Democrats let the mask slip last night in Philadelphia when the crowd erupted with congratulatory cheers after one of the speakers, Ilyse Hogue, President of NARAL, told them of the time she got an abortion because well, it just wasn’t a convenient time to have a baby. If any good came of her tale and the crowd’s ghoulish response it’s that it provided a moment of clarity.
For all the talk of the tough cases – rape, incest, and the life of the mother – the abortion movement is motivated by the same thing that motivates the Left more generally – the radical emancipation of the uninhibited self from objective moral standards. It is barbarism on stilts, dressed up with fancy language but last night they couldn’t hide it – and didn’t even try.
Hogue told the crowd, “To succeed in life, all we need are the tools, the trust, and the chance to chart our own path. I was fortunate enough to have these things when I found out I was pregnant years ago. I wanted a family, but it was the wrong time. I made the decision that was best for me—to have an abortion and get compassionate care at a clinic in my own community. Now years later, my husband and I are parents to two incredible children.” [Emphasis Added]
The emphasis, of course, is on Hogue, what she wants, her success, the chance to chart her own path. In her vision, children become a bauble, just another means of self-gratification. And when Hogue talks about “compassionate care” it is for her and only her, no mention of her child. The compassion isn’t compassion as most people know it – it’s not sympathy or concern for another’s misfortunes. No, what she’s talking about is a vendor willing not only to perform the horrific act, but then to affirm her choice, to tell her she was right when every ounce of her humanity must have been screaming that she was wrong.
This is a common theme on the Left – it’s not enough that they be permitted to perform some act, they demand that the act itself be declared a positive good and “celebrated” by everyone else. (Pro Tip: If someone is asking you to celebrate something other than a birthday, anniversary, or national holiday, its probably cover for their political agenda.) It’s like Murder On The Orient Express – if everyone is complicit in the crime, the theory goes, no one is really guilty.
James Madison wrote in Federalist 55 that “there is a degree of depravity in mankind which requires a certain degree of circumspection and distrust, so there are other qualities in human nature which justify a certain portion of esteem and confidence.” He goes on to explain that free government of the kind envisioned by the U.S. Constitution “presupposes the existence of these qualities in a higher degree than any other form.” In other words, self-government requires a virtuous people.
Hogue’s speech and the crowd’s reaction highlight too well the vicious depths being plumbed by the Left in their hapless quest to free mankind from the burdens of the natural moral order and in so doing illustrates the challenges of maintaining a republican form of government.