GordonGekko
Footballguy
Direct Headline: Democrats are proving to be the real extremists on abortion
Democrats are salivating over the chance to portray Republicans as antiabortion extremists in the wake of the anticipated overruling of Roe v. Wade. But their unwillingness to accept limits on late-term abortions shows they are the real extremists.
Third-trimester abortions are incredibly unpopular among most Americans. The most recent Economist-YouGov poll, for example, found that only 25 percent of all Americans, and 21 percent of independents, agree that abortion should “always be legal” with “no restrictions.” Yet Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is scheduling a vote this week on a bill that would effectively make abortion legal without restrictions for the duration of a woman’s pregnancy. Even though he knows the legislation is doomed to fail because of the Senate filibuster, Schumer is pushing his entire caucus to support the highly unpopular proposal, for which opponents will be able to tar them.....In politics, if you’re avoiding a clear answer to a question, it’s usually because you don’t want the public to know what it is....
It might seem strange that Democrats are contorting themselves into pretzels to avoid saying they oppose late-term abortions. But it makes complete sense considering that about half of Democrats believe in no abortion restrictions at all. That total rises to 60 percent among liberal Democrats, according to the most recent ABC News-Post poll, and is surely even higher among the abortion rights activists in the party who are most passionate about the issue....If Democrats express support for their base’s view, they give Republicans a potent issue to use against them. If they express support for the view backed by most Americans and almost all swing voters, they anger that base.....
....That’s just not going to fly, especially in critical races. Republicans will force this question at every opportunity and throw every vote in favor of the Senate bill this week in Democrats’ faces. The more a Democrat tries to waffle, the more foolish they will look. It’s pretty clear to most Americans that a child who can live outside of a mother’s body shouldn’t be killed. The fact that too many Democrats can’t say that without fear of getting ambushed by the left speaks volumes about today’s Democratic Party....
...Matthew Yglesias, a prominent progressive writer and abortion rights supporter, recently said as much in his newsletter. He notes that more than 90 percent of all abortions are performed in the first trimester and that Democrats could preserve access for the vast majority of women who want abortions if they sacrificed the extreme views that so many Americans abhor.....That Democrats are preparing to utterly ignore this counsel is instructive. They are pushing no-limit abortion policy either because they are afraid of their base or because they believe in it. Either way, that’s not the leadership Americans want......
By Henry Olsen May 10, 2022 at 7:05 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/10/democrats-proving-to-be-real-extremists-abortion-roe-v-wade/
Direct Headline: Democrats are overreaching in their defence of abortion rights
They could blow a chance to enthuse mid-term voters...Are democrats blowing the chance that the probable overturning of Roe v Wade has given them? ...Yet in vowing to protect abortion rights, Democrats have at times gone further than may be politically wise. On May 11th the Senate voted against the Democrats’ Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA).... Holding the vote was largely symbolic: the bill stood no chance. Still, two rare pro-choice Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and a Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted against it, saying it went further than Roe....
...Ms Collins said she also disliked the bill because it did not allow Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions. Erin O’Brien, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, reckons it would be “smart” for congressional Democrats to now back the more limited abortion-rights bill drawn up by Senators Collins and Murkowski...described the (WHPA) as having “no limits” on abortion. Yet that fairly (characterizes) the situation in at least four states (Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont) and Washington, DC, that have passed laws protecting the right to abortion throughout pregnancy...Those laws stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the rich world. Many European countries have a limit on abortion on demand of 12 or 14 weeks; only two (Britain and the Netherlands) allow it until 24 weeks. Hence Roe itself is comparatively liberal: of 59 countries that allow abortion on demand, America is one of only seven that allow it after 20 weeks of pregnancy.....
Polling suggests that such liberal abortion laws are out of step with public opinion in America. A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that only a quarter of all Americans believe abortion should “always be legal” with “no restrictions”. Gallup polls have repeatedly found that most Americans say abortion on demand should be available in the first trimester (the first 12 weeks) but not thereafter....How might all this affect Democrats’ prospects at the polls? Their failure to push a more moderate line on abortion could harm them, for two reasons.....First, it gives Republicans an opportunity to cast Democrats as the extremists. ....It would be hard to make such claims if Democrats had not dropped the “safe, legal and rare” language adopted by Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign in 1992 ....This leads to the second problem: voters tuning out. Since Donald Trump swore in 2016 that he would appoint conservative justices to overturn Roe, the clash of extremes in America’s abortion war has intensified.....
