I feel like a broken record saying that I was convinced by this by Republican conservatives.
That’s not an uncommon phenomenon in these threads.
I understand where you’re coming from. Is it possible that Republicans are taking advantage of the pro-life voting block? Absolutely. But I don’t think it’s a foregone conclusion for every single Republican. Even if
Roe v. Wade was overturned tomorrow, the pro-life issue would not disappear. Pro-choice people still vote based on a politician’s pro-choice voting record, even though abortion is the law of the land. Politicians will still need to work for
keeping abortion illegal (or at least in the hands of the states) even after
Roe v. Wade is overturned. So I’m not sold on the idea that Republicans
need to covertly maintain the status quo of abortion-on-demand in order to garner votes. I don’t think they do.
Yes, I am aware of the historical makeup of the SCOTUS at the time of
Roe v. Wade on down to the present. And, yes, the Republicans don’t have a spotless record when it comes to appointing pro-life Justices to the Supreme Court. But their record is much better than the Democrats which is precisely
zero. I’ll take
anything over zero.
I would love it if a third party more in-line with Catholic teaching had a legitimate shot at the presidency. But we’re not there yet. I think a party would have to establish itself and meet with some proven success on the local level before they would ever have a good shot at the presidency.
I have difficulty understanding why so many pro-life people seemed to switch gears in 2008. For me, it was like a runner stopping five steps shy of the finish line and deciding to go back and retrace his steps to find a better route to the white tape. We knew that Stevens and Souter would be retiring soon. And we knew that Obama would replace them with pro-choice Justices. We didn’t know for certain that McCain would replace them with pro-life Justices. But the chance was better than zero. And even if just
one of the two were pro-life, that would have tipped the balance of the Court to the pro-life side.