Republicans facing tough races are adjusting their positions on abortion.
Before:
2020: "Life is a gift from God and every person has dignity and worth. Life should be protected – at all stages. With respect to abortion, he is strongly pro-life."
Now:
2022: "I believe permitting abortion up to 15 weeks and in cases involving rape, incest, and when a mothers life is at risk is a very reasonable position."
The candidate quoted here is Mark Ronchetti. In 2020 he was running for U.S. Senate in New Mexico. Now he is a candidate to be New Mexico's governor. In 2020, before the Dobbs decision reversed Roe v. Wade, his position was political posturing. Now his position has consequences.
Blake Masters, the Republican nominee challenging Arizona's Senator Mark Kelly, has also repositioned. He quietly changed his campaign website's statement on abortion. Before:
Support a federal personhood law (ideally a Constitutional amendment) that recognizes that unborn babies are human beings that may not be killed.
Now website reads that he wants to ban third-trimester abortions and that he supports making it easier "for pregnant women to support a family and decide to choose life." The earlier position for Masters was the gold standard for the pro-life movement, a Constitutional "personhood" amendment. Abortion is murder. The new position makes abortion a matter of persuasion. He used the word "choice."
Neither Ronchetti nor Masters are defending young embryos anymore. They are opposing late term abortions. Each is going on the attack, blaming the Democratic opponent for being the extremist in the race. Now the Republican is the conciliator. A Ronchetti ad described his opponent:
The governor supports abortion, up to birth. That's extreme. I'm personally pro life, but I believe we can all come together on a policy that reflects our shared values. We can end late term abortion while protecting access to contraception and health care.
Democrats have a vulnerability. The orthodox Democratic position on abortion--one that would protect a Democrat's left flank in a primary--has quietly moved beyond Roe v. Wade, and the Bill Clinton "safe, legal, and rare" position. By positioning abortion as a matter of rights and autonomy, Democrats defend the politically uncomfortable position of late term abortions. It is the Democratic equivalent of the 10-year-old rape victim--a position they end up taking because of the logic of the principle they defend. For Democrats, autonomy. For Republicans, embryo life.
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Democrats have an advantage in this war of positioning. Democrats are defending a status quo against a wave of GOP victories in establishing abortion bans. Republican majorities in red states jumped on their opportunity and went big. They weren't looking to "come together around a policy that reflects our shared values." Even in Texas, with its big enclaves of blue cities, the six-week limit is still in effect. In Indiana, where the ten-year-old girl had to go out of state for an abortion, the state Attorney General discussed prosecuting the doctor. Republicans are the ones pushing change. Democrats are disorganized and fractious and therefore less dangerous. On abortion, when Republicans get a majority they go into lockstep and get carried away.
7 comments:
They may come to regret their choice, but Republicans have already staked their claim as the party that opposes women's rights, democratic elections and the teaching of Black history.
Most people are not persuadable on the abortion issue, for some it's the only issue, and vote accordingly.
The statement spinning illustrates something much more important. These Republicans are willing to say anything to gain power, and have no respect for the intelligence of the voters. Who knows what they really support? Based on this could you trust this person with classified documents? Anything?
Reproductive rights, body autonomy, the freedom to choose are fundamental and sacrosanct. If you do not allow another these rights, you forfeit them for yourself, and surrender to whatever forces you to its will.
What if we stop referring the Republicans as Trumpist, Conservatives, Pro-Life, Evangelical, and For your rights, rather call them what they are: The American Taliban Regressives.
What issues will be foremost in voters’ minds when voting starts? No one knows.
They say a week is an eternity in politics. We have around ten of those ahead of us…
During the 1850s, the earlier iteration of today's regtrssives were called the Know Nothings; anti-immigration, Protestant Christian, and very restrictive Voting Laws...the more things change, the more they stay the same.
"...It gives you something to think about,
Something to drink about.
Drink, l'chaim, to life!
...to LIFE!"
As I replied before to this blog, the political currency of abortion has no backing anymore. We are living in a time of real change.
Now lets do the same to all those issues politicians pretend to hardline each election. We have a culture where the media can convince the public of whatever it feels each week, and politicians have been forced to take increasingly dramatic stances on what is practically aching for compromise.
Remember how the media kept saying Trump wouldn't denounce white supremacy when there is a video going around of him doing it 30+ times? The media was successful in convincing so many that Trump is racist yet no evidence of such exists. The generic public still touts it, though.
Scary what propaganda does.
Oh hey Peter, Ivermectin is approved for research as a COVID prophylaxis now. Dang media.
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