Dems hope ideologues shoot selves in 'right' foot with Alabama abortion law

There’s a lot of rhetoric flowing around about abortion these days – what with the state of Alabama having passed an overly restrictive law against terminating a pregnancy that many believe is intended to be the measure that the Supreme Court ultimately upholds as a way of striking down the Roe vs. Wade ruling of 1973 that found women have a right to abortion being legal.

Much of it is coming from Democratic partisan politicos who are quick to express their revulsion at people who think ending a pregnancy ought to be a criminal act. As the Washington Post is reporting, many Republicans are going out of their way to keep quiet.

ALMOST AS THOUGH they’re behaving like accused criminals who are exercising their Miranda rights “to remain silent” as “anything you say can be used as evidence in a court of law against you.”

That actually has some of the proponents of abortion remaining legal hoping that Alabama is the bit of evidence as to the immorality of the anti-abortion argument – along with the legal legitimacy of Roe vs. Wade!

Have the Republican ideologues overplayed their hand by showing how repulsive their intentions truly are? Will so many people wind up being turned off by what Alabama has done that it will drive many people into the “pro-choice” column?

Has Alabama done the progressives a favor by provoking the legal fight that will take down their pet cause – which is to go back to the days of viewing a woman as a criminal if she wants out of that unplanned pregnancy!

AND IS THIS going to make an even bigger priority out of abortion come the 2020 cycle – making the issue a key point for voters who may already want Donald Trump kicked out of the White House on his keister?

Right now, Trump benefits from the potential circumstances that Democratic voters may not be able to agree on a single candidate to challenge the president.

But if they really see that abortion could become such a mess, it could be the factor that forces many Democrats to shut up and vote for the nominee – even if their preferred candidate doesn’t win in the primary portion of the election.

As things stand, Ralph Reed, one-time head of the Christian Coalition, tells the Washington Post, that the possibility exists that anti-abortion stances will be turned on the campaign trail into support for what Alabama is trying to do – which could put abortion critics on the defensive.

OF COURSE, PUTTING those ideologues on the defensive may well be the just thing to do. Because all too often, the abortion critics want to claim a high-and-mighty moral tone to their stance – which is really nothing more than having people butt in to the actions of a woman whose pregnancy puts her in a predicament.

Personally, I know of one person (whom I’ve known for decades) who recently posted on Facebook that Alabama officials should be thanked, “for doing what is right instead of what the world tells you.”

To which I can only think that everybody has the right to be wrong. Although for all I know, she probably thinks the same of me (I don’t think the two of us have ever explicitly discussed the issue).

Perhaps it’s time we should. And I mean everybody -- and not just the usual ideologue nonsense about "baby killers."

THAT COULD BE the benefit of what Alabama has done with their measure – which basically is meant to take away the argument conservative politicos have long used to try to make themselves sound sensible. They say they favor abortion restriction exemptions for women who are impregnated by rape or incest.

While the ideologues are trying to undo such talk by claiming that a woman’s right to terminate a pregnancy ought to end at the point when a fetal heartbeat can be detected.

Which comes so early in the process of human conception that many women aren’t even aware yet that they’re pregnant. Causing many to complain that old, white men in Alabama are trying to impose their own morals on us all about what a woman should be permitted to do with her body.

I’ve often wondered if my own thoughts about abortion are of less importance because, as a male, I’m never going to be in a situation to have one. But am I now going to be dragged into the argument to provide a sense of balance to the political debate – rather than letting the ideologues and their bullying-like behavior prevail.

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Let’s not presume that Trump and his political ilk are beaten quite yet

I’m just as eager as anybody else who was appalled by the 2016 presidential victory of Donald J. Trump to believe that the electorate will come to its senses and dump Trump the first chance it gets.

Alabama provided nation with encouraging boost

But knowing what I do of the quirks of electoral politics makes me realize there are so many things that can occur that can throw the whole process out of whack. Consider that Trump “won” despite getting some 3 million votes less than his Democratic opponent.

WHILE I GOT some joy (shock was more the truthful reaction I felt) from the electoral victory last week of Douglas Jones, a federal prosecutor, over right-wing crackpot judge Roy Moore for a U.S. Senate seat from Alabama, I’m trying not to get too overly optimistic about there being any lasting political trend.

Particularly all the talk about how the African-American vote, particularly from black women, were the key to Jones’ victory.

I don’t doubt the black vote was significant in keeping Moore and his “10 Commandments” kick from becoming a part of the U.S. Senate. Exit polls showed black voters went in excess of 90 percent in support for Jones. Largely because they detested the idea of a Trump-type getting elected to yet another government post.

Some are already speculating that similar turnouts in future election cycles will further undermine the influence of those people who think Trump should be taken literally when he wears his silly red “Make America Great Again” cap.

