The way it unfolds matters. Consider this scenario:
Democrats pass a federal law protecting abortion rights sometime around 2009 or '10. Lots of compromise goes down; maybe it only protects the first trimester, but it’s something.
On top of all other Tea Party rhetoric (which led to a wave election for them in 2010 as it was), they also make abortion more of an issue. Except because it was Democrats who actively did something, Republicans get to turn the narrative on them.
Republicans repeal this law whenever they next have the power to do so. They don’t get punished by voters, at least not much, because they specifically ran on it. Besides, at least for now, Constitutional law still blocks the worst abortion bans.
What actually happened was that Republicans caused a series of events that completely removes Constitutional protections, and then promptly passed laws (sometimes before the Supreme Court actually ruled!) taking advantage of the new situation. That’s huge, and voters are punishing that severely. Doubly so because many of the state bans have no exceptions for life of the mother or other things that voters support. The severe pushback wouldn’t apply to repealing a law that would likely have been a compromise, anyway, and also all the state-level stuff stays as it is.
About the best thing you can say about the current situation is that Republicans overplayed their hand, and voters are killing them in elections they “should” have won. The above is more of a tit-for-tat that isn’t going to enrage voters against either side.
Roll it back to earlier in the discussion. People use this as a talking point for why you shouldn’t bother voting for Democrats, “because they didn’t pass a law protecting abortion rights”. That’s dumb. It wouldn’t have done shit, and is a bad reason to let Republicans take control of everything. That’s what I’m replying to.
The way it unfolds matters. Consider this scenario:
What actually happened was that Republicans caused a series of events that completely removes Constitutional protections, and then promptly passed laws (sometimes before the Supreme Court actually ruled!) taking advantage of the new situation. That’s huge, and voters are punishing that severely. Doubly so because many of the state bans have no exceptions for life of the mother or other things that voters support. The severe pushback wouldn’t apply to repealing a law that would likely have been a compromise, anyway, and also all the state-level stuff stays as it is.
About the best thing you can say about the current situation is that Republicans overplayed their hand, and voters are killing them in elections they “should” have won. The above is more of a tit-for-tat that isn’t going to enrage voters against either side.
“Never do anything. Think of what Republicans might say.”
Nonsense. How you do it matters. This plan would not have worked.
Centrists say that about any plan that isn’t “move to the right.”
Roll it back to earlier in the discussion. People use this as a talking point for why you shouldn’t bother voting for Democrats, “because they didn’t pass a law protecting abortion rights”. That’s dumb. It wouldn’t have done shit, and is a bad reason to let Republicans take control of everything. That’s what I’m replying to.
Yeah. We should leave letting Republicans control everything to the Democrats we elect.