The Republicans and Abortion
Lucy just pulled the football away from Charlie Brown again. In the budget compromise that averted a government shutdown, it was the Republicans not the Democrats who blinked on the funding of Planned Parenthood, and it was the pro-lifers who look to the GOP and not the abortion supporters who look to the Democrats who were disappointned. After the compromise, as before, hundreds of millions of tax dollars will continue to flow into the coffers of an organization that kills hundreds of thousands of unborn children each year and whose founder famously said, “The most merciful thing a family does for one of its infant members is to kill it.”
The debate leading up to the compromise provided another reminder of why Roe v. Wade has not been overturned. Richard Scaife, a long-time donor to the GOP and conservative causes, took out a full-page ad in the Wall Street Journal to gush about how his grandmother knew Margaret Sanger and how wonderful Planned Parenthood is. In Scaife's world, government spending is okay when the money is spent on Planned Parenthood. There are lots of old money families with histories similar to Scaife's, as Republican leaders well know, since many of those families are their own. The Bushes, like the Scaifes, were early supporters of Planned Parenthood, and Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush all remain supporters of abortion.
Republicans such as Scaife and Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush can tolerate pro-life rhetoric and the occasional law dealing with the margins of the abortion issue, but the overturning of Roe v. Wade would provoke a civil war in the upper reaches of the GOP, which is one reason why that infamous decision has not been overturned, even though Republican presidents have appointed a majority of all Supreme Court justices since it was handed down in 1973. Indeed, thanks to Warren Rudman's memoirs, we now know that George H.W. Bush appointed David Souter to the Supreme Court knowing full well that Souter was a supporter of Roe v. Wade.
Politically, Roe v. Wade has been a tremendous boon to the national GOP. For decades, millions of pro-lifers have reliably voted for Republican presidential candidates on the basis of the pro-life issue, even though many of those voters might favor the Democrats on economic issues. If Roe v. Wade were overturned, the abortion issue would become a state issue, and many pro-life voters would again feel free to consider Democratic candidates for national office. Until Charlie Brown realizes the game Lucy is playing, there is no reason to expect that Roe v. Wade will be overturned or that the GOP as a whole (with many obvious and honorable exceptions) will stand by its stated pro-life beliefs when it matters.
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perhaps a dialectician should examine the rhetoric of the claim that politics is the manipulation of public moods to plutocratic ends. Mills vs Dahl.
Mr. schulz,
Thank you for the suggestion. I was attempting to describe the work of Karl Rove but will certainly look over your suggestion as a plausible alternative. God knows practically any alternative would be preferable to the current practice. Thanks again for your always timely and pithy qualifications.
Mr. R You are a gentleman. A drop-out from the wordsmithy apprenticeship program I need to keep responses short.
Thank you Mr. Schulz. The respect is mutual. In fact in honor of the Sacered Tridium beginning this evening and recalling the Last Supper, The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Our Lord, Jesus Christ, I will be following your lead --- Fewer words during such times are better!! Pax+
I dont want live in the theocracy so many on this forum seem to desire so much. Sorry to see people so ignorant about what planned parenthood actually does. Less than 3% of their services are abortion related. Its a real shame to see the lack of respect for the poorer females reproductive health care in this country from so many so called Christians.
This is an excellent example of what ethical Americans are up against when they adopt the traditional view of abortion. How many errors are there here? First, since ancient pagans and some modern atheists oppose abortion and view it as homicide, theocracy has absolutely nothing to do with it. Second, notice how the leftist mind, which can never deal with an argument, always has recourse to "you're just ignorant." Planned Parenthood has promoted contraception, sterilization, abortion, and eugenics from its inception. It's credo has always been" "Don't let the unfit reproduce." The unfit are the poor, the not so intelligent, the black, the brown, and the yellow. Anyone who knows anything about the organization is aware of this. Finally, the argument from "reproductive health." It's pretty obvious we are not talking about reproductive health but about non-reproduction, but even if we were, Christians would have the right and the duty to oppose federal funding of an organization that promotes murder, even if it were only 3% of its resources. I remember when we were supposed to give to the Black Panthers, because they gave poor children breakfast. Why not donate to the Communist Party because so many Soviet musicians were well trained or promote neoclassical architecture by giving to the Fuhrer. After all, only a small fraction of Nazi Party resources was devoted to persecuting Jews and Catholics. So long as American education continues to produce people like CWS, there is no point in rational discourse.
So CWS are they just 3% evil?
"Poorer females' reproductive health care"?
Save it, 55. I could say a serial killer spends less than 3 percent of his time knifing people but that wouldn't make him any less repulsive or any less deserving of the gallows.
Heck fire, a guy accidentally mispells Sacred and Triduum and all of a sudden he is advocating Theocracy. What need of we for witnesses? CWS has read the blasphemy. There is no god but Ceasar!!