Whether you look at it from a logical or a moral perspective, Donald Trump needs to make up for lost ground if he is going to solidify his lock on the pro-life vote in 2024. Taking this vote for granted because President Biden is such a baby butcher would be a grave miscalculation.
And if ever there was an ornery lot of voters, it is pro-lifers. Trump lost in 2020 by, let us say, half of one percent in each of three states.
Pro-life voters have a well-earned history of being betrayed by all-talk and no-action Republican politicians over the last 40 years. These politicians are despised. So, Republicans already have one strike against them in the area of trust. A percentage of these voters, if they think they are being taken for granted, would rather stay home and laugh as one more Republican loser goes down in flames. Democrats have no such trust gap on this issue.
The idea that those who vote to defend preborn children have nowhere to go defies some obvious game theory logic. This election is a four-way race.
1. Biden
2. Trump
3. Third Party
4. Stay Home
So, while pro-abortion voters have one clear-cut option for their objective, the pro-life vote can be split three ways.
Trump played his hand perfectly in 2016.
1) He promised to appoint the judges Republicans had failed to appoint in the past.
2) He gave a list of names to prove he was sincere.
3) He played by the political rule of New York politics. You dance with the people who brought you to the party.
4) He was sure that once the court put the issue to the states, he could sidestep the issue going forward.
It was all very logical and effective. Morally, the approach had some problems. Trump used to attend Marble Collegiate Church in New York City. I sometimes would hear these Sunday sermons of pastor Norman Vincent Peale when they were rebroadcast on WOR. The old Dutch Calvinist was strong on positive thinking but tended to paper over the subtleties of moral theology. Trump has a similar weakness when it comes to talking about pro-life issues.
Politically, the problem isn't the logic of 2016. The problem is Trump blew up his own logic by opening his big mouth on the issue in Arizona. Instead of letting the local voters and states fight it out, he has given various off-the-cuff compromise opinions on how states should handle the issue, scratching a wound that had healed.
Presumably, the goal was to win over the so-called suburban women. Is Trump not aware that most of these voters care more about pocketbook issues than abortion? That the pandemic may have irked them more than the abortion issue in his last election? The shrews who are die-hard for abortion will never vote for you anyway, Donald. And as for the others, money is where their heart is. Sell them on the economy, and they will ignore the abortion issue.
As St. Paul said to Timothy, "For the desire of money is the root of all evils." Life is just one of many economic factors for the abortion money changers in the temple, and they will trade their vote for it. All the liberty and choice talk is a cold-hearted calculation, an excuse for economic convenience and/or unresolved pride and guilt. Politicians need to accurately base their calculations on these facts and disregard the impious pro-abortion rights rhetoric of their opponents.
And let's be clear about the things that won't convince pro-life voters you care about their needs.
1. Supporting a ban on abortions after three months. Since virtually all abortions occur before three months, this achieves zero. It just restores the late-term abortion ban.
2. Blabbing on about the life and health of the mother instead of promoting maternal healthcare. The chances of a woman dying from childbirth are near zero with good healthcare. Address the real issue, not some fake talking point.
3. Avoiding mention of the eugenics aspects of abortion. For decades, more black children in New York City were aborted than born. Everyone in the black community knows that being an underclass isn't a decent way to live or give birth. The money class wants them to stay a minor player in setting the national agenda by cutting down any new crop of blacks being born. Abortion is anti-people power. In the black community, no people means no power. Republicans need to stop being afraid of saying what is really going on.
4. Not demanding the death penalty for anyone who impregnates a woman or child through rape or incest. Justice alone would demand a life for a life, if that is the deadly game of chicken the liberals want to play. Right now, the rules are a joke.
5. Ignoring calls to bar financial and ethical conflicts of interest in any panel that approves abortion because of the so-called "life and health of the mother." No abortionist should be able to certify the "health need" that makes him rich by taking a life.
6. Not pushing back on "emotional distress" as a reason for abortion. This is a therapeutic version of the "Twinkie" defense. Junk food made me so distressed I killed people and should be acquitted. Emotional distress can't be a justification for taking a preborn life or any other life.
6. And finally, one thing Republicans should do is find areas where both sides agree, such as parental consent laws, ending sex-selection abortions, banning selling wombs through surrogacy, and stopping abortion based on Down syndrome or physical handicaps (this recalls the Nazi T-4 Program that killed disabled children). Republicans, please don't sell out on issues that can be agreed on by all sides. Ditch the flippant cliches to appease people who will never vote for you anyway and fight for your position using empathy and sound reason.
The bottom line is the pro-life position is inclusive. If you are a member of the human race, you’re "in." You have the dignity and status of a full member of the moral community. Those who want to exclude you from the human race should be on the defensive, not those speaking out for the preborn.
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