As the nation moves forward on women's rights, gender and sexuality equality, voting rights, etc. -

[pinto]

Republican extremists have fallen back to their last stand scenario, Republican led state legislatures. And the Christian evangelicals. This has always been in the cards, imo. Gerrymandering, targeted fear based messages and voter turn out among a vocal sliver of the electorate - even in deeply red states - is the (R) extremists' firewall against a changing national climate in the "social issues" sphere. Now they are doubling down on a blatant anti government meme while in need of many federal programs that, yes Mr. Cruz, are funded by federal tax dollars.

Hard to tell how this will play out but it looks to be a rocky road of legislation, lawsuits, appeals and public vindictiveness some verging on the totally bizarre. Well, some just plainly bizarre. And some plainly dangerous. At least in the short term. They know the courts, the law and general public opinion will not jump on this bandwagon for long.

I hope.

[cbayer]

1. They know they have lost and these desperate attempts to take a stand look, well,

desperate.

They will go down fighting, but I believe they will go down. As it happens I hope we will see more and more fleeing from them and coming our way.

Very nicely said, pinto.

[Warren Stupidity]

2. we are not moving forward on reproductive health care rights,

we are moving backwards and have been for quite some time. If this latest tactic, "religious freedom to be a bigot" is successful, that is if the initial implementations survive court challenges, I would expect it to be adopted in all the fucknutz states.

Welcome to Jesusland.

[bvf]

3. We're "moving forward" on voting rights?

Women's rights?

Really?

What planet are you living on?

[trotsky]

5. Marriage equality has certainly been a huge victory, but as you note, it's an outlier.

Barriers to voting have popped up around the country.

Women being slut-shamed when they want access to affordable birth control. (Even on DU!)

Etc. And the one immense weapon the enemies of progress have on their side is the power of religion, which a very vocal minority here refuses to let us discuss.

[bvf]

6. I'm amazed (happily amazed) at the direction

in which acceptance of marriage equality is going, but alarmed to see the regress in other areas. And yes, agreed completely that religion is a huge roadblock to progress in those other areas.

[pinto]

7. They are being seriously challenged in a number of venues, that's a given. We see a new one daily.

Yet, there's a pushback in context of those challenges. I mean the right wing's choice to choose local and state settings to legislate discrimination. We're playing catch up in those situations. And we are moving forward. The constitutional arguments against reproductive rights are an example. As are the movements to tie automatic voter registration to getting a driver's license. Oregon has established that, California is likely to follow suit.

I wasn't clear on my perspective. It's a different civil rights playing field than many of us are familiar with. State by state, locality by locality. Court by court. District by district. Vexingly piecemeal, erratic at times. Yet this is the arena and I agree with AC's comment, must keep fighting.

[bvf]

9. Oregon did spring to mind

but I think that's due to the twist the local politics took there of late. If California is fixing to follow suit as you say, that's great.

Nonetheless, in light of the past few years of state legislatures' actions to close down abortion clinics and institute ever more restrictive voting measures, seems to me we're generally heading in the wrong direction.

My outlook isn't as rosy as yours, I regret to say.

[AtheistCrusader]

4. I agree insofar as their alamo consists of gerrymandering and christianity.

I do not agree that we are actually winning just yet.
I also do not agree with narrowing the scope to just evangelicals. Its a much larger share of Christians overall, especially on certain issues like reproductive rights.

We have the potential to win, if we jeep fighting. We have not yet 'won' nor can we unequivocally state we are winning. In some states we've recently lost some horrific amounts of territory. Must keep fighting.

[pinto]

8. Good points. I noted evangelicals because they have such a huge media presence.

I think we can and ought to speak more effectively to individuals or organizations of faith who hold less narrow, coercive points of view. And recognize them when they actively speak up - the UCC in Indianapolis is a good example.

(ed to add) I think time is on our side. Decidedly.