.....In the longer run, it is progressive states’ relaxed abortion laws that may be most damaging to the left. Though abortions in the second and third trimesters are rare, and even in states where they are permitted some doctors set their own gestational limits, they give anti-abortion activists an easy target.... “Late abortions are abhorrent to voters pretty much across the political spectrum, so that would resonate even in states that protect abortion......”
Economist May 19th 2022
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/05/15/democrats-are-overreaching-in-their-defence-of-abortion-rights
Direct Headline: Democratic candidates should listen to majority opinion on late-term abortions
What if I told you there’s an issue that unites a clear majority of Americans? What if I told you that at least 60 percent of independents, Republicans, and Democrats agree on that issue? And what if I told you that the Democratic candidates for president are on the wrong side of that issue? That they’re out of step with the party – and the country – they want to lead?
That’s exactly the case with abortion.
By about 3-to-1, Americans oppose abortion after 20 weeks – or don’t want it at all. This includes about 8 in 10 Republicans and independents and nearly 6 in 10 Democrats....This survey also found that 80% of Americans support limiting abortion to at most the first three months of a pregnancy. This included nearly two-thirds of those identifying as pro-choice and a similar number of Democrats (64%)....Few issues command such massive majorities. The revulsion these proposals caused was bipartisan. But, while the polling showed that most Americans strongly opposed policies like those in New York and Virginia, Democratic presidential candidates appear to be doubling down....It wasn’t always like this. The Democratic Party used to have pro-life candidates at every level. Even party leaders once spoke out against abortion often and forcefully....
Ted Kennedy once wrote that “abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life.”...In 1972, George McGovern worked the Democratic National Convention to stop a pro-abortion plank from being included in the party’s platform.....In 1976, Sargent Shriver campaigned in the Iowa caucuses on a pro-life platform, and Jimmy Carter won there, in part, because voters believed he too was pro-life....And in 1981, Sen. Joe Biden voted for the Hatch Amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to again restrict abortion....
....It would be better for America – and for the unborn – if Democratic candidates listened to the electorate again. The majority of Democrats deserve representation and not exclusion of their point of view within their own party....The more than 7 in 10 Americans – and 6 in 10 Democrats – who oppose late-term abortions should refuse to support any candidate who holds extreme abortion views....
Carl Anderson 5/2/19
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/caucus/2019/05/02/democrats-should-heed-majority-opinion-late-term-abortions-presidential-race-2020-iowa-caucuses/3650748002/
Direct Headline (SNAPSHOT) : Op-Ed: How the Democratic platform betrays millions of the party faithful
The abortion plank in the 2016 Democratic platform effectively marginalizes the voices of 21 million pro-life Democrats. It means the party that is supposedly on the side of justice for the vulnerable no longer welcomes those of us who #ChooseBoth; that is, those of us who want the government to protect and support prenatal children and their mothers....Most significantly, the platform calls for the repeal of the Hyde and Helms amendments, which prevent taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions. This would force those who object to abortion to contribute to what we believe would be government-funded killing, and it would eradicate policies that have already saved hundreds of thousands of lives....
Here are three other ways the 2016 platform betrays Democrats like us: It calls for repeal of all “federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion.” Support for abortion rights in this platform is deemed “unequivocal.” The platform asserts that “reproductive health” — which includes access to “safe and legal abortion” — is “core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing.” A commitment to religious liberty in the context of abortion, which was included in the 2012 platform, has been removed.....U.S. abortion law (which permits abortion for any reason until viability, about 22 to 23 weeks) already makes many progressive countries in Europe (which set their threshold for abortion at 12 to 13 weeks) look like pro-life radicals. Now the Democratic platform pushes the party to roll back even the very modest abortion regulations currently on the books....
