Andrew Golis

Over the last two months or so, there has been a lot of discussion of Democrats softening their position on abortion to make themselves more appealing to culturally conservative voters in the South and Midwest. I’m here to tell you that it’s all a lie, a farce, a clever political maneuver that lacks much actual movement.

It started with a Senator Reid’s (an anti-choicer) ascendancy to Senate Minority Leader. Then, Tim Roemer, an anti-choicer, ran for DNC chair endorsed and encouraged by congressional leadership (Pelosi and Reid, to be exact). Then, there was the much publicized speech in which Senator Clinton stated her strong support for choice, but proceeded to note that all abortion is a tragedy and both sides should seek common ground. Then, Howard Dean made a similar speech on Saturday. Now, there’s controversy over Senator Schumer (the head of the Democrats campaign efforts in 2006), encouraging anti-choicer Bob Casey Jr.

So, is the Democratic Party no longer the party of women and choice?

Fear not, noble reader. Let’s go through the list:

1. Senator Reid was going to be Senate Dems leader anyway, and no one was claiming that the Dems were changing their position when he was Daschle’s right-hand man.

2. Tim Roemer never had a chance and no real effort was made to support him, but by throwing him out there it made congressional leaders appear more tolerant of anti-choicers without really having to risk much. It’s like when Bush says that he supports the renewal of the Assault Weapons Ban but does nothing with full knowledge it won’t be renewed because, let’s face it, he doesn’t really support it.

3. Hillary Clinton didn’t change her position in her speech and said exactly the same type of thing her husband said throughout the 90s. No one accused him of being anti-choice.

4. Howard Dean didn’t change his position in his speech and said exactly the same type of thing Hillary’s husband said throughout the 90s.

5. Bob Casey, Jr. was already running. Also, he’s up 20 points over Santorum in some polling and, whether we like him or not, there doesn’t appear to be any other Democrat (pro or anti-choice) who can beat Casey in a primary of Santorum in the general. Also, Santorum is a vile man who likened being gay to besteality. I would run the Devil against him if the Devil was a Democrat and had the best chance of winning.

So, by doing a little acting and reinterpreting the inevitable, the Democrats have made themselves appear tolerant of anti-choicers without actually changing their positions or candidates at all.

To be clear, if the Democratic Party ever stops supporting a woman’s right to choose it will not be my party. However, getting more voters without changing its opinion, and more importantly, acknowledging the fact that abortion is not something to celebrate but to mourn, whatever your position on choice, isn’t just good politics: it’s the right thing to do.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, February 16th, 2005 at 1:14 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.