Reclaiming the issue of life from the “pro-life party”

This was the year I thought my sister and I would finally agree on a presidential candidate even though we are 2 years and 250 miles apart. She was born in Lancaster, PA and still lives in Pennsylvania. I was born in New York and still live there. But, we both spent all of our formative years together in the same house and yet we rarely see eye to eye on any issue. She is a devout Evangelical Republican who follows guys like disgraced Paster Ted “are you gonna finish that sausage” Haggard. I’m your typical latte sipping, arugula eating reformed Jew who is strongly progressive and supports the Democratic party.

After 8 years of George W Bush and the prospect of another 4 more under John McSame, I was positive my sister was beginning to come around, after all our little brother was still in Iraq and maybe we didn’t agree on everything, but one thing we both wanted was for our brother to come home. In the previous elections I could almost see her reason for opposing my preferred candidate, but with Barack Obama I was sure we had someone that appealed to us both. So you can imagine my surprise when I recently spoke to my sister about the upcoming election and found out that once again we’d be voting for different people for President. I was sincerely surprised, too. I thought that a man of faith like Barack Obama along side a guy from her home state, Joe Biden, would finally get her look across the aisle and support a democrat, after all, John McCain once referred to evangelicals like her as “agents of intolerance” and McCain has always never really been a strong opponent of abortion. So it stood to reason that McCain really didn’t offer much to so-called “value voters” such as my sister.

So I asked her, “why, after all of this and the prospect of McCain picking a VP who doesn’t share your beliefs, why wouldn’t you vote for Obama?” And my sister paused, inhaled deeply and said, “Honestly? Well your sister is a one issue gal. Oil, gas prices, war, all of it is background noise to me because I vote on one issue; abortion. I am voting for the candidate most likely to outlaw abortion.”

I had never heard my sister boil it down quite like that before, but I wasn’t discouraged because this shouldn’t have ruled out Obama…

Then, a funny thing happened on the way to the Saddleback forum; John McCain found God. And not just God, but a cross in the dirt story, a rabid anti-choice stance, and a new found appreciation for those “agents of intolerance”. The very people who were against John McCain found themselves wanting to believe this change, after all, the real goal isn’t to elect a president to the Religious Right, it is to take over the Supreme Court, and this is precisely what McCain shrewdly promised Rick Warren.

Hearing my sister’s take on McCain’s chat with Warren, I suddenly knew why McCain could get away with flip flopping and constant flubs; because these “values voters” don’t care about anything else like they do about abortion. They feel like it is their personal mission to save these “babies” from as they view it, “a holocaust”. Meanwhile the Religious Right has become so narrow-minded that this is the only issue they ever talk about. It is really impossible to get through to them. Abortion is so overriding to them that it is kind of like that stain in the Tide commercial that just talks over everything you say.

If the Democrats ever hope to win the White House again they need to face this issue and speak directly to those voters like my sister. Because as long as they are out there fired up and ready to go, all the other issues, while extremely important to everyone else, just become background noise to them. I’m am not at all suggestion the Democratic Party become anti-choice, not at all. Nor I am suggestion some half-assed pandering and faith-based politicking either. What I am advocating strongly is that the Democrats stop hiding and retake the moral high ground here. The Republicans have been lying to these value voters for years and it is time we call them on it publicly. There is no chance the Republicans will ever outlaw abortion because then they lose the power to gaslight voters. They need to keep the lights off and the voters afraid of the bogeyman. Abortion has been the Republican’s voting carrot they dangle in front of Americans for decades and now they’ve added Gay Marriage to the list (although not as successfully).

It’s time to stand up and hit back on their turf, and knock them down king of the hill-style. The Republican party platform stands diametrically opposed to the Gospel of Christ and it is time to loudly point this out. I’m a Jew but I am reasonably certain Jesus never said we need to “Drill here, Drill Now!” he talked about caring for those in need. We need to say to Americans, “Look, if you genuinely care about unborn babies then you need to care about the quality of life the mothers carrying them have. Those women need free universal health care in order to raise healthy babies…AND THAT SHOULD MATTER.”

We need to stand up and say, “If you care about the unborn then you need to do all you can to protect them by ensuring that we do not take on more wars and risk those lives here with a war with Russia or Iran or risking a nuke going off in an American city like former UN Weapons Inspector Scott Ritter suggested, which would kill far more unborn babies than abortion….AND THAT SHOULD MATTER.”

We need to get the word out there to those who believe life begins at conception and say, “If you want to protect those lives then you must have funding for programs to support those mothers and ensure they can work good jobs at a living wage, you need to provide schools for those children, and reduce the crime in those neighborhoods so those unborn babies you don’t want dead don’t end up victims of gang violence…AND THAT SHOULD MATTER.”

Americans needs to know that if they support the rights of the unborn then we have a message for them, “It is time to provide prenatal care for these mothers so that we reduce the risks those unborn babies face. It is not enough to picket abortion clinics and then wipe your hands of this situation. No, if you want to advocate for the unborn then you need to elect leaders who will cut the taxes of the middle class families and who will take a way tax breaks for companies who send jobs overseas so that those unborn babies have parents who can keep their jobs and their houses and so that mothers of the unborn can eat right and afford the care she needs…AND THAT SHOULD MATTER.

We need to speak directly to these voters and clearly state, “If you care about the unborn it is time to follow through and care about them after they are born. You need to provide school lunch programs and after-school activities to ensure they are healthy and safe. You need to provide daycare programs for single mothers and you need to support the orphanages for those unborn babies you have saved but are now without parents. If you are going to advocate to protect the unborn then you owe them and you must elect a president who will help enact programs to care for them after they are born..AND THAT SHOULD MATTER.”

These are the issues the Democratic party was founded on and it is time we frame them in a way the values voters will understand. Republicans aren’t protecting the unborn, they are protecting their re-election funds and it is time we turn the lights on and watch the cockroaches scurry. It is time our leaders stand up and say, “I am pro-life…for the mothers, for the soldiers, for the civilians here and abroad who die every day due to the policies of this administration.” It is time we stood up and showed them what being “Pro-life” is really about and elect leaders like Barack Obama and Joe Biden who will bring the change we need to ensure those lives and the lives of us all are being protected.

If this election matters to you, if you care about these issues and you want to see the Democrats get 270 electoral votes this year and stop the reign of Bush/McCain, then I urge you to take action. Pass this message on to your friends and family. Write your congressional reps and senators and tell them we are tired of watching the Republicans steal the mantle of life and bludgeoning the Democrats with it so that they can enact the policies of death. I encourage you all to stand up and take back the issue of life boldly, because if we don’t, we face the specter of 4 more years of death courtesy of the “pro-life” camp. So write your own blogs, or hell, repost mine you have my permission, copy and paste away just spread the word. This is a message worth spreading.

We will not be shouted down anymore by those claiming to support life. Not this time. Not this election.

THIS TIME WE WILL GET 270!

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~ by Get270 on August 25, 2008.