In the 2008 presidential primary campaign, candidate Hillary Clinton said abortion should be safe, legal and rare. “And by rare,” Clinton emphasized, “I mean rare.” Yet her 2016 platform team has approved provisions that make access to abortion crucial to the well-being of every single person on the planet....The Democratic Party’s abortion stances have already caused many to leave the party, and many more will drop out because of the platform wording. The percentage of extreme abortion rights advocates is increasing in the party, but only because the total number of Democrats has shrunk to its lowest level since the Hoover administration....Abortion is also among the reasons Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives. In the key states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, for example, Democrats held the majority of seats until Republicans were able to associate the Affordable Care Act with “the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.”...
....He wasn’t alone: Sixty-four Democrats voted for the antiabortion Stupak amendment to the Affordable Care Act; 88% of those seats went to Republicans after Democrats were tied to the assertion that Obamacare funded abortion. Former Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, who lost his bid for reelection, noted that antiabortion voters didn’t stop sending people to Congress: “They just stopped sending Democrats....”....To beat Donald Trump, the Democratic Party needs to carry swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where radical support for abortion rights has been proven to drive away voters. The party also has been working hard to turn traditionally red states like Texas blue or at least purple, and abortion-rights extremism won’t help that cause either....
By Kristen Day and Charles Camosy July 25, 2016 5 AM PT
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-day-and-camosy-democratic-platform-abortion-20160725-snap-story.html
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
"Are there any limits on abortion you would find appropriate?"
John Fetterman: “I don’t believe so, no."
PA Senate candidate John Fetterman wants NO LIMITS on abortion
3:13 PM · Jun 26, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1541182797376782347
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
Stacey Abrams supports NO LIMITS on abortion. Q: “Do you support any limitation on abortion? Or do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion all the way up to nine months?” ABRAMS: “That should be a choice made between a doctor and a woman.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams supports NO LIMITS on abortion
7:29 AM · Jun 26, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1541066198074490880
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "Not every Democrat is pro-choice...we really need to reassess if it's appropriate for them to continue to serve."
9:20 PM · Jun 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1540912814054842368
*********
"Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare." - Bill Clinton, DNC 1996
"Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn’t." - Bill Clinton, DNC 1992
"The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change." - Bill Clinton
For a man accused so many times of being a rapist, it's interesting that Bill Clinton said something so poignant about abortion and women's rights. ( Short answer - It was Dee Dee Myers' behind the scenes brilliance at work )
So what happened to "Safe, Legal And Rare?"
Because it's become more than clear that Team Blue has shifted from Pro Choice ( which didn't automatically assert someone absolutely had to have an abortion) to their recent Women's Health Protection Act bill that included nullifying all previous state laws on the books regarding abortion, removing parental consent considerations for minors in abortion issues, essentially allowing abortion "up to the moment of birth" and codifying that actual taxpayer dollars would be used to help facilitate abortions. None of this is what the majority of Americans support.
What is the WHPA? It's a "wish list" that's designed to never get passed so the Democratic Party can go into the national daily media cycle and shout that the GOP doesn't care about women's rights and wants all teenage girls who were raped to be chained down in a kitchen and forced to have a baby against her will as they beg for donation dollars. The problem is Democrats in office voted for it. And by many of them voting for it, it becomes their official position on these matters.
So what's the problem? AOC makes it clear - Some Democrats are actually Pro Life in secret and they need to be purged from the Party ranks. So the hard left radicals like AOC and her ilk need to be appeased because their votes, and their followers' votes are needed. If establishment Democrats say in public they are supporting what the majority of Americans want, literally the complete opposite of the WHPA, they will anger and lose those woke voters. If they keep the course and push this Pro Abortion stance, they lose 20+ million Pro Life Democrats as voters who feel betrayed and they create a natural media narrative for the GOP to use against them.
Matt Yglesias, an actual Pro Choice leftist, points out that there is an actual obligation by the Democratic Party to protect the majority of abortion rights for the majority of women, even at the sacrifice of the most extremist Pro Abortion views within the Party ranks.
The end result is a show of utter weakness. Establishment Democrats believing they are held hostage by the most radical elements in office at the cost of ignoring the will of the people they are obligated to actually serve. And the problem doesn't end there, this issue will trigger apathy in liberal voters to not show up to future elections, it also casts a complicated situation for actual future POTUS contenders like John Fetterman and Stacey Abrams where the only pathway is lose/lose for a full on general election cycle. And it will empower the Progressives, which will increase their ranks, fund raising and reach, to the point where the hostage situation only gets worse and worse. Look at the staggering losses in Congress under the Obama regime, where the ACA was seen as being too abortion friendly, as a test case.
