Was it fear of the polls? Fear of the public? Fear of the courts and even more judges like Brett Kavanaugh?
What prompted the abortion-enthusiast wing of the Democratic Party to throw caution, mercy, and sense to the wind this year, drawing the line after birth itself?
Gone was Bill Clinton’s “safe, legal, and rare.” Ignored were the polls that showed voters ambivalent. Gone were the suspicions of a number of people that it was Hillary Clinton’s open and ardent embrace of Planned Parenthood that caused her to lose thousands of working-class Catholics who had gone for Barack Obama — perhaps just enough in the right states to cost her the presidency.
In place of these were the terrified looks on the faces on some of their candidates, as they read the lines handed to them by NARAL et al about trusting all women, then tried to change the subject as fast as they could.
But one person not changing the subject is President Trump, who brings it up constantly and on every occasion to enthusiastic applause from the crowds. Expect to hear lots more about this from now on until Nov. 2, 2020, with much playing of a tape from an interview with Virginia’s hapless Gov. Ralph Northam.
The same moral acuity that had once led Northam to wear blackface in public helped guide him in 2019 as he explained to a radio audience that if a child contrived to be born in spite of all efforts to kill it, it’s perfectly all right to wrap it up in a blanket and put it aside for a while without care. Meanwhile its parents and doctors could discuss and decide what to do, Northam said.
But if abortion after the third month is not widely approved of, then abortion in the fifth, sixth, or ninth month is looked on with horror. The public opposes it, according to one recent poll, by a rather decisive 87% to 13%. So who sends their candidates out with this kind of headwind against them? Someone who has not thought this out.
And someone should think out the feminists’ other obsession — their drive to elect a not-white, not male president, to make up for the sins of the past. It’s not that people should not want a non-white or a woman as president; they should just want to know who it is, because that’s what really matters.
Just as these feminists work up a head of steam over this obsession, along comes the new Monmouth poll: “Race and gender do not seem to be important factors for Democratic voters when considering who the party should choose,” it informs them. “Fully 87% say the race of the nominee does not matter. Just 5% say it would be better for Democrats to nominate a person of color … offset by 6% who [want] a white candidate. Similarly, 77% say the gender of the nominee does not matter. Just 7% say it would be better for the Democrats to nominate a woman, while slightly more (12%) say it would be better for the party to nominate a man.”
Apparently, feminists now leading a parade with few people behind them. That’s not an uncommon event in their history — take, for example, the 1984 convention, when NOW members chanted “Run with a woman, win with a woman!” at poor Walter Mondale, who dutifully appointed Geraldine Ferraro to run along with him. He lost forty-nine states.
This time, the feminists won’t lose forty-nine states, but not for want of trying. Perhaps “a woman” should run with Ralph Northam. They could never do better than that.
