On Roe and the Failure of Democrats
They sat on their thumbs for almost 50 years.
Let me say upfront that I believe the Democrats will do Jack Shit about the loss of abortion rights other than fundraising and trying to get votes. That’s right, they will take your money and demand that you vote for them, but they will do nothing to restore abortion rights. Why would they? They’ve never really done anything to protect them before, why do you think they will start now?
Jerri Lynn Scofield wrote an excellent take down of the feckless Democrat Party1 on Naked Capitalism here. Hers is an excellent essay, with this standout quote that brings everything into perspective.
The Hapless Democrats: Always Fighting For, But Never Actually Achieving Anything
She goes on to note that Sen. Chuck Schumer sent her a fundraising email within hours of the Supreme Court overturning Roe. The distinguished senator from New York wrote:
Chuck Schumer is fighting like hell to get more Democrats elected so we can restore reproductive freedom – but he can’t do it without you. Rush a donation now to help elect more Democrats who will defend and restore the right to abortion!
Emphasis in original. “Fighting like hell.” LOL.
Ms. Scofield goes on to quote a tweet from former president Barack Obama supposedly in support of abortion rights, but in which our former president can’t even be bothered to use the word ‘abortion’ much less euphemisms like ‘reproductive rights’ or ‘a woman’s right to choose’. No, seriously. Read the Obama tweet and tell me if you can figure what he is talking about from the text of the tweet alone.
So yes, I place the lion’s share of the blame for the loss of the constitutional right to have an abortion on the Democrats. Let’s take a look at why.
#1: Failure to Codify Abortion Rights
Roe provided that biological women have the right to have an abortion under the US Constitution. That was almost 50 years ago! In all of that time, Democrats have been good at using the threat that a conservative court could overturn Roe as a campaign issue. The Democrats told us to vote for their candidate for president or else a Republican president could appoint conservative justices to the Supreme Court. The Democrats told us to vote for their senatorial candidates to block conservative appointments to the Supreme Court.
In other words, for almost 50 years, the Democrats have told us that the fundamental right to bodily autonomy, like the right to have an abortion, depends on the votes of a mere 5 people on the Supreme Court. If that is the case, then it would seem prudent to shore up that right in other ways. One way to do that would be to codify the right to an abortion into Federal law. Thus, even if Roe fell (and it has), Federal law would still prevent the states from passing abortion bans. Codification would give the right to have an abortion layers of protection instead of the single, fragile bastion that was Roe. You would think that, if Democrats really cared about abortion rights, they would provide a layered defense.
It’s not like they did not have the opportunity to do so. The Democrats controlled the Congress from 1973 (when the Roe decision came down) until 1994. Except for the period from1981 to 1983, Democrats also controlled the Senate during that period. That means Presidents Carter and Clinton could have signed into law a codification of Roe. President Obama from 2009 through 2011 had a majority in the Congress and filibuster-proof 60 seat majority in the Senate to codify Roe. From 2021 to the present, the Democrats have the presidency, the Congress, and the Senate.2 Yet they sit on their thumbs and do nothing.
That’s not quite true; they are doing something. They are using the fall of Roe to raise funds and to try to get out the vote. I can only conclude that they view the right to get an abortion to be more valuable as an election issue than actually protecting it.
#2: Democratic Messaging Concedes the Argument to the Republicans
Listen to the messaging about the right to have an abortion that the Democrats put out. Do you ever hear a full-throated defense of the right to have an abortion as a fundamental principle of bodily autonomy? Do you ever hear a full-throated defense of bodily autonomy by a Democrat? The answer to these questions is “rarely” and even then only by lower-ranking members of the party.
Meanwhile, the Republicans are happy to shout at the top of their lungs that abortion is the murder of babies.
Democrats, on the other hand, send out Bill Clinton telling us that abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” Here is a question for Bill - why exactly should abortion be rare? When Billy Clinton tells us that abortion should be rare, he is tacitly admitting that abortion is immoral or otherwise bad. Thus he concedes the Republican point about abortion being a bad thing.