But who are the actual casualties here? It's the American people. Hard working every day people just trying to get by in life and be a part of our society are being ignored and their wants and needs are taken for granted. Why? So Team Blue can have a wedge issue for fund raising and way to demonize their political opponents?
Jonathan Turley discusses one of the most critical issues - The people, no matter their political belief system and no matter whom they vote for, deserve a straight answer out of their elected officials. Tell it to the people straight, tell them what you mean, and where you stand.
Did the actual Pro Choice movement (where abortion wasn't treated like a blank check absolute) die in the eyes of Team Blue's elected officials? Or were they cast out for not being politically expedient enough for the sake of grift and power hungry designs?
What happened to "Safe, Legal And Rare?" Where do liberals who hold to that go to now? What about the Pro Life Democrats? Where is their voice? Did Roe effectively disenfranchise them 50 years ago?
When will the unshockingly complacent Democratic Party hold itself accountable for not making a real push to codify Roe V Wade into federal law when they had the opportunities to do so?
What does it say that Bill Clinton, a man accused endlessly of rape himself and sexual scandal, represents quite possibly the last popular reasonable approach by the Democratic Party that seemed to agree with the actual masses about abortion?
Did Team Blue stray too far from actual public opinion on abortion?
Did Democrats Transition From Complacent 'Pro-Choice' To No Limit Pro Abortion Extremists?
I'll leave this here for others to discuss.
Democrats are salivating over the chance to portray Republicans as antiabortion extremists in the wake of the anticipated overruling of Roe v. Wade. But their unwillingness to accept limits on late-term abortions shows they are the real extremists.
Third-trimester abortions are incredibly unpopular among most Americans. The most recent Economist-YouGov poll, for example, found that only 25 percent of all Americans, and 21 percent of independents, agree that abortion should “always be legal” with “no restrictions.” Yet Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) is scheduling a vote this week on a bill that would effectively make abortion legal without restrictions for the duration of a woman’s pregnancy. Even though he knows the legislation is doomed to fail because of the Senate filibuster, Schumer is pushing his entire caucus to support the highly unpopular proposal, for which opponents will be able to tar them.....In politics, if you’re avoiding a clear answer to a question, it’s usually because you don’t want the public to know what it is....
It might seem strange that Democrats are contorting themselves into pretzels to avoid saying they oppose late-term abortions. But it makes complete sense considering that about half of Democrats believe in no abortion restrictions at all. That total rises to 60 percent among liberal Democrats, according to the most recent ABC News-Post poll, and is surely even higher among the abortion rights activists in the party who are most passionate about the issue....If Democrats express support for their base’s view, they give Republicans a potent issue to use against them. If they express support for the view backed by most Americans and almost all swing voters, they anger that base.....
....That’s just not going to fly, especially in critical races. Republicans will force this question at every opportunity and throw every vote in favor of the Senate bill this week in Democrats’ faces. The more a Democrat tries to waffle, the more foolish they will look. It’s pretty clear to most Americans that a child who can live outside of a mother’s body shouldn’t be killed. The fact that too many Democrats can’t say that without fear of getting ambushed by the left speaks volumes about today’s Democratic Party....
...Matthew Yglesias, a prominent progressive writer and abortion rights supporter, recently said as much in his newsletter. He notes that more than 90 percent of all abortions are performed in the first trimester and that Democrats could preserve access for the vast majority of women who want abortions if they sacrificed the extreme views that so many Americans abhor.....That Democrats are preparing to utterly ignore this counsel is instructive. They are pushing no-limit abortion policy either because they are afraid of their base or because they believe in it. Either way, that’s not the leadership Americans want......
By Henry Olsen May 10, 2022 at 7:05 a.m. EDT
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/05/10/democrats-proving-to-be-real-extremists-abortion-roe-v-wade/
Direct Headline: Democrats are overreaching in their defence of abortion rights
They could blow a chance to enthuse mid-term voters...Are democrats blowing the chance that the probable overturning of Roe v Wade has given them? ...Yet in vowing to protect abortion rights, Democrats have at times gone further than may be politically wise. On May 11th the Senate voted against the Democrats’ Women’s Health Protection Act (WHPA).... Holding the vote was largely symbolic: the bill stood no chance. Still, two rare pro-choice Republican senators, Susan Collins of Maine and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, and a Democrat, Joe Manchin of West Virginia, voted against it, saying it went further than Roe....
