Roe For Republicans

Qualifications (0.00 / 0)

After I wrote this, the vision of Roe v. Wade being overturned suddenly became a lot more vivid.

I could be wrong about which game the Republicans will play with this issue, and I am not suggesting that anybody vote for McCain or refrain from voting for Obama because of a phony assurance that abortion rights would survive a McCain Presidency.

I almost deleted this thing, but decided to leave it up, because it's still worth noting that the real bosses of the GOP have been playing the religious right for suckers all along, and they probably aren't eager to give up this profitable little game.  

From those who have not, everything will be taken, even the little that they have.  -Matthew 13:12

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 15:37:22 PM CDT

David Kuo (0.00 / 0)

For those of you who may have forgotten, the real attitude of the GOP's ruling elite toward right-wing Christians and their anti-abortion agenda was exposed by David Kuo, formerly Deputy Director of the Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives in the Bush White House.

From those who have not, everything will be taken, even the little that they have.  -Matthew 13:12

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 15:46:31 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

More Qualifications (0.00 / 0)

In the background of my opinion that the GOP would be reluctant to actually abrogate Roe, there's a little political psychology that may be completely off the wall, although it seems convincing enough to me.

Someone might perfectly well object that overturning Roe v. Wade would wed the religious right to Republicans with bonds of gratitude forever, but gratitude is a very weak political force, and it seems to me that the issue of abortion would lose most of its force for the religious right if it were reduced to a mere possibility that Democrats might restore Roe, and lost its status as what many right-wing Christians see as an on-going abomination.

On the other side of the issue, I think that a Republican abrogation of Roe would energize pro-choice voters far beyond their current level of activism.

As paradoxical as it may sound, and as easy as it may be to mistake what I am about to suggest for cynical logic-chopping, I think there's a possibility that if the Republicans nullified Roe, then something like its original intensity might return to feminist politics. Susan Faludi has brilliantly analyzed what she and many others see as a loss of energy after passage of the 19th Amendment:

In the years after the ratification of suffrage, the anticipated women's voting bloc failed to emerge, progressive legislation championed by the women's movement was largely thwarted, female politicians made only minor inroads into elected office, and women's advocacy groups found themselves at loggerheads.

Anger is a more significant political force than gratitude everywhere and forever, and Republicans might eventually regret their temporary "triumph" if they repealed Roe v. Wade and simultaneously made themselves a target for a new generation of legitimately outraged women.

From those who have not, everything will be taken, even the little that they have.  -Matthew 13:12

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by: Jacob Freeze @ Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 16:10:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]

It's always a bit tricky (6.00 / 1)

when you start assigning logical processes to the current crop of Republicans. See: Iraq.

"What fresh hell is this?" -- Dorothy Parker

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by: Curmudgette @ Mon Sep 01, 2008 at 18:15:49 PM CDT

[ Parent ]