Thursday 22 January 2015

Great Job, Stupid Party!

Rod Dreher writes:

Says it all:

Ross Douthat @DouthatNYT
The idea that GOP is a party of moneyed interests posing as a culturally conservative party is, um, not always without empirical support.

He’s talking about the House GOP’s failure today to muster enough votes to pass a bill banning abortion after the five month mark in pregnancy — this, despite the overwhelming popularity of banning late-term abortion.

Note well: this stance is particularly popular  with young voters. Mollie Hemingway, in fine form today, says this is a bad sign for the future. Excerpts:

If Republicans can’t pass wildly popular legislation protecting innocent unborn children, what’s going to happen when they face difficult legislative battles? It’s best to view this as a very simple test for House Republicans. A test they failed miserably.

Hemingway points out that the two female GOP Congressmen who led the fight to scuttle the vote were in favor of the same legislation two years ago — and Hemingway has video of both women speaking out in favor of it. More Hemingway:

These women are claiming to all of a sudden be concerned about the reporting requirement — the requirement that has nearly two-to-one support among voters and the one they had no problem with just a couple of years ago.

This reporting requirement would keep late-term abortion doctors like Kermit Gosnell or Leroy Carhart from simply checking a box before going ahead with the procedure.

Besides, it’s one thing to seek an exception to abortion laws for victims of rape, and entirely another to think that exception must be extended until the baby exits the birth canal.

This bill wouldn’t have a reporting requirement for abortions in the first five months of pregnancy.

In fact, even Democrats who think late-term abortion should be legal with no restrictions didn’t make an issue of the reporting requirement in the last two elections.

Last year, support for late-term abortion hurt Democratic candidates. But now Ellmers created a controversy where none existed, hereby handing Democrats a way to fight a broadly popular bill.

This sabotage of the pro-life movement over what may have been a power struggle happens at a time when many pro-life activists have grown weary of being used by the GOP for electoral victory only to be forgotten weeks later when it’s time to vote.

She goes on to explain why this debacle was horribly botched at a purely political level by the House Republican leadership. Read the whole thing.

Once again, social conservatives are useful idiots for the Koch Party. Sure didn’t take long for the House Republicans to tick off one of the conservative coalition’s key voting blocs — and on the day of the big pro-life march too.

Great job, Stupid Party!

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