...Ms Collins said she also disliked the bill because it did not allow Catholic hospitals to refuse to perform abortions. Erin O’Brien, a political scientist at the University of Massachusetts, Boston, reckons it would be “smart” for congressional Democrats to now back the more limited abortion-rights bill drawn up by Senators Collins and Murkowski...described the (WHPA) as having “no limits” on abortion. Yet that fairly (characterizes) the situation in at least four states (Colorado, New Jersey, Oregon, Vermont) and Washington, DC, that have passed laws protecting the right to abortion throughout pregnancy...Those laws stand in sharp contrast to the rest of the rich world. Many European countries have a limit on abortion on demand of 12 or 14 weeks; only two (Britain and the Netherlands) allow it until 24 weeks. Hence Roe itself is comparatively liberal: of 59 countries that allow abortion on demand, America is one of only seven that allow it after 20 weeks of pregnancy.....
Polling suggests that such liberal abortion laws are out of step with public opinion in America. A recent Economist-YouGov poll found that only a quarter of all Americans believe abortion should “always be legal” with “no restrictions”. Gallup polls have repeatedly found that most Americans say abortion on demand should be available in the first trimester (the first 12 weeks) but not thereafter....How might all this affect Democrats’ prospects at the polls? Their failure to push a more moderate line on abortion could harm them, for two reasons.....First, it gives Republicans an opportunity to cast Democrats as the extremists. ....It would be hard to make such claims if Democrats had not dropped the “safe, legal and rare” language adopted by Bill Clinton during his presidential campaign in 1992 ....This leads to the second problem: voters tuning out. Since Donald Trump swore in 2016 that he would appoint conservative justices to overturn Roe, the clash of extremes in America’s abortion war has intensified.....
.....In the longer run, it is progressive states’ relaxed abortion laws that may be most damaging to the left. Though abortions in the second and third trimesters are rare, and even in states where they are permitted some doctors set their own gestational limits, they give anti-abortion activists an easy target.... “Late abortions are abhorrent to voters pretty much across the political spectrum, so that would resonate even in states that protect abortion......”
Economist May 19th 2022
https://www.economist.com/united-states/2022/05/15/democrats-are-overreaching-in-their-defence-of-abortion-rights
Direct Headline: Democratic candidates should listen to majority opinion on late-term abortions
What if I told you there’s an issue that unites a clear majority of Americans? What if I told you that at least 60 percent of independents, Republicans, and Democrats agree on that issue? And what if I told you that the Democratic candidates for president are on the wrong side of that issue? That they’re out of step with the party – and the country – they want to lead?
That’s exactly the case with abortion.
By about 3-to-1, Americans oppose abortion after 20 weeks – or don’t want it at all. This includes about 8 in 10 Republicans and independents and nearly 6 in 10 Democrats....This survey also found that 80% of Americans support limiting abortion to at most the first three months of a pregnancy. This included nearly two-thirds of those identifying as pro-choice and a similar number of Democrats (64%)....Few issues command such massive majorities. The revulsion these proposals caused was bipartisan. But, while the polling showed that most Americans strongly opposed policies like those in New York and Virginia, Democratic presidential candidates appear to be doubling down....It wasn’t always like this. The Democratic Party used to have pro-life candidates at every level. Even party leaders once spoke out against abortion often and forcefully....
Ted Kennedy once wrote that “abortion on demand is not in accordance with the value which our civilization places on human life.”...In 1972, George McGovern worked the Democratic National Convention to stop a pro-abortion plank from being included in the party’s platform.....In 1976, Sargent Shriver campaigned in the Iowa caucuses on a pro-life platform, and Jimmy Carter won there, in part, because voters believed he too was pro-life....And in 1981, Sen. Joe Biden voted for the Hatch Amendment to overturn Roe v. Wade and allow states to again restrict abortion....
