I think younger dems (redditors) really vastly under estimate how effectively the GOP has politicized abortion. They have convinced huge portions of their base that abortion is actual child murder. Theres a lot of white noise about religion that goes with it but you can remove religion from it all together if you want.
The bottom line is, millions of these people believe abortion is child murder, and it really seems like there is no way to change their mind.
If you look at it from simply that perspective, it becomes a whole lot less surprising that people are voting for these awful candidates, voting "party over country" ect ect.
Its because to them, anything is better than child murder. I really dont know what we are supposed to do to get around it. The right has done such a good job politicizing this issue and making people believe it that it seems impossible to get around.
I know my own dad is similar to yours. Probably ~8 years or so ago he went full tilt Ron Paul Libertarian for a while, and has undergone a lot of political view changes to the point of voting for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
However, he still has a HUGE issue with abortion and most of the time it stops him from voting Dem.
I'm very left-learning but grew up in and continue to live in very red areas (or at least, blue cities surrounded by deeply red empty farm land) and I've definitely experienced that politicization my entire life.
While I don't personally like the idea of abortion, I believe it should be an open, legal process that's easy to obtain. I've known two girls in my life who were good enough friends of mine that they confided in me as to whether or not they should get abortions, and economic reasons (dropping out of college in late teens/early 20s to raise a child with the father likely to ghost) were the primary reason for them both to choose an abortion.
However, the best way to prevent abortions is to prevent pregnancies in the first place. And the GOP has fairly consistently opposed birth control, sex education, and access to those services (remember, Planned Parenthood isn't a drive-thru abortion clinic; in fact, abortions are ~1% of their total services if I remember my numbers right). And you can't have an abortion if you don't get pregnant, so why not treat the disease instead of the symptom?
I honestly believe the gop doesn’t help out with birth control because they never want abortion to stop being s huge issue. The best way to keep it a huge issue is to have shit for birth control.
I actually believe this is kind of cyclical problem. I think the GOP attracted the most conservative religious groups and gave them real political power, a place at the table as you will in exchange for their votes, as a result of this decision. However, the church by and large doesn't really have a problem with abortion I don't think - I think they have a problem with sex and sexuality. For some reason sexuality and the idea of nontraditional relationships of any kind seriously bothers a lot of religious people - if you look at what's actually happening there's only one conclusion you can come to: the religious right doesn't actually hate abortion, it hates sex.
If the religious right truly hated abortion, then why are they so unwilling to promote sex education and offer contraceptives? Fathers are literally so confused about human sexuality that they see sex as something men 'take' from women, rather than something that is 'shared' between two people. They are afraid of someone 'taking' sex from their daughters out of wedlock more than they're afraid of abortion itself.
Additionally there's the 'pure virgin' stereotype. That somehow a woman's first sexual experience totally defines her, that her having sex somehow ruins her 'purity', as if such a thing could even meaningfully be quantified or defined. By trying too hard to protect their daughters' virginity, they end up driving them to committing dangerous sex acts such as having unprotected sex.
I can only hope a new generation of men realizes that sex isn't something that's taken, but only something that can be given and shared. Then again it's hard to expect that kind of maturity from a state who nearly elected a man who admitted to having sex with minors when he was in his thirties.
The GOP will never overturn Roe v. Wade because calling themselves "anti-abortion" is the only way they'll continue getting votes from the masses. If it weren't for the abortion(aka "baby murder") issue, they'd only consistently get votes from Bigots and the 1%. And believe it or not, there aren't enough of them in America to win elections.
They have convinced huge portions of their base that abortion is actual child murder
That is literally what abortion is if you believe that a fetus is an unborn child.
voting "party over country" ect ect.
That is not the same as voting party over country. This is single issue voting. Party over country is "I hate this candidate, and don't agree with anything he says, but I'll be damned before I vote for someone in the other party."
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u/Neat_On_The_Rocks Dec 13 '17
I think younger dems (redditors) really vastly under estimate how effectively the GOP has politicized abortion. They have convinced huge portions of their base that abortion is actual child murder. Theres a lot of white noise about religion that goes with it but you can remove religion from it all together if you want.
The bottom line is, millions of these people believe abortion is child murder, and it really seems like there is no way to change their mind.
If you look at it from simply that perspective, it becomes a whole lot less surprising that people are voting for these awful candidates, voting "party over country" ect ect.
Its because to them, anything is better than child murder. I really dont know what we are supposed to do to get around it. The right has done such a good job politicizing this issue and making people believe it that it seems impossible to get around.
I know my own dad is similar to yours. Probably ~8 years or so ago he went full tilt Ron Paul Libertarian for a while, and has undergone a lot of political view changes to the point of voting for Bernie Sanders in the primaries.
However, he still has a HUGE issue with abortion and most of the time it stops him from voting Dem.