You Better Believe Abortion Is On The Ballot This November
You Better Believe Abortion Is On The Ballot This November
Your invitation for Office Hours
Michigan passed a bill criminalizing abortion in 1931, but Roe nullified it. Now that the Supreme Court nullified Roe, Michigan is about to enforce that nearly 100-year-old law once again.
Conservatives once stood athwart history and yelled, “Stop!” Now they yell, “Put her in reverse!”
Going in reverse is the definition of “reactionary.” How far back in reverse these Republicans want to take us is anybody’s guess. Steve Bannon admits he wants to take us all the way back to before Franklin Roosevelt. But the truth is he wants to take us all the way back to before Lincoln, where African Americans were slaves and women didn’t have it too good either.
I’ll reserve the deeply entrenched racism inside the Conservative movement for another time. Until then, I will abandon the issue of racism with a quote from William F. Buckley, the father of the Conservative movement who wrote in a 1957 editorial entitled, “Why The South Must Prevail”
… the white community is so entitled because, for the time being, it is the advanced race. It is not easy, and it is unpleasant, to adduce statistics evidencing the median cultural superiority of white over Negro: but it is a fact that obtrudes, one that cannot be hidden by ever-so-busy egalitarians and anthropologists. The question, as far as the white community is concerned, is whether the claims of civilization supersede those of universal suffrage. The British believe they do, and acted accordingly, in Kenya, where the choice was dramatically one between civilization and barbarism, and elsewhere; the South, where the conflict is by no means dramatic, as in Kenya, nevertheless perceives important qualitative differences between its culture and the Negroes’, and intends to assert its own. NATIONAL REVIEW believes that the South’s premises are correct. If the majority wills what is socially atavistic, then to thwart the majority may be, though undemocratic, enlightened. It is more important for any community, anywhere in the world, to affirm and live by civilized standards, than to bow to the demands of the numerical majority.
I digress.
We’re not going back. Despite whatever our non compos mentis Supreme Court justices scribble into law.
In Michigan, abortion is now illegal, but state judges have temporarily delayed that law’s enforcement.
Like I said, we’re not going back.
Which is why abortion is on the ballot in November. Not Donald Trump’s looming indictment.
Women don’t care about Trump. They do care about abortion. And women vote.
And that’s bad news for Republicans in Michigan where Pro Abortion advocates have enough signatures to put The Reproductive Freedom for All initiative on the ballot for November. If passed, it would enshrine into Michigan’s constitution a woman’s right to choose.
Republicans don’t want a vote on abortion
Especially in November when they’re trying to get candidates elected. Republicans are quickly learning that while being Pro Life might be a winning message for judges auditioning for the Federalist Society, it is rancid crabmeat to Americans.
Earlier this month, 59 percent of voters in Kansas defeated a proposed amendment to the state constitution that would have outlawed abortion.
Republicans know full well that if abortion is on the ballot in November it will energize all those lazy ass liberals who normally stay home on Election Day.
Republicans can’t win when people vote.
According to Pew, roughly sixty percent of Americans want abortion legal in all or most cases.
America will show up on Election Day to protect abortion rights and then stick around to vote for Democrats. Republicans know this, and they’re spooked.
In Michigan, 425,059 signatures are required to get an initiative on the ballot for November. The Reproductive Freedom for All initiative got nearly double that.
Michigan’s Democratic Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is running for reelection against Tudor Dixon who wants to ban all abortion except when the mother’s life is clearly in danger. Billionaire Betsy DeVos and her friends are throwing money at Tudor’s campaign for an election that will end up costing both sides a total of 100 million dollars by November.
If abortion ends up on the Michigan ballot it will be as devastating for Tudor Dixon as being named Tudor Dixon
Voters, especially women, who support The Reproductive Freedom for All initiative are angry about Roe’s reversal. They are going to turn out in droves to support this initiative and stick around to vote for Gov. Whitmer.
