Yesterday, an Indiana ban on abortion went into effect, one of many such laws Republicans are pushing in states across the country in the wake of the Leonard Leo-packed Supreme Court's overruling of Roe v. Wade last year.
"So much for getting government out of our homes and lives," tweeted Sarah Fields, President of the Texas Freedom Coalition. But she wasn’t talking about dystopian restrictions on reproductive rights! She was referring to the Biden administration's new regulations going into effect yesterday phasing out the sale of inefficient lights…
Yes, even as the Republican Party inserts government restrictions between Americans and their own reproductive health, the professional complainer class has been hard at work lamenting Big Government's oppression of incandescent light bulbs.
Fox News helpfully turned the tweets into what it considers journalism, with @SarahisCensored Fields' quote as a headline. Robby Starbuck, "a former Republican candidate for Congress" (long way of spelling "loser") apparently tweeted that it's "just plain stupid.” “I have LED but the government has no place telling us what kind of light bulb we can buy. States should immediately refuse compliance with this ridiculous government overreach."
Bob Good of Virginia, a Republican who actually managed to get elected, tweeted, "It's impossible for Democrats to leave us alone. States must fight back."
Yes! Of course! States’ rights! What a perfect banner behind which small government conservatives can rally, as they fight for the right to buy energy wasting light bulbs, and deny abortion access.
Whether the question is about slavery or light bulbs, the conservative answer is apparently the same. The invocation of "states’ rights" regarding the Civil War was always a lie. The fact that conservatives are trotting it out to defend light bulbs shows how deeply unserious the opposition to common sense regulations has become. Apparently states should fight the federal government over light bulbs!
And when this week comes and goes without all the incandescent light bulbs in the country simultaneously going dark, it'll be just one more reminder that if someone falls back to states’ rights, you can probably ignore them.