The abortion card. There is no one issue more controversial in the deck of cards that makes up American politics in 2011. You can’t reason with it, level with it, soothe it, or bury it. Knowing the irrationality of the issue, the side in favor of it just hopes it isn’t (for the 400th time) brought into the political debate to sidetrack from every current issue, and the side against it can’t shut up about it.
Even though abortion hasn’t been illegal since the early 1970’s, millions of social conservatives act like it was just decriminalized yesterday. To them, it is like waking up everyday and rediscovering the sun has risen and the laws haven’t been changed. Rather than let this go or put it on the back burner–almost 40 years is a long time to try to overturn a law–as Democrats had to do with gun control (relegated to bitching about assault rifles every few tragedies but not really mustering up the will to do something about it), they protest, they call in bomb threats, they protest some more, and they won’t stop voting for any and every politician who says they’re against it. “My local mayor who is crooked and robbed the town blind is running for reelection…well…what’s his position on abortion? He’s against it? Well he’s got my vote!”
It has become a cash cow for Republican politicians. There’s the social conservatives who would put this in their top three issues–usually surrounded or on top of illegal immigration, gay marriage, gun control, and prayer in school–and then there’s the rest of us who don’t pursue more than 5 minutes out of the day thinking about abortion when there are literally a thousand more current and pressing issues to think about. What social conservatives don’t realize is that most Republican politicians are right there with me.
Since abortion was made legal in the early 70’s there have been several times when Republicans could have overturned the law. The most recent example being when George W. Bush–who ran on a platform of ending gay marriage and abortion but really focused on ruining the economy instead–was president and he had majority control of congress and the supreme court. Abortion wasn’t overturned because Republicans didn’t really want it overturned.
If they did overturn it, people might wake up. They might suddenly get new issues that aren’t four decades in the making. They might suddenly pay attention to outsourced jobs, rising income inequality, tax cuts for the same wealthy that robbed their 401K and foreclosed on their house. Republicans don’t want to end abortion because it would essentially be ending their largest voting block, the anti-abortion voters.
So in response, let’s take a page out of the fiscal conservative’s handbook. They say welfare doesn’t work because it inspires no incentive to actually work if you pay a man to do nothing. He says he’ll find a job and work but you giving him free money is just too tempting to give up. Well I think the same is true if you vote for a man doing nothing. A man saying he’s going to do something but failing to deliver for a decade shy of a half century.
I think all abortion voters should vote against Republicans until they finally do what they said they were going to do almost 40 years ago. Let them show you they can deliver, and then give them your vote.
I live in the south and you are right. Politicians(especially Republicans) always bring out moral issues knowing that southerners will get side tracked and then the Republicans can screw the working class people and let their rich friends keep getting richer. The SAD part is poor southern people are getting tricked into voting for these people(Republicans) that don’t give a damn about their well being.