In my last blog I discussed four major changes that have occurred in my lifetime, changes that divide the nation along urban-rural lines. In this one, I will finish my list. In the previous one, I named race, alcohol, sex , and homosexuality. I did not finish sex- really gender- so I am picking that up in this blog.
Traditionally, women were supposed to obey their husbands, stay home and look after the children, keep the house, and cook the meals. I suppose the country song Stand by Your Man puts it best. But a few years ago, there was a new country hit, Goodbye Earl[1]. That better describes what has been happening where the place of women is concerned. When I was young, a slightly older women I knew had to quit her job to escape the sexual harassment of her boss. A few years ago, this kind of behavior became big news, and the “Me Too” movement made us aware how many women and men have had this experience, which we are at last beginning to address. Men are now going to prison for such behavior. In part, it is because women are a vital part of the American labor force, and they know it. They also are no longer prepared to accept such abuses.
Some men have responded to the emergence of the powerful woman by claiming that men are under attack and masculinity is in danger. Studies of men’s attitudes towards women suggest that there is a stronger preference for patriarchy among Evangelical men than is found among other groups. They justify it on Biblical grounds, to be sure. Once again, the familiar urban/rural divide is evident, although some men in all ethnic groups are anxious about the changes they are witnessing in gender relations. It sheds further light on why we are such a divided nation.
Gender consciousness also helps us understand why the recent Supreme Court decision overthrowing Roe v Wade is so important. Many of those who did not agree with the court’s decision see it as an attack on women. Since African American and other ethnic minority women are the ones most likely to suffer from the decision, they see it as a racially motivated: To them it is a matter of women’s rights.
The real problem for the court is that most Americans today did not want Roe to be overturned. The Pew Research Center reports that the numbers here are much higher than the support for same-sex marriage. Abortion opponents are overjoyed that the court has ruled in their favor, but in doing it, they did not win the hearts and minds of people on this issue, any more than they did on alcohol or sexual behavior. They exploited problems in our political system I will discuss in a later blog. But now that a few pills can replace the need for a visit to a clinic, the ability to police this change will be even more difficult than it was before Roe.
The pro-life proponents see themselves as protecting unborn children. From their perspective, the fetus has as much right to exist as does its mother. They are looking out for the interests of a group that has not been looked after since Roe. But the decision was made without making provisions for problems that can arise and are arising rapidly where pregnancy is concerned. Shortly after Dobbs v Jackson was announced, for example, a raped and pregnant 10-year-old left her home in Ohio, a state that has now outlawed abortion, and went to another (Illinois) to have the procedure. Some opponents of abortion in her home state said this ten-year old should have carried the baby to term. Others opined that subjecting her to an abortion was as horrible an assault to her as the rape had been. Circumstances in which woman facing a miscarriage are not receiving timely medical care because it may violate the new and often vaguely worded anti-abortion laws in many Red states are also beginning to surface. Doubtless in the future, some women will die as a result. Finally, while a few Red states are aware that they need to help women who decide to carry a baby to term rather than abort it, most are among the most regressive where such assistance is concerned. It goes along with their anti-government positions. I fear it will be poor women who suffer from the decision as rich ones can simply travel to another state for the procedure.
Worse still, many of these children will grow up in poverty and face a life of hardships. A few years ago, Freakenomics reported that after Roe had been in effect for a decade or so, crime rates began to fall in many American cities. They connected the fall to the decline in babies born into poverty, because it is desperately poor women who resort to abortion in the first place. Will this trend be reversed? I can’t know, but I suspect that it will. The only way it would not would be is if Red states began to change their attitudes toward their poorer classes and tackle the problem of growing up in poverty in America. That is not likely.
To be sure, the opponents of abortion want to make it a national statue to outlaw the procedure. Likewise, some want to pass laws to prevent people from obtaining abortion pills through the mail. Some are prepared to curb peoples’ ability to travel in order to prevent women traveling from one state to another to obtain the treatment. And of course, there are unscrupulous and unsafe abortion providers who will attempt to profit from the changes that we have made. With fifty different abortion laws, enforcement will likely begin to look like it did in the days of prohibition. Already, we are seeing some urban officials in Red states suggesting they will not be in any hurry to enforce their state’s strict anti-abortion laws. Those who are happy with Dobbs will have to defend it and fight to prevent a new national law being passed. If, as I expect, they ultimately fail, they will be very unhappy and likely begin again.
So, here is another thorny issue about which we are sorely divided and about which a compromise solution seems almost impossible to reach.
A further controversial Supreme Court decision this term had to do with the EPA’s ability to enforce anti-pollution laws. The environment is another area in which red and blue, rural and urban America are at odds. This one is especially interesting because until recently, it was not a partisan issue. Both parties were concerned about climate change and anxious to do something to protect against it, but now it is a partisan issue. I will deal with that aspect next time. My point here is that climate control has become a culture-wars issue, also. Religiously conservative groups are inclined to dismiss pollution as an issue, or to say it is a judgment from God for one of our many sins, especially the ones I have discussed above- take your pick or choose them all. Above all, they are inclined to say that we cannot do anything about the problem because it is God who is in charge. As in my other cases, this sort of argument makes more sense in rural areas than urban ones, as that is where the preponderant number of Conservative Christians reside. The authority of science is not the same in Red and Blue America.
We experienced a similar divide over Covid. At first there was some Black resistance to wearing masks, but it soon faded, and true to form, it was the white/rural population that most strongly resisted Federal and state governments’ efforts to control the infection by mandating wearing masks or controlling our comings and goings. That, too, became political; I will return to it in the next piece.
I expect there are some changes I have omitted. You can tell me about them. In my next blog, I want to explore how our political system is not meeting our needs and how that plays into the cultural divide we are living with at present. I expect you can see how what I have been writing naturally calls out for a political discussion. My point has been that we have come to a place in our national story where rural/conservatives see that the moment of decision has arrived. For them, we must either change and return to the ways of the past, or their hope of a future for America is gone. My wife knew a couple after the defeat of Barry Goldwater who so despaired of the future of America that they sold everything and were going to immigrate to Australia. There are a number of Americans who share that sentiment today after Trump’s defeat, but they cannot think about moving and they now live in an America where media and politicians offer them hope that they can change the system one way or another. They thought Trump would be their savior. He was not. He may try again. To be sure, they have not given up.
I share their fear that we are at a crossroads in American history. I do not share their specific fears because of the changes I have enumerated, but I am afraid that, in the future, their fears may well result in a nation crippled by them. I could give you a number of historical examples of nations that faced similar challenges and chose to respond by refusing to change. The future for those nations was not good. Returning to a lost, idealized past is seldom a successful path for a nation to follow. We are no less susceptible to this principle than any other people in history have been. How we deal with the problems we now face in the next decade or maybe two will determine whether you grow old in a free, vibrant America, or in a retiring, constricted shell of what we used to be. Time will tell. You will decide.
[1] If you missed it, the women in the song/video deal with an abusive husband by murdering him, stuffing body into a car, and burying it.