David Brooks in New York Times: Abortion Stand Makes Democrats Lose Elections David Brooks is a thoughtful conservative columnist, one of the few conservatives to have a regular column in the New York Times. Last week he used an unusual format: “The Abortion Memo” is designed as a memorandum to Democratic leaders from an “Imaginary Democratic Consultant.” Reacting to a recent US Senate vote in which Democrats voted down protecting children from abortion after 20 weeks gestation, he considers the impact of Democrats’ abortion support on election results. He also mentions some of the liberal roots of the pro-life movement. While our network is a non-partisan group, we do take a strong interest in how abortion advocacy has sabotaged progress on other peace and justice goals, so we’re delighted to see this problem well explained in such a prominent location. It was so well written that Kristen Day, Executive Director of our member group Democrats for Life (which of course is explicitly partisan), posted on Facebook that she would like her name substituted for the “Imaginary Democratic Consultant.”
Left: David Brooks. Right: Kristen Day
Similar points about abortion extremism losing elections have been made by CLE supporters Charles Camosy and Jim Wallis and by David Brooks’ partner as the liberal member of the Shields and Brooks segment on the PBS News Hour, Mark Shields. Brooks’ fellow anti-Trump conservative columnist George Will has also written a good piece about Democrats being the extremists on abortion, although without noting electoral consequences.
Elections 2018: Find the Candidates! CLN doesn’t endorse candidates, which means we don’t have to worry about the purity of specific candidates on the issues, nor the partisan consequences of who has control of legislatures. But we do offer information about any consistent-life candidates, since that’s news of interest to the consistent-life community. Unfortunately, that doesn’t leave us with a whole lot of candidates to cover. We ask our readers who find candidates identifying themselves as following the consistent life ethic (or similar wording) to let us know. We’ll be excited about people running for higher office, whether or not they have much chance of winning. We’re also interested in people for lower office; those are often stepping stones to higher office, as well as having positive influence on local communities. Please send information to weekly@consistent-life.org. While the US is having major elections in November, this plea applies to elections around the world. Anywhere the consistent life ethic is impacting elections is of interest.
Latest CLN Blog Post In honor of Black History Month, we run the “Is It Too Late?” 1971 Speech of Fannie Lou Hamer. In that speech, Hamer assailed both the American war in Vietnam and abortion, based on similar principles. We also include the story of her being coercively sterilized without knowing it until after it was done, clearly showing the dynamic of how racism can be so cruel when attacking reproductive abilities.
Quotation of the Week David Brooks The Abortion Memo, The New York Times, February 1, 2018 To: Democratic Party Leaders From: Imaginary Democratic Consultant Re: Late-Term Abortions Dear Democratic Leaders, Last week I watched as our senators voted down the Republican bill that would have banned abortions after 20 weeks. Our people hung together. Only three Democrats voted with the other side. Yet as I was watching I kept wondering: How much is our position on late-term abortions hurting us? How many progressive priorities are we giving up just so we can have our way on this one?
Responses/News tips/Questions to share are all welcome.
Send to weekly@consistent-life.org.