That’s why right now DeVos and her foaming hyenas are desperately saying and doing anything to get abortion off the Michigan ballot. They’re claiming The Reproductive Freedom for All initiative is “confusing,” has too many “typos” and the “spacing” between some words seems off.
But it’s not just Michigan
California, Kentucky, and Montana already put abortion on the ballot for November.
California’s Proposition 1, Right to Reproductive Freedom Amendment would guarantee a woman’s right to abortion. Ya think women might turn out for this one?
While California is a deep blue state that doesn’t need a huge voter turnout for Democrats, it still has eleven Republican congressmen, including Kevin McCarthy who is hoping to be the next speaker. His seat looks safe. But how many women in California will suddenly turn out for Proposition 1 in November and possibly change that?
Social issues win elections
After 1988, Republican candidates for president have only won the popular vote once. That was in 2004 when Republicans put homosexuality on the ballot.
The Mehlman/Rove playbook
George W. Bush was reelected in 2004, winning the popular vote, after then closeted homosexual and Republican Chairman Ken Mehlman realized he could tip the balance in favor of Republicans by putting initiatives banning same sex marriage on the ballot in states where George W. Bush desperately needed a socially Conservative turn out.
Mehlman, did I mentioned he was a self hating closeted homosexual?, along with Karl Rove, whose parents divorced because Karl’s father was a homosexual, dreamed up the idea of convincing eleven swing states to vote in November of that year on whether or not amendments should be added to their constitutions defining marriage as only between a man and a woman.
Those Anti-Gay initiatives passed overwhelmingly in all eleven states.
Many believe those initiatives are what got socially Conservative Republicans to vote for Bush even though they disapproved of how he botched the war in Iraq.
You see, Mehlman and Rove understood they couldn’t get Republicans to vote for Bush’s competence. But they could get them to turn out in multitudes to vote their hatred for gay. And, since they were already filling out their ballots, these hateful bigots would decide they might as well toss in for Bush.
It worked. Bush won the popular vote and the Electoral College.
One of the casualties of that grand election strategy was Vice President Dick Cheney’s relationship with his lesbian daughter Mary. But like they say, all’s fair in love and war against the way people make love.
To this day, Bush remains the only Republican candidate for president after 1988 to win the popular vote. Republicans know full well how social issues can tip the balance on Election Day, which is why they do not want abortion on the ballot.
The problem for Republicans is the Mehlman/Rove playbook now works for Democrats in reverse
Americans have evolved on social issues since 2004. Which is why Republicans are running out of what are called “wedge issues” that manipulate otherwise liberal minded people to vote their hate.
Republicans use wedge issues to convince Democrats to vote their hatred for African Americans over their love for unions; their hatred for women over their love for affordable health care; their hatred for members of the LGBTQ community over their love for clean water and breathable air; and, of course, their hatred for abortion doctors over their love of a livable wage.
But social issues no longer work the way they once did as wedge issues for the GOP.
Americans bend in favor, not against, Democrats on social issues.
Sorry Republicans, but Americans just don’t hate Blacks, Muslims, Jews, Women and the LGBTQ community the way we once did. Now we just hate EVERYONE. Including ourselves.
I guess that’s the problem with hyper individualism. Eventually everyone becomes the enemy. Republicans are going to have a hard time finding a wedge big enough for that issue.
Thanks To The Supreme Court, 2022 Will Be Another Year of The Women
On Oct. 15, 1991, Clarence Thomas was confirmed to the Supreme Court. Mostly because not a single woman served on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Thirteen months later, an angry female electorate turned 1992 into what is now remembered as The Year of The Woman with a record breaking four women winning seats in the Senate.
Fast forward to 2022. While Clarence Thomas didn’t write the decision overturning Roe he did vote for it. He also wrote a concurring opinion where he said the court should now reconsider Griswold, Lawrence, and Obergefell, three decisions legalizing contraception, gay sex and same sex marriage.
And Americans got scared and angry. Including some Republicans who now either think their party has gone too far or finally realized there are real world consequences to “owning Libtards.”
Like I said. Abortion is on the ballot in November. Not Trump.