....It would be better for America – and for the unborn – if Democratic candidates listened to the electorate again. The majority of Democrats deserve representation and not exclusion of their point of view within their own party....The more than 7 in 10 Americans – and 6 in 10 Democrats – who oppose late-term abortions should refuse to support any candidate who holds extreme abortion views....
Carl Anderson 5/2/19
https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/opinion/columnists/caucus/2019/05/02/democrats-should-heed-majority-opinion-late-term-abortions-presidential-race-2020-iowa-caucuses/3650748002/
Direct Headline (SNAPSHOT) : Op-Ed: How the Democratic platform betrays millions of the party faithful
The abortion plank in the 2016 Democratic platform effectively marginalizes the voices of 21 million pro-life Democrats. It means the party that is supposedly on the side of justice for the vulnerable no longer welcomes those of us who #ChooseBoth; that is, those of us who want the government to protect and support prenatal children and their mothers....Most significantly, the platform calls for the repeal of the Hyde and Helms amendments, which prevent taxpayer funds from being used to pay for abortions. This would force those who object to abortion to contribute to what we believe would be government-funded killing, and it would eradicate policies that have already saved hundreds of thousands of lives....
Here are three other ways the 2016 platform betrays Democrats like us: It calls for repeal of all “federal and state laws and policies that impede a woman’s access to abortion.” Support for abortion rights in this platform is deemed “unequivocal.” The platform asserts that “reproductive health” — which includes access to “safe and legal abortion” — is “core to women’s, men’s, and young people’s health and wellbeing.” A commitment to religious liberty in the context of abortion, which was included in the 2012 platform, has been removed.....U.S. abortion law (which permits abortion for any reason until viability, about 22 to 23 weeks) already makes many progressive countries in Europe (which set their threshold for abortion at 12 to 13 weeks) look like pro-life radicals. Now the Democratic platform pushes the party to roll back even the very modest abortion regulations currently on the books....
In the 2008 presidential primary campaign, candidate Hillary Clinton said abortion should be safe, legal and rare. “And by rare,” Clinton emphasized, “I mean rare.” Yet her 2016 platform team has approved provisions that make access to abortion crucial to the well-being of every single person on the planet....The Democratic Party’s abortion stances have already caused many to leave the party, and many more will drop out because of the platform wording. The percentage of extreme abortion rights advocates is increasing in the party, but only because the total number of Democrats has shrunk to its lowest level since the Hoover administration....Abortion is also among the reasons Democrats lost their majority in the House of Representatives. In the key states of Ohio and Pennsylvania, for example, Democrats held the majority of seats until Republicans were able to associate the Affordable Care Act with “the largest expansion of abortion since Roe v. Wade.”...
....He wasn’t alone: Sixty-four Democrats voted for the antiabortion Stupak amendment to the Affordable Care Act; 88% of those seats went to Republicans after Democrats were tied to the assertion that Obamacare funded abortion. Former Democratic Rep. Jim Oberstar of Minnesota, who lost his bid for reelection, noted that antiabortion voters didn’t stop sending people to Congress: “They just stopped sending Democrats....”....To beat Donald Trump, the Democratic Party needs to carry swing states such as Ohio, Pennsylvania and Florida, where radical support for abortion rights has been proven to drive away voters. The party also has been working hard to turn traditionally red states like Texas blue or at least purple, and abortion-rights extremism won’t help that cause either....
By Kristen Day and Charles Camosy July 25, 2016 5 AM PT
https://www.latimes.com/opinion/op-ed/la-oe-day-and-camosy-democratic-platform-abortion-20160725-snap-story.html
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
"Are there any limits on abortion you would find appropriate?"
John Fetterman: “I don’t believe so, no."
PA Senate candidate John Fetterman wants NO LIMITS on abortion
3:13 PM · Jun 26, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1541182797376782347
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
Stacey Abrams supports NO LIMITS on abortion. Q: “Do you support any limitation on abortion? Or do you think that women should have the right to have an abortion all the way up to nine months?” ABRAMS: “That should be a choice made between a doctor and a woman.”
Democrat Stacey Abrams supports NO LIMITS on abortion
7:29 AM · Jun 26, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1541066198074490880
TWEET: RNC Research XX@XX RNCResearch
Democrat Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez: "Not every Democrat is pro-choice...we really need to reassess if it's appropriate for them to continue to serve."
