Re: [Ted Rall Subscription Service] SYNDICATED COLUMN: Hillary Clinton Doesn't Care That Much About Abortion Rights (fwd)

[robert <http://dummy.us.eu.org/robert>]

Interesting point.

 > From: Noelle <http://dummy.us.eu.org/noelleg>
 > Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2015 19:51:51 -0700 (PDT)
 >
 >  > Date: Thu, 13 Aug 2015 13:25:09 -0400
 >  > From: Ted Rall <http://www.aol.com/~tedrall>
 >  > 
 >  > *TED RALL*
 >  > 
 >  > *HILLARY DOESN'T CARE THAT MUCH ABOUT ABORTION RIGHTS*
 >  > 
 >  > *BY TED RALL*
 >  > 
 >  > *RELEASE: FRIDAY, AUGUST 14, 2015*
 >  > 
 >  > Hillary Clinton's recent attack 
 >  > <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/hillary-clinton-marco-rubio-abortion_55c8ff61e4b0f73b20ba441c> 
 >  > on fellow presidential hopeful Marco Rubio (R-FL) over abortion 
 >  > ("offensive," "outrageous" and "troubling," she said) reminded me of 
 >  > something I've been wanting to wonder aloud for some time:
 >  > 
 >  > Why doesn't the Democratic Party call for a federal law legalizing abortion?
 >  > 
 >  > Thanks to the landmark Roe v. Wade decision, abortion is legal. Given 
 >  > the 5-4 balance of the Supreme Court barely in favor of that 1973 
 >  > decision, however, federal abortion rights could vanish following the 
 >  > next vacancy on the high bench, especially if it happens under a 
 >  > Republican president. (Abortion would remain legal in liberal states.)
 >  > 
 >  > Four decades of legal limbo is enough.
 >  > 
 >  > If Hillary, Bernie Sanders and Congressional Democrats really believe in 
 >  > a woman's right to control her own body â?? for the record, I think they 
 >  > do â?? they should jointly endorse a bill legalizing abortion throughout 
 >  > the land.
 >  > 
 >  > It is true, of course, that full-throated support for reproductive 
 >  > freedom carries political risks.
 >  > 
 >  > With only 50% in support of abortion rights 
 >  > <http://thehill.com/policy/healthcare/243420-more-adults-pro-choice-than-pro-life-poll-finds> 
 >  > and 35% against, Democrats would risk losing some of the conservatives 
 >  > we used to call Reagan Democrats, or just swing voters, especially 
 >  > Catholics. Incredibly, you're more likely to poke someone who likes gay 
 >  > marriage than abortion when you shake a stick.
 >  > 
 >  > Of even greater concern to Democratic strategists is losing leverage 
 >  > over their progressive wing. Following decades of marginalization and 
 >  > watching their political views overlooked in favor of Clintonite "Third 
 >  > Way" centrists, the left is disgruntled, voting and giving donations in 
 >  > smaller numbers. One thing that still motivates these liberals to turn 
 >  > out for Democrats is the prospect of a Republican-controlled Supreme 
 >  > Court, followed by the overturning of Roe v. Wade â?? a threat many 
 >  > social-issue liberal Democrats find appalling.
 >  > 
 >  > If Congress legalizes abortion, this motivation goes away â?? and leaves a 
 >  > party that went along with the wars against Afghanistan and Iraq, passed 
 >  > welfare reform, and enthusiastically pushed through a spate of free 
 >  > trade agreements viewed by economic populists as corporate giveaways 
 >  > that kill American jobs.
 >  > 
 >  > This is almost certainly why Hillary Clinton talks a good game on 
 >  > abortion â?? and that's where it ends. She just doesn't care enough to 
 >  > take a chance.
 >  > 
 >  > Despite the downsides, Clinton, Sanders and the party ought to press for 
 >  > a federal bill. Bill Clinton and Barack Obama played to the polls, the 
 >  > latter endorsing gay marriage, saying his views had "evolved" only after 
 >  > surveys told him it was safe. Voters are starving for leadership, for 
 >  > politicians who point the way forward, telling us where we should go 
 >  > /before/ we form a national consensus.
 >  > 
 >  > Certainly, such a move would solidify support for the party among women 
 >  > by signaling that it is willing to take risks. The bill could go down to 
 >  > defeat. But legislative defeat could become a moral victory, as in Ellen 
 >  > Pao's unsuccessful sex discrimination lawsuit.
 >  > 
 >  > It would also put Congressional Republicans on the spot, forcing them to 
 >  > go on the record as voting against abortion rights â?? which most American 
 >  > women support. This tactic, forcing opponents to vote "nay" so you can 
 >  > beat them up with attack ads later, is rarely used by Democrats. I don't 
 >  > understand why. Is the SCOTUS threat really so powerful that it 
 >  > justifies the real possibility that tens of millions of women and girls 
 >  > in conservative Southern states will lose abortion as an option? Aren't 
 >  > strategists worried that, at some point, liberal women in particular 
 >  > will get wise, and ask the same question I'm posing here: why don't Dems 
 >  > even /try/ for a federal abortion-rights bill?
 >  > 
 >  > If nothing else, it would be nice to see an end to the 42-year-old 
 >  > ritual of protests outside the Supreme Court in Washington, attended by 
 >  > pro-choice and pro-life factions yelling insults at each other.
 >  > 
 >  > It's time for American political culture to get real and grow up about 
 >  > abortion. It's silly and weird and unproductive for a major nation to 
 >  > remain so paralyzed so long over such a major issue. Women deserve to be 
 >  > able rely upon more than a flimsy court decision.
 >  > 
 >  > There ought to be a law â?? and Democrats should lead the charge.
 >  > 
 >  > (Ted Rall, syndicated writer and the cartoonist for ANewDomain.net, is 
 >  > the author of the book "Snowden 
 >  > <http://www.amazon.com/Snowden-Ted-Rall/dp/1609806352>," the biography 
 >  > of the NSA whistleblower, to be published August 25^th . Want to support 
 >  > independent journalism? You can subscribe 
 >  > <http://www.beaconreader.com/ted-rall>to Ted Rall at Beacon.)
 >  > 
 >  > *COPYRIGHT 2015 TED RALL, DISTRIBUTED BY CREATORS.COM*
 >  > 

 >  > 
 >  > New Book Out August 25, 2015: Snowden 
 >  > <http://www.amazon.com/Snowden-Ted-Rall/dp/1609806352>
 >  > "Ted Rall's Snowden is a dramatic, evocative, thoughtful and very 
 >  > accessible account of one of the most important stories of the century â?? 
 >  > and one of the most ominous, unless citizens are aroused to action to 
 >  > rein in abusive state power." â??Noam Chomsky
 >  > "Ted Rall's story of the heroic whistleblower, Edward Snowden, is 
 >  > essential reading as â??Big Brotherâ?? starts having to look over its 
 >  > shoulders." â??Ralph Nader