Dr. Mantis Toboggan

Hard to overstate how much the Amy Acton Mom ad is what the modern GOP is about. All these anxieties about how people (especially women and children) might use their agency to break bonds of filial duty and free themselves, rather than be subject to control and abuse. We sort of satirize them as the “you can’t groom my kids, that’s MY job!” Party, but this ad is very nearly that explicit argument. They don’t want schools to empower young people to find the autonomy to come out as gay or trans, they don’t want colleges to teach young adults about the breadth of the world and the human dignity of people from diverse backgrounds, they don’t want women to have financial independence and jobs and no-fault divorce. At the heart of the GOP is this very straightforward premise: “there are some people whom it is my right to abuse. They are my property, and they owe me total obedience; freeing themselves from my abuse is a betrayal of natural hierarchy and divine law. You are trying to take my victims away from me, and I’ll do anything to stop you.”