Wednesday, December 15, 2004

Icky

What do pro-life Democrats want?

Do they want to outlaw abortion? If so, I'm not going to tell them that view is okay.

Do they want to add additional legal restrictions to abortion in response to the latest Republican icky-abortion-scare? If so, I'm not going to tell them that view is okay.

Amy Sullivan writes:

If Democrats can change the perception that they are pro-abortion, they will finally be free to go on the offensive.


Well, I'm not pro-abortion. I'm not anti-abortion. I'm anti-unwanted pregnancy. Frankly, I'm not particularly concerned about abortion rates as any sort of morality issue. Nor am I interested in any political campaign which implicitly shames women who have them.

Sullivan writes:

Democratic Party to realize that they continue to lose voters who aren't one-issue abortion voters but who feel unwelcome in the party because of their beliefs.


Look, I just don't believe these people exist. There are probably large numbers of voters people who aren't one-issue voters who oppose abortion and who on the margin support Republicans because of their desire to make abortion illegal. These people might vote for a pro-life Democrat over a pro-choice Republican, but those battles are increasingly rare. And, then there are a very tiny number of people who are actively involved in Democratic party politics and who are pro-life and who don't like the fact that many of their friends and colleagues are rather disdainful of this particular viewpoint. Bummer for them, but this isn't about voters it's about a tiny number of people who due to their career choices are forced to interact with rather strident pro-choice people (such as myself) who really aren't very tolerant of those who aren't.

Stop projecting.

It seems like pro-life Democrats who honestly recognize that the platform of the party is unlikely to change just want people like me to admit that abortion is "icky" to make them feel better. Well, I'm not going to do that.