Chris Matthews has his moments:
Far right politicians and activists are often extremely dishonest about their views and goals. I'll never forget a C&L thread where some Ron Paul groupie started by saying that Paul didn't want to outlaw abortion; he just wanted to return the decision to the states. That's a problematic position as it is - states shouldn't get to remove essential rights - but the same commenter was calling a pro-choice, female C&L regular a baby-killer not long after that. The "states" argument was just a (rather transparent) tactic to outlaw abortion. Michael Long is more composed, but I don't think he's much different.
Long will shill a slogan but doesn't want to explain his actual policies, and certainly not their consequences. It's idiotic or dishonest to claim that making abortion illegal would actually cease it. It would just mean that women would once again die in unsafe, back alley abortions, as they currently do in some other countries where abortion is illegal. I have never seen any anti-choice person ever acknowledge that, let alone state the moral stance necessitated by their goal: "women dying due to unsafe abortions is a necessary cost for outlawing abortion." Members of the pro-life movement simply haven't thought that much about it. Similarly, Meghan McCain has described herself as pro-life, but has also said it's for a woman to choose. She's pro-choice and apparently doesn't even know it. Nor is she alone in that. Many "pro-choice" people fail to distinguish between their personal stance ("I personally would not have an abortion") and what the're imposing on others ("No one should be allowed to have that choice."). I've seen anti-choice zealots accuse pro-choice people of celebrating abortions and hating babies - even though plenty of pro-choice people have families. The fundamental disconnects are stunning, but then, in general social conservatives are not reflective people. The push to outlaw abortion has never made much sense outside of a greater agenda of social control, especially of women. About the only thing the anti-choice crowd has to offer on the abortion issue is disdain. Theirs is a consequence-free morality that offers them a feeling of righteousness, but nothing to those they would control. As it's often been observed, their "commitment to life" ends at birth.
Via.
7 comments:
Well said. I live in the district in play. I've talked to several local Dem pols who have all said that Dede Scozzofava (try making a campaign slogan using that name!) is more liberal than a number of democrats in this region. Bill Owen is a lawyer and seems like a reasonably decent guy, despite that. Mr. Hoffman looks and sounds like a guy who would have been ratting out the potheads in high school (and getting wedgies from hell, as a result of his ratitude). When I saw that Palin had come out for him I said, "Well that's the kiss of death.".
The NY Conservative Party are nothing but a bunch of humorless skinflints, fuck 'em.
Anon, thanks for the local perspective.
Ah, crap! That "anon @ 7:26" was me.
This is what happens when neither of us care to engage in an actual dialogue, because the flaws in both arguments would be revealed.
and of course most of these pro-lifers are pro-death penalty, which of course is the disconnect of all disconnects
Comrade Kevin:
What are the flaws in the pro-choice argument?
Distributorcap:
Obviously you missed that infosermon where they explained how Baby JESUS loves unborned babies so much that he wants to bring them into a world where they can fail and then be twice baked, first in Ol' Sparky, then in eternal hellfire. Yowsuh!!
The NY Conservative Party is for people too batshit crazy to even be Republicans. Anytime anyone registers for that party, there should be an automatic psychiatric evaluation.
Post a Comment