The Comedy-Drama movie “Yes, God, Yes” is so funny but also so intriguing. It tells the story of Alice, an innocent, “sexually inexperienced but curious junior at a very strict Midwestern co-ed Catholic high school” (quoting Wikipedia), who in a matter of four days out in a field trip or religious retreat, went from not even knowing the meaning of “tossed the salad” (which I had no clue, either, until after watching the movie) to witnessing Father Murphy and fellow model students giving a blowjob under the broad sunlight. Her moment of rude awakening came when she drifted into a local lesbian bar and met the female owner who had similar early life experiences. It was San Francisco, the 1970s and the stuff like those that had changed her. Her advice to Alice, “Nobody knows what they are doing any better, we are all trying to figure out the shit.” Her other advice was to look out colleges in the coasts.
Judge Amy Barrett May Have Grown Up Like Alice
If the report is true that Amy Coney Barrett was (or still is) a member in the faith group called Praise of People that holds men as the heads of the families and wives to submit to their wills, then my guess is that she should have grown up in the similar environment as Alice does in the movie. The story has been reflected in the movie Handmaids which I did not remember watching.
One great advantage of life in the United States is its diversity. By and large, any values, any preferences and any parenting styles are allowed to have a place in the society, as long as it is within the law. US is also a large continental country, where many people, many families have stayed in the same places where they were born and never have the will or chance to see much of the outside world.
Cars and other automobiles have created the illusion that Americans are free to move to any places any times they want. The reality however is that they rarely leave their original houses (for which they are most likely still paying mortgages) and relocate to a different cities or states. Far more frequent is the case that people commute from homes to a nearby metropolitan area to work. The case is worse for many small towns in the Midwest or other inland states, where people were born and raised —- and then work —- in the same place and interact with the same group of people (I.e., their comfort zones in life).
In addition, one basic fact of human lives is that in some ways and to various degrees we are all kidnapped or are prisoner of our early childhood (0 – 6 year old). Attending colleges, especially colleges that are far away from homes, provides a good opportunity for people to learn and to change their courses of lives. Yet the impacts of their childhood stay throughout their adult lives. Judge Amy Coney Barrett, who has won my respect as a descent human, presents an excellent example. The only difference is that with her education and the legal background, she would be more conscious in making legal decisions that may deviate from her personal believes. Having said that I’m sure her personal belief would inevitably but often unconsciously affect her interpretation of the constitution.
What I am getting at is that we should never be surprised by the number of conservative people who are big fans of Donald Trump. When I first heard the report that Barrett was (or still is) a member of that faith group reflected in Handmaids, I was shocked and wondered why any intelligent scholar would be so out of touch with reality today to follow such a sexually biased doctrine. After watching Yes, God, Yes I understand much better now. Some Americans do grow up like Alice, and for them, self suppression is not only a reality, but a honor to serve the God. Sure, we know only a minority of Americans grow up like that and sure, Judge Amy Barrett, if confirmed, would stay in the high court for decades and even become the next Chief Justice. But our political system has been letting the “Crucial Minority” take charge for centuries through the electoral college system, in which the winner (i.e., simple majority) takes all in each state. The way it works is that not only a few swing states will determine the outcome of election, but within each swing state the crucial minority also has the final say in that state. Take Florida for an example, I have only been to that state once but I can picture that the elder Latinos (from Cuba for example) may vote for Trump because they hate communism and their memories of living under a communist regime are still relatively fresh. The younger or the second generation Latinos (e.g., AOC) would more likely vote for Democrats because their memories of the old days are either faded or none at all. However, they grow up in a family environment that make them more sympathetic to strong or big governments. Again, within the swing state Florida, the Latino population is the crucial minority, and through the electorate college system their influence will be projected over the entire country. This is how democracy works!
In the movie Alice was poised to change for a very different life. Yet in real life many, if not most, people may never have the chance or the will to go through the same awakening in life, especially when they do not go to college.