The 2008 Republican Party: Abortion, Abortion, Abortion. Some Things Will Never Change.

It's 2008. The country is mired in a deadly, costly war in Iraq. We are engaged in another critical war in Afghanistan, where the Bush administration, distracted by Iraq, has taken its eye off of a resurgent Taliban and al Qaeda. We live in an age of terrorist threats. Our economy is in recession, or at best, on the verge. Oil and gas prices are at record levels. We're saddled with record debt. Inflation is increasing. Consumer confidence declining. Unemployment up, real wages down. A tanking stock market. Our educational and health care systems trail the rest of the Western world. But what's become the central theme in the Republican's insatiable hunger for the White House? Abortion. That's the issue they think will most energize and rally their base as well as independents. That abortion is enough to divert voters' attention away from the miserable failure of the GOP's last eight years in power, and the fact that it's nominee, Sen. John McCain, offers nothing more than another four of the same.

McCain's appointment of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate is a cheap attempt to play this incendiary card. She's hard-core anti-abortion. The GOP's banking on her evangelical street-cred to outweigh the fact that she has virtually no experience whatsoever to be placed in such a critical position in national politics. It's the same old Republican bait-and-switch game. When the shit starts to hit the fan, they toss out the social hot-button cards--religion, gay marriage, abortion--to appeal to the lowest common denominator in the electorate. It's dumb-down-America time. Once again, they're trying to get Mr. and Mrs. Middle America to say, "Sure the Republicans and George Bush have let me down...sure, the party isn't offering anything different this time around. I don't have enough money to pay my bills, fill my car with gas and take care of my kids...I can't save any money...my wife lost her job...my groceries keep going up...I don't have adequate health coverage...but hey, I'm voting for McCain and Palin because they'll fight to prevent some sleazy New York liberal women from getting abortions." But will Americans, even Republicans, vote against their own economic interests yet again as they did in 2000 and 2004?

But to the religious right, the stakes are even higher. The GOP's message is not just about abortion per se. The Rovian promise to its myopic base is that the McCain/Palin ticket will stack the Supreme Court with Justices who will overturn Roe v. Wade. Indeed, with two vacancies likely to arise within the next president's term, this issue is a major one, and the Repubs are pulling out all the stops. When it comes to God, faith and family values, many Republicans have a funny way of ignoring everything else, even at their own expense. And McCain and Palin know this. And they're milking it for everything they've got because they have little else to run on. It certainly isn't McCain's command of economics, nor is it Palin's national security experience. And when it comes to "family values," McCain's infidelity, Palin's teenage daughter's unwed pregnancy, her abuse-of-power investigation, or her husband's DWI certainly doesn't paint a Rockwellian picture.

In fact, McCain's national security "expertise" is highly overrated. He unconditionally supported the Iraq invasion, helped Bush take his eye of Afghanistan and al Qaeda, and continues to be a reckless war-monger. That he was "right" about the surge should impress no one. Did anyone honestly believe sending in 20,000 additional toops would not have a positive impact in decreasing the violence in a very specific area like Anbar Province? His support for the surge was and remains irrational, as it, like the war itself, has failed to create a sustainable, self-governing American-style Democracy in Iraq, which was the goal (something McCain and the Repubs like to forget). Shift to abortion, abortion, abortion. Divert and distract. It's the classic Rovian playbook.

This time around, in 2008, voters should reject the abortion issue just as they should gay marriage, gun control and anything else that simply doesn't matter. Our nation's in the shitter, for Fuck's sake. They should go to the polls to protest their colossal outrage that Bush's elective vanity war in Iraq has made us and the world less safe from our real enemy, al Qaeda, and that our anemic economy is killing them. But will they....

Read more reaction from HuffPost bloggers to John McCain's selection of Sarah Palin as his running mate

Comments

[Roger P]

ONE PRO-CHOICE AD AGAINST MCCAIN/PALIN/REPUBLICANS

Soldier: God forbid, if I am captured and raped in Iraq/Afghanistan by an insurgent or terrorist, the Republicans and Sarah Palin will force me to have the baby if they had their way. And John McCain... John McCain will come (ask) to see the proof that I was raped.

Citation on screen with Republican party platform and Palin talking - against abortion even in case of rape.

Soldier: I am fighting for my country to keep our freedoms not to lose them.

[Viewed-from-Europe]

You epitomise everything that is wrong with the left wing of politics, not just in the States but throughout Europe and elsewhere too. There is not an original thought in your head but you still castigate people who will walk over shredded glass to bring up their families in a moral and safe climate. Democratic and Republican grass root supporters both want the best for their families but when it comes to social matters it is the left wing that is dominated by pressure groups and think tanks who wish to impose their dogma and twisted belief systems on the rest of humanity. If you think that abortion or homosexual marriage should be left out of politics then resign your membership of the Democrats who are pushing it down the throats of the electorate.
It may have dawned on you in the last 48 hours that you will lose the next election by a landslide, then on 5th November you will wake up and wonder why the whole Democratic party has gone pear shaped again. Take a tip and ditch all your abortion lovers and homosexual marriage proposers and start fighting for ordinary decent hardworking families and you may - just may, start winning elections.

[mikie63]

If a 16 year old girl is raped by several men with AIDS and or transmittable deseases, does Palin feel that her life will be better always if she has a very sick child who might never live to be three years old?
It is not important what a doctor would say about her future or the babys future; it only matters what a evangelical preacher would say. Get it?????????

[angiemomma]

This article is dead-on accurate. Sadly, I have little hope that the Evangelicals won't do what they've done time and time again...allow themsleves to be manipulated by a political party that never makes good on its promises to them. How many times will they cut off their noses to spite their faces? God help us all if McCain wins in November...

[SDSL]

It's just like a man to say that abortion isn't an issue.

It's just like a man to make war on Iraq, a country that didn't invade us.

It's just like a man to pander to the Religious Right by choosing Palin, a vastly unqualified candidate.

The women like myself who supported Clinton are voting for Obama with the expectation of the following:

That the rights of women, including reproductive choice, will be respected as equal to men
That family friendly policies like health care and child care will be enacted
That qualified women will be chosen for cabinet and Supreme Court positions
That the Democratic Party will develop a program to groom qualified women for President and Vice President.

[foxfan]

Don't you have reproductive choice when you decide if you are going to have sex in the first place? Why does the choice have to be made after there is an innocent life involved?

[XME]

Just to name a few reasons:

1. Rape
2. Incest
3. Danger to the mother
4. Children are not mature enough to get it, and as Palin's daughter has shown, they don't always make the right choice
5. Birth conrol is not 100% effective
6. Not every women is comfortable bringing a baby into the the world who will have medical problems, and many cannot affort to care for them (and believe me, they do not get adopted)
7. It's her body, so should be her decision and no one else's

[Clavis]

An "innocent life"? You mean 5 milliseconds after the sperm sees the egg from across the room, there is instantaneously a gurgling, cooing infant, complete with diaper, rattle and binky, floating around in my girlfriend's womb, thinking thoughts and experiencing the world? Wow, I didn't know that!

To equate birth control with abortion is sick and evil.

[2stupid4words]

I concur with your sentiments wholeheartedly. Why is abortion a political subject in the first place? This nation is totally into dealing with moral issues that have no merits in the political arena. Overturning Roe v. Wade will not produce the results desired because women will do as they will with their bodies. Even with Roe v. Wade too many children are abused and neglected every day. If a second class nation is desired, let the Republican party have its way. The highest court in the land is supposed to be even handed, but we know that is not the truth. Trying to get everyone to understand what the issues are is akin to bumping your head against the wall expecting a different result.