Then we have Rep. Henry Cuellar from Texas, a Democrat who is opposed to the right to have an abortion. He gets challenged in the 2022 primary by Jessica Cisneros. Cisneros supports the right to have an abortion. So what does the Democrat leadership, who tells us that abortion is oh-so-important to them, do? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn endorse Cuellar over Cisneros. Nancy and Jim say that the right to an abortion is fundamental, but they act in a way to harm that very right. Good job.
And now let us turn to our former President, Barack Obama.3 On the fall of Roe, he tweeted:
Today, the Supreme Court not only reversed nearly 50 years of precedent, it relegated the most intensely personal decision someone can make to the whims of politicians and ideologues—attacking the essential freedoms of millions of Americans.
Such strong words of support! We have “ most intensely personal decision” and “essential freedoms,” but he never really bothers to tell us what that “freedom” is. Is he embarassed to say ‘abortion’ or ‘forced pregnancy’ or even one of the many mealy-mouthed euphemisms like ‘reproductive rights’ or ‘right to chose’? It’s as if Obama is embarrassed to say ‘abortion’. Moreover, if you did not already know that he was talking about the right to get an abortion, you would have no idea waht he was even talking about. Again, if you are afraid to say ‘abortion’ then you are conceding the Republican position on the matter.
#3: Democrats Actively Harm Abortion Rights
As mentioned above, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Rep. Jim Clyburn, a one-time champion of civil rights back in the 1960s, threw their weight and resources behind a Democrat incumbant, Rep. Cuellar who opposes abortion rights in his party primary. If the right to get an abortion is so important to Democrat leadership, why are they not enforcing some party discipline? The answer is that it is only important insofar as it motivates people to vote for Democrats and rakes in contributions. The right itself? Democrat leadership actions show that it is not impotant to them.
Now the latest: President Biden makes a deal with Mitch McConnell, the Republican Senate Majority Leader, to appoint an anti-abortion lawyer to a lifetime Federal judgeship just days after the fall of Roe. After decades of bleating about how important it is to vote Democrat to apppoint judges that will respect the right to get an abortion, they appoint anti-abortion judges anyway.
But hey! It’s bipartisan! So sit down and shut the fuck up, plebe! And don’t forget, “vote blue no matter who!”
Democrats Treat Their Voters Like Chumps
Republicans proved they were serious about taking the right to have an abortion away, and after almost 50 years of effort they have succeeded. Meanwhile, the Democrats failed to protect those rights, and now that they are lost, are standing around with their hand out demanding a contribution to defend the abortion rights that they failed to defend in the first place. All while the Democrat president is appointing an anti-abortion judge.
Now someone might object at this point that it is really Republicans who are to blame for the loss of abortion rights. I reject this. For decades, the Republicans told us excatly what they want to do - overturn Roe and eliminate the right to get an abotion. It really was a case of what-you-see-is-what-you-get. I cannot blame them for doing exactly what they told you they were going to do. Rather, that gives me a grudging respect for Republicans, because they follow through and they succeed. The Democrats on the other hand held themselves out as the guardians of abortion rights and actively harmed them.
So yes, the Democrats are at fault here. Full Stop.
I am told that Democrats hate it when you call their party the ‘Democrat Party’ as opposed to the ‘Democratic Party’, so my use is intentional here. Maybe when they actually do something usefull they can earn the ‘-ic’ back.
I don’t even want to hear about the filibuster. The filibuster is a fucking Senate rule that is subject to change at any time by the party in power. The Democrats control the Senate, and so can get rid of the filibuster anytime they want. Conclusion? They don’t want to. Furhter conclusion, they don’t care.
Recall that this is the same person who opposed marriage equality on religious grounds. Of course, his views on the matter “evolved” once public opinion was in favor of marriage equality.