Posted on 12/18/2004 9:00:18 PM PST by gregde
In the most recent issue of First Things, there is an article about the Democratic Party's support for abortion and why this is hurting the party.
"Does anyone know anything about this subject?"
An awful lot of people who are now rabidly pro-choice were once pro-life, amoung the ones that immediately come to mind are Jesse Jackson and Al Gore. And look at Kucinich, my impression is that he was reliably pro-life until he threw that position over board to make his comedic run for president. Many times at pro-life demos you can see people carrying signs with old quotes from Dems stating their (now former) pro-life views.
Prior to the tumultuous 60's and 70's, abortion was not only illegal, it was, and is, seriously frowned upon by the Catholic Church. Catholics in large numbers were working class, union and voted Democrat. Politicos always pander to their voters, until those voters are of no use to them anymore.
Then the leftists took over the Democrat Party and ran it to the left ideologically. They adopted the policies of radical feminists and sold this new "radical chic" as the new norm for women in society. Abortion symbolizes the power radical feminists gained and they protect that with more ferocity than they would protect a baby in the womb.
I agree with that. But I was just wondering if the democrats really were more pro-life than the republicans, and if there are any significant examples to back the claim up.
Here is a link I found via the American Spectator website (spectator.org). It has lots of info about Pro-life Dems, past and those beleaugured ones of today. I'm not familiar with this site, but I'm familiar enough with this subject to say this piece is accurate.
http://www.affdoublethink.com/archives/014214.php
Southern Democrats were probably more pro-life than Democrats in, say, the NE. Also, at that time, Roman Catholics -- who were more pro-life than perhaps any other constituency, and perhaps still are -- were otherwise mostly supporters of the DP (think JFK). Abortion always was intended to be a divisive issue, to draw a line between "us" and "them", in order to indoctrinate budding feminazis.
I'd say, over time, abortion may be the one single issue with the most impact on the destruction of the DP, although other issues are also factors.
I'm not sure Southern democrats were more pro-life than NE Dems. At the time of Roe v. Wade, I think the Southern Baptists praised the decision. On the other hand, NE dems were largely Catholic or "Catholic." Even Teddy Kennedy was once nominally pro-life.
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