2016 Postmortem
In reply to the discussion: What exactly will not voting for the nominee accomplish? [View all]Chan790
(20,176 posts)(This man is not coincidentally (to his job (it's a pontifical university) or my quoting him) a superstar of conservative jurisprudence and legal theory. Though I disagree with him on most issues, his perception of the political arena is exceptional. He's also annoyingly anti-bullshit...he's rather vocal about "movement conservatives" needing to stop referring to everything to the left of center as socialist before they lose all credibility or make socialism appealing.)
You ready?
"The time to overturn Roe v. Wade has come and passed. It's a dead-letter issue of activists everywhere; as close to settled law as something so controversial can be. Conservatives use it to rile up the religious base of the GOP to vote; Democratic moderates use it as a hedge guard to keep liberals in check ("if we let the liberals make decisions, America will reject their extreme progressive values & liberal economics and we'll lose the 'baby' of moderate social gains with the bathwater." ; Democrats, as a whole, use it to rile out voters in Presidential years.
All for what? It's never going to be overturned or substantially-curbed. Democratic leadership knows it, Republican leadership knows it--even if the GOP managed to end legal abortion, it would end them as a viable party as they were swept out in the next series of elections only to see reproductive choice reinstated and their opportunities on the issue ended.
It's time to end the charade and tell values conservatives that we're not going to pretend to wage this fight, it only harms us (the GOP) at the ballot box."
Fortunately for us, the GOP doesn't listen even to their own smart people...and the GOP leadership still knows they really don't want to end or impair abortion access--they just want to talk about curbing abortion access. The same is true of healthcare reform...it's a nuclear football they want to talk about to rile up the conservative base but they never want to "go off" because it will end them.