How many times do voters have to send the message before Republicans get the picture?
America loves abortion. Is that cavalier? Unfortunately, it’s the truth. Decades of “me, me, me” culture have taken their toll. We are in the end stages of democracy, here, and there may be no putting the genie back in the bottle.
Nothing is ever free. Because of Dobbs, abortions are much harder to get in a number of states. The right made a bargain to save lives, and the cost is pain at the polls.
Tuesday’s election was a wipeout for conservatives. Everyone is quick to blame Donald Trump, but the real loser was Ron DeSantis – although it’s hard to say what he had left to lose.
DeSantis, and the pro-life movement in general, hammered Trump weeks ago for urging Republicans to moderate on abortion. They called Trump a sell-out. But Trump is unfortunately correct. No serious political junkie thinks Trump is going to lose Ohio next year. And guess what? Ohio just voted to enshrine abortion into law, and it wasn’t particularly close. In a time when the smell of pot pervades every public space imaginable, Ohio also legalized recreational marijuana. It was twofer for “Fetterman nation.”
Trump is the only Republican with the sense and the courage to say what many conservatives do not want to hear: their moral agenda is unpopular. This is especially true in the Rust Belt states that Trump flipped in 2016, like Pennsylvania. Democrats won a Supreme Court seat there on Tuesday night by, once again, championing “choice,” much as they did successfully in Wisconsin months ago.
Trump’s Republican critics are already trying to blame him for the election’s disappointing results. In reality, Trump has never been more electable.The New York Times just released a poll that has Trump dominating Biden in swing states, despite the unprecedented and unscrupulous lawfare campaign unleashed on Trump by the Democrats. The “blue wall” that Trump toppled in 2016, since patched up by Biden (with a little help from ballot shenanigans), is vulnerable once more.
Democrats are actually scared for the first time in three years that they will lose the White House. They’re not confident in Biden, at all. Nothing would calm their nerves so much as Republicans nominating an uptight socially conservative ideologue in 2024.
Biden wants to run on abortion. It’s his party’s saving grace – the perverse absolution for all the destruction they have wrought. Republicans have a winning agenda on every other issue – the economy, crime, and especially immigration, Trump’s signature issue. Everyone can see now that Trump was right about the border, especially those taking advantage of Biden’s abdication by pouring across. An unprecedented invasion is swelling at the gates, and even blue state voters have had enough.
In Suffolk County, New York, Ed Romaine won the race for county executive in a landslide – solidifying the GOP’s gains from last year in the Empire State. Romaine is the first Republican to hold the office in 20 years. Of course, in New York, crime and immigration are much more salient issues than abortion.
Immigration is the reason we are in this quandary with abortion to begin with. Decades of demographic replacement have rigged democracy in the favor of one party. Democrats now have a built-in advantage in every single election, and pretty soon they will win them all. This is the biggest issue facing the country, not abortion. America cannot survive another four years of the invasion. The Republican party certainly can’t.
Republicans should restrict abortion wherever and whenever it is prudent to do so. But, as the saying goes, “politics is the art of the possible.” This reasoning strikes many conservatives as devilish, but we live in a fallen world. Republicans can either continue on their self-destructive course, or they can compromise with reality, take Trump’s advice, and fight to live another day.