Editorial Statement for May 2007: Democrats, let abortion go

Editorial statement for May 2007: Democrats, let abortion go.

The recent debate among the Democratic candidates for president helped to remind me again why I haven’t voted Democratic for years. For instance, when the candidates were asked about the abortion issue, all were in favor of legalized abortion, which of course was no surprise whatsoever. Then the issue of vacancies in the Supreme Court came up and whether they’d nominate on the basis of the abortion issue.

Several of the debaters said that they wouldn’t impose “litmus tests” on their judicial nominees, which basically means that they wouldn’t let a given nominee’s support or opposition to legalized abortion to be the be-all/end-all of whether they’d nominate this person. However, just as quickly they said that they’d nominate according to their beliefs. Let’s see – they’re pro-choice, so that means that they’d nominate pro-choice candidates. In other words, a pro-life nominee most likely wouldn’t get their nomination no matter how qualified they are for the bench. Sounds like a litmus test to me, pardners.

The issue of legalized abortion has become the Democrats’ be-all/end-all, whether they want to admit it or not. It's become to the Democratic Party what crack cocaine is to a user: It's an addiction. It's poisoned their souls and clouded their vision to what they used to be. The party that once fought racism, sexism, and many of the other "-isms" that had infected our society has itself been infected by something just as bad as those "-isms". It's opened their minds to the idea that personhood can be defined down to exclude certain people. To "old school" Democrats, it would have been anathema to exclude anybody!

But like it is said about marijuana being a “gateway drug” to further drug abuse, acceptance of legalized abortion has become a "gateway drug" for the Democrats to other poisonous ideas that also rely on defining down personhood. Most prominent among these is the so-called "assisted suicide" which is actually code for legalized euthanasia. The term "assisted suicide" - and its twin "death with dignity" - is basically make-up on a swine.

The most dramatic example of the barbarity of "assisted suicide" is the 2005 death of Terri Schiavo, who lingered for two weeks before finally dying of starvation. Please tell me how dignified it is to be starved to death for two weeks. And while this was going on, the Democrats should have been there front-and-center fighting for Schiavo's rights and her life. The "old school" Democrats would have, but they're gone now.

However, I think that the party can still be saved if it could do just one thing: Overturn Roe vs. Wade and end all support of legalized abortion. Let the issue go back to the states like it used to be, and simply let go of it. Then I think that their vision would clear again, and they could go back to being the "old school" Democrats that used to fight the good fight and be the voice for the voiceless. And one way to re-establish that old school thinking is to go after the abortion industry, which gets away with a lot that other industries wouldn't get away with. A few details are provided in this site.

Right now, the abortion industry is a major contributor to the party. This is problematic in that an industry that markets and sells age discrimination (that is, legalized abortion) is making a profit off of it. Also, consider the fact that, according to Consumer Reports, PP makes the worst condoms. So what that means is that an industry that makes inferior condoms turns around and profits from that inferior quality by providing the abortions when their condoms fail to prevent pregnancies.

This should lead to one wondering if perhaps the poor quality is planned. But that'd be - unethical and immoral, and an action that would be geared solely to making profit. Let's see - would a corporation put profits ahead of morals and ethics? It depends upon which side of Enron and WorldCom that you fall on. Can you imagine the Democrats letting any other industry get away with what the abortion industry gets away with?

While I think the return of "old school" Democrats can still happen, even I admit that it's a very long shot. A lot would have to happen before we can even begin to entertain the idea of their return. But a big step would be the letting go of the abortion issue. One of the issues that the Dems ran on in 2006 was the fight against corruption in Washington. Let them start by cleaning their own house, and letting abortion go would be one step.

Also, taking on the abortion industry like they once went after racism and sexism could just be the very thing to bring back the focus that used to be the Democratic party: the little people. In a day and age in which corporations make more and more while the little guy makes less and less (that's if his or her job isn’t outsourced), a hero needs to emerge to rally the people. Such people used to come from the “old school”, but that school has been closed for a while now.

It’s time to reopen those doors.