the religious and conservative politicians found themselves compelled to use discrimination against them to hold and define their quest for power. The Gay population found itself propelled into a movement to protect their civil rights. It took 20 years before the disapproval of Gay life was no longer great enough for the conservatives to use for any meaningful political attack to gain power. By 1980 the public saw tolerance of Gay life was nearly 30%. It took another 20 years and a demographic change in the population before it rise to near 50%. This forced religious conservatives to seek other victims to attack for their political banners. They could no longer attack these freedoms to create a movement.
Only 7.6% of the population identifying as Gay today in the US, the issue of Gay rights being the same as the broader population because the broader population thought they indeed had and were entitled to the same rights. Religious and radical right wing conservatives could not longer use the attack against Gay rights as a political forum to gain votes.
The percentage of those being attacked now has to be even smaller to support the calls for discrimination. So, the population of trans persons which amounted to less than 0.6% of the population was chosen to be singled out and attacks on any rights they had to be themselves was demonized.
Conservative politicians must they have generalized anxiety disorder and obsessive-compulsive disorder when they attack the liberties of others. Conservatives slowly began to segregate trans persons who identified as the opposite gender, present themselves and act so to provide happiness and a general feeling of being presented as normal. Laws against sharing bathrooms in public began to appear. Prior to this most trans persons used the bathrooms of their identified gender without being notices. However, suddenly it was a politically powerful issue especially since schools began to allow for this because of Federal guidance. Conservatives in States could use a denial trans rights and dignity to attack liberal Federal rights protection guidelines to create their political power.
The smaller the discriminated population the higher is the need for general approval to reduce this discriminatory political power. With only 7.6% of the population identifying as Gay one would think they are still a target for the right wing attacks but today 80% of the US population approves on non-discriminatory laws against the Gay population.
The trans-rights opponents now only face a 64% approval with the smaller percentage of trans-persons it appears that a mere majority is not enough to secure trans-rights. Especially since the attacks across gender lines involves transactional issues that have been created by trans-athlete successes. Conservatives can now attack trans-persons on he basis of a imprecise broad judgement of immediate or unfair physical advantages in competitive sports not just social identity. While these should be left to individual sporting organizations and schools, their use in the political forum have as recently as the 2024 political attack ads used by conservatives against their opponents. Since the beginning of August 2024, Republicans have poured more than $65 million into television ads in more than a dozen states on anti-trans rights. 1 Unfortunately, the Conservatives are not using just ads to win political votes but actually enacting laws to gain political advantages in Republican run States to actively single out and discriminate against this small group of citizens.
Since the beginning of August 2024, Republicans have poured more than $65 million into television ads in more than a dozen states on anti-trans rights. 1 Unfortunately, the Conservatives are not using just advertisements to win political power but enacting laws with the sole purpose of political advantages in Republican run States that single out and actively discriminate against this small of group (1.1% of the US adult population identifies as transgender) of citizens.
The Conservative Century for the Protection of Bigotry
Due to increased immigration and a large rural-to-urban shift in population from 1910 to 1920, the Republican Congress in has refused to reapportion the House of Representatives because such a reapportionment would shift political power away from the Republicans. They have done this since Republican President Herbert Hoover. Signed into law by the Republicans in June 18, 1929 CFR 46 Stat. 21. This law prevents the US people from gaining minimal political power in the US Congress simply by being an increasing population. This law some say rewrote the Constitution and cemented bigotry discrimination into the American political system. It not only allowed conservative bigots to obtain power through the lower rural conservative population but enabled them to freeze the growing power of those that might oppose them.
The law froze the number of house representatives, keeping the existing constitution’s rule that every state gets one house representative. It apportioned the number of voting representatives in the House and fixed by law it to no more than 435, proportionally representing the population of the 50 states. This in effect created the US as the least representative government in the free democratic world.
The founders discussed a different issue of discrimination when they formed this nation. That is why they compromised (some would say cowardly) on the legislative branch to have both a State level politically determined house, the Senate and a citizen voted Representative’s house based on population. The smaller populated States were given the same ability of veto power in the Senate over any of the more populated and higher congressionally representative states.
Today, one representative represents upwards of 786,000 Americans. This cap on representation at 435 congressional representatives was formed because of conservative discriminatory fear of immigrants. This gives in-proportionate power to smaller right wing conservative populations in the Government leading to these discriminatory struggles. A representative in liberal leaning California (752,461 per representative) or New York (752,692 per representative) for example is normalized by Wyoming (580,000 per representative). That becomes nearly 200,000 voters out-voted by a smaller population in congressional House along with an equal vote in each state in the Senate.
ABSOLUTA LIBERTAS 