I don’t write about abortion much. I don’t know that any other issue polarizes people so quickly and completely.
I am neither pro-choice enough to suit hardcore liberals, nor pro-life enough to please many conservatives. I don’t think it should be altogether illegal. However, most days I rather doubt it is a morally neutral act, and I never think it’s an emotionally neutral act.
So I’ve always applauded, both as ideology and rhetorical elegance, policy statements that acknowledge that complexity. Bill Clinton famously said abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” George W. Bush said we could all agree there should be fewer abortions. These assertions accommodate the concerns of, I suspect, most Americans.
Not perfect, but mostly practical.
The Democratic Party, apparently finding these concerns antiquated and ridiculous, has decided that abortion is practically a rite of passage for any accomplished young woman. Such would seem to be the case with the goings-on at the convention, anyway.
Most Americans are not radical. The vulgarity of the abortion celebration last night demonstrates how radical (and out-of-touch) the Democrats have gotten.
I hope it is as serious a political miscalculation as it seems.
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I didn’t (and won’t) watch any of the DNC nor the RNC, so I can’t comment to all that. But I think I’m about on the same page as you Bo: I don’t really 100% side either way. I think the Bill Clinton quote you listed is pretty close to where I fall. The thing that gets me is this is such a political issue to begin with. It’s been on the a mumbled topic of campaigns for decades, some years a little more pronounced than others. This year it’s getting a little more of the lime light, but I feel there’s probably some more important things to be dealing with at the national level. This feels like something that should be left up to the states (as I believe it already is) and not bothered with in national elections of people who won’t actually do anything about it.
I am, unsurprisingly, right where you are on the issue. And that’s why I rarely discuss it, either.
As Tahm stated, I didn’t watch either convention. So perhaps I’ve no right to comment on this. However, if there was truly a spirit of “celebration” about the subject, then I put forward that these “people” have never had to stand on the precipice and actually make that decision.
What IS the fascination with sex this year among liberals, anyway? Are they that hung up that they have to include it every mention? Are they not getting any? Because with all the talk, they remind me of that one guy in every crowd who brags the loudest but is the least experienced….