9:20 PM · Jun 25, 2022
https://twitter.com/RNCResearch/status/1540912814054842368
*********
"Abortion should not only be safe and legal, it should be rare." - Bill Clinton, DNC 1996
"Frankly, I'm fed up with politicians in Washington lecturing the rest of us about family values. Our families have values. But our government doesn’t." - Bill Clinton, DNC 1992
"The price of doing the same old thing is far higher than the price of change." - Bill Clinton
For a man accused so many times of being a rapist, it's interesting that Bill Clinton said something so poignant about abortion and women's rights. ( Short answer - It was Dee Dee Myers' behind the scenes brilliance at work )
So what happened to "Safe, Legal And Rare?"
Because it's become more than clear that Team Blue has shifted from Pro Choice ( which didn't automatically assert someone absolutely had to have an abortion) to their recent Women's Health Protection Act bill that included nullifying all previous state laws on the books regarding abortion, removing parental consent considerations for minors in abortion issues, essentially allowing abortion "up to the moment of birth" and codifying that actual taxpayer dollars would be used to help facilitate abortions. None of this is what the majority of Americans support.
What is the WHPA? It's a "wish list" that's designed to never get passed so the Democratic Party can go into the national daily media cycle and shout that the GOP doesn't care about women's rights and wants all teenage girls who were raped to be chained down in a kitchen and forced to have a baby against her will as they beg for donation dollars. The problem is Democrats in office voted for it. And by many of them voting for it, it becomes their official position on these matters.
So what's the problem? AOC makes it clear - Some Democrats are actually Pro Life in secret and they need to be purged from the Party ranks. So the hard left radicals like AOC and her ilk need to be appeased because their votes, and their followers' votes are needed. If establishment Democrats say in public they are supporting what the majority of Americans want, literally the complete opposite of the WHPA, they will anger and lose those woke voters. If they keep the course and push this Pro Abortion stance, they lose 20+ million Pro Life Democrats as voters who feel betrayed and they create a natural media narrative for the GOP to use against them.
Matt Yglesias, an actual Pro Choice leftist, points out that there is an actual obligation by the Democratic Party to protect the majority of abortion rights for the majority of women, even at the sacrifice of the most extremist Pro Abortion views within the Party ranks.
The end result is a show of utter weakness. Establishment Democrats believing they are held hostage by the most radical elements in office at the cost of ignoring the will of the people they are obligated to actually serve. And the problem doesn't end there, this issue will trigger apathy in liberal voters to not show up to future elections, it also casts a complicated situation for actual future POTUS contenders like John Fetterman and Stacey Abrams where the only pathway is lose/lose for a full on general election cycle. And it will empower the Progressives, which will increase their ranks, fund raising and reach, to the point where the hostage situation only gets worse and worse. Look at the staggering losses in Congress under the Obama regime, where the ACA was seen as being too abortion friendly, as a test case.
But who are the actual casualties here? It's the American people. Hard working every day people just trying to get by in life and be a part of our society are being ignored and their wants and needs are taken for granted. Why? So Team Blue can have a wedge issue for fund raising and way to demonize their political opponents?
Jonathan Turley discusses one of the most critical issues - The people, no matter their political belief system and no matter whom they vote for, deserve a straight answer out of their elected officials. Tell it to the people straight, tell them what you mean, and where you stand.
Did the actual Pro Choice movement (where abortion wasn't treated like a blank check absolute) die in the eyes of Team Blue's elected officials? Or were they cast out for not being politically expedient enough for the sake of grift and power hungry designs?
What happened to "Safe, Legal And Rare?" Where do liberals who hold to that go to now? What about the Pro Life Democrats? Where is their voice? Did Roe effectively disenfranchise them 50 years ago?
When will the unshockingly complacent Democratic Party hold itself accountable for not making a real push to codify Roe V Wade into federal law when they had the opportunities to do so?
What does it say that Bill Clinton, a man accused endlessly of rape himself and sexual scandal, represents quite possibly the last popular reasonable approach by the Democratic Party that seemed to agree with the actual masses about abortion?
Did Team Blue stray too far from actual public opinion on abortion?
Did Democrats Transition From Complacent 'Pro-Choice' To No Limit Pro Abortion Extremists?
I'll leave this here for others to discuss.
