It was an odd move for a powerful left-wing politician on a tour to rejuvenate Democratic politics to fire a shot of ambivalence at a Democratic candidate in any tight race, but it felt especially egregious given that Ossoff was now facing Karen Handel, a virulently anti-choice Republican who was forced to leave the Susan G. To recap: On Wednesday, Sanders gave an interview in which he said that he “didn’t know” if Jon Ossoff, the Democrat who the day before had earned more than 48 percent of the primary vote in a longtime Republican House district in Georgia, was a progressive. But it is worth closely examining this fight over the importance of reproductive rights in the party because it is an argument that the Democrats seem to rehash over and over and over again. This led to uproar and outrage among some precincts of the left, and eventually to mea culpas and “clarifications” from Sanders and Perez. Humphrey said it best: “The moral test of government is how that government treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children those who are in the twilight of life, the elderly and those who are in the shadows of life, the sick, the needy and the handicapped.The most disturbing thing to emerge from this week’s badly bungled Democratic “Unity Tour” staged by Vermont senator Bernie Sanders and new DNC head Tom Perez was the fact that the only thing on which the two men seemed to easily agree was that reproductive rights are not necessarily fundamental to progressive politics. If the Democratic Party needs a litmus test, it should be economic justice and civil rights for all. There is a legitimate debate about abortion to have within the party, but the progressive Sanders wing is wise to separate the toxicity of that argument from the party’s central goals. And although NARAL and other pro-choice inquisitors pounced on Perez and got him to retract his position, a principle of openness to pro-lifers has been reiterated by House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.).ĭuring the 2016 campaign, Sanders rightly pointed out that Planned Parenthood belongs to “the establishment,” implying that a litmus test on abortion would not be required by the new, exciting, growing edge of the party. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), with both party leaders acknowledging that any political math for a “50-state strategy” must include pro-life Democrats. Democratic National Committee Chair Tom Perez has undertaken a “unity tour” with Sen. Thankfully, after the Trump election, Democratic leaders seem to understand that they have a crisis on their hands. The number of voters who cite abortion as their single-most-important issue is the highest in the history of Gallup’s poll. If the Democratic Party is to become a truly national party - one that can win consistently outside of urban, coastal America - it has no choice but to welcome people with different views on abortion. While polls consistently show that Americans are pretty evenly divided on abortion, opposition in the Midwest is 27% higher than the national average. Tellingly, women support restrictions on late-term abortion at higher rates than men.ĭemocratic politicians shouldn’t make sweeping statements about what “the country” believes without paying careful attention to regions. This is simply not true, especially given that seven in 10 Americans want to ban abortion in most cases after week 12 of pregnancy. The party’s leadership, located largely in pro-choice bubbles on the coasts, claims that support for abortion is a political winner. Many others are under tremendous pressure to stay silent, including Muslims, women of color and, yes, members of the white working class. I’ve since learned that a large number of Democratic legislators hide their pro-life positions in order to get endorsed and raise money. Even my Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee team hid my pro-life stance.Īs a result, the following year, I joined Democrats for Life of America. Party activists I had worked with only months before explained that they couldn’t vote for me or donate to my campaign. Planned Parenthood’s executive director spread falsehoods about my position on government funding for contraceptives. But I felt it most acutely when I ran for Congress in 2002. I first saw this dynamic in 1990, when I moved to Minnesota and pro-lifers were shouted down at the first Democratic caucus I attended. Indeed, we get stronger pushback from Democratic leadership than from Republicans. Yet because of our views on abortion, many of us are intimidated into silence. Because of our views on abortion, many of us are intimidated into silence.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Details
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |