dragonrider said:
I believe that in most polls, the majority of the US population these days, does not subscribe to those traditional views at all anymore. And the trend is also in favor of more modern and liberal views. A recent gallup poll showed that now only 13% of the american population is against abortion for instance.
This is true. Also true that the vast majority of U.S. citizens support common sense gun reform. But our democracy is flawed (if you hadn't yet noticed...), and because of the electoral college (which was originally established in order to increase the political capital of slave states...), the law of the land all too often doesn't reflect the will of the people.
Example:
An assault weapons ban was put into effect in 1994 (by whom I won't say...). It expired 10 years later, and the party which was then in power (courtesy of the electoral college - as its leader had lost the popular vote...) and was/still is heavily dependent on lobbying money from the NRA (I won't name any names...) chose not to renew it. This same party (still not naming...) has since stymied all subsequent attempts by the other party to enact common sense legislation regarding background checks, gun show loopholes, limits on domestic abusers' ability to legally purchase guns, banning assault rifles, high capacity magazines and bump stocks (which essentially turns the AR-15 you just bought at Walmart into a machine gun), etc. - until last year, when the first significant piece of gun legislation in the past 30 years was passed (by whom? Give it a google...).
Or, take your other example of only 13% of the population opposing a woman's right to abortion. Very true. Also true that
this simply doesn't matter in terms of what has since become law - because the last guy in charge (who also lost the popular vote by a wide margin and took office only due to this same electoral college which exists as a means of usurping the will of the majority...) stacked a wholly illegitimate Supreme Court (and you can do your own research on that...), which despite explicit assurances to the contrary from each of the newly proposed conservative justices in the course of their Senate confirmation hearings, promptly overturned Roe V. Wade (which, as the law of the land, had previously protected a woman's right to choose for the past 50 years).
So, now there is legislation in the works at the state level (in Texas, South Carolina and elsewhere) which proposes to seek the death penalty for women who obtain abortions, and other states are seeking to jail anyone who crosses state lines (or assists another in crossing state lines) for the purpose of obtaining a legal abortion (and most without exceptions even in cases of rape or incest...). And Mifepistrone, which has proven safe and effective for decades, is now expected to become banned at the federal level - set in motion by a Texas judge (who was appointed by guess who...).
It's impossible to deny that a war has been waged on reproductive rights - in contravention of the will of the populace - because the system has been consciously designed to serve a vocal minority (guess who...). The gender wage gap exists across the board; red state, blue state, doesn't matter. And women have only been allowed to vote in this country for the past 100 years, so I would say that, yes, along with a deeply embedded history of institutional racism and a horrific relationship with guns, misogyny is also baked into the cake of American life.