WHAT I FEAR could happen is that those people will feel motivated to make sure they turn out in force in future election cycles.

As it is, we’ve already seen from 2016 that they can win even if a majority of people want somebody else. This is the “46 percent” president we’re talking about.

For all I know, those people who think there was a past version of this country that was an ideal that we’ve got away from, the lesson they may want to learn from the Alabama special election is that the black vote needs to be controlled.

Alabama election just another step, and not the whole journey, to a progressive future

Either overwhelmed by a white vote, or perhaps they fantasize of the days when things such as poll taxes and other racially-motivated tactics kept people who couldn’t be counted on to vote reliably from actually being able to cast ballots.

MY POINT IS that I expect a backlash from that element of society who seriously believed Roy Moore and his desire for teenage girls was somehow more in line with moral values than any possible Democratic Party candidate.

They’re going to go about thinking that Moore was deprived of what should have rightfully been his seat in the U.S. Senate. This was the man whom polls showed leading by about 22 percent until the tales of his involvement with a 14-year-old girl when he was 32 became publicly known. He wound up losing by about 1.5 percent.

Just as they’re going to go about thinking that Trump’s victory was the salvation of our society, no matter how many stupid and nonsensical things he says or does while in public office.

I suspect the people who voted for Trump will go to their graves convinced they did right for all of us – even if we, the majority of society, are too ignorant to appreciate that fact.

Would Barry Goldwater have been offended by Moore?

SO WHEN I think of upcoming elections, I’m keeping in mind that it ultimately turns out to be an issue of turnout.

It becomes a matter of which campaign can get its followers most worked up to show up at the polling place on Election Day to cast their ballots.

As for the black vote in Alabama, it was good to see that segment of the electorate (as much as 77 percent turnout in heavily-black counties) decide to make a priority of voting.

But if we’re going to truly restore some sense of sanity to our society, it’s going to take a strong turnout from many more segments that make up our masses to overcome that outspoken minority that wishes we still lived in the 19^th Century.

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How some can rationalize anything to benefit their own political partisanship

We as a society are going to learn something about ourselves Tuesday, regardless of the outcome of the special election in Alabama to fill a U.S. Senate vacancy from that state.

MOORE: Will one-time 22 point leader prevail?

That, of course, is the one in which Republican Roy Moore (a one-time judge of right wing sensibilities) ought to be the favorite to win. Yet the disclosures of Moore’s past attractions to teenage girls extending well into his adult years have some wondering/hoping/praying that Democrat Doug Jones can prevail.

WHICH WOULD HELP Dems extend their efforts to undermine the amount of Congressional support President Donald J. Trump can count on for his goofy whims of political fantasy.

Trump is fully aware of that, which is the reason why he has publicly endorsed Moore – saying the need to keep a congressional seat Republican is more important than any repulsion that one may feel toward Moore’s attraction to a 14-year-old girl back when he was 32 (he’s now 70).

Just as “the whole world is watching” back in 1968 when protests in Chicago became violent due to police behavior, the world will be watching Alabama on this day to see whether the political party that usually likes to think of itself as overly moral (it’s not, but that’s a debate for a future day) will back someone who, if he’d been caught at the time, could have faced statutory rape charges.

Considering he was an assistant district attorney in his home county at the time, that would have made it particularly repulsive. Moore ought to have comprehended the law well enough to know better.

WE’RE GOING TO see how intense political partisanship is over any true sense of morals amongst the portion of our society that lives in Alabama.

As it stands, the Birmingham News reported Monday on two polls – both of which show Moore with solid leads. A Trafalgar Group report shows 51 percent of people planning to or leaning toward voting for Moore, compared to 46 percent siding with Jones.

JONES: Can former KKK prosecutor overcome?

Another poll by Gravis Marketing showed 49 percent for Moore compared to 45 percent for Jones.

We’ll know by the end of Tuesday how close these polls are to reality, particularly since the ideologues most likely to put partisanship ahead of morals are more willing to cite a new poll done for the Fox News Channel – one that shows Jones leading Moore 50 percent to 40 percent. Which strikes me as a large number of undecideds still; and whose intent most likely is to scare right-wingers into turning out to vote for Moore!

MY OWN EXPERIENCE in watching government and politics is that every now and then, public officials and voters surprise us by doing the right thing. Putting aside their own personal interest and doing what is for the good of the people.

But those moments truly are rare and come as a surprise. So I’m not about to predict how Moore will do in Tuesday’s vote down in the Cotton State. As much as I’d like to think Alabamans would like to put an end to the number of nasty stories about how intolerant their region of the nation is, I’m sure some will be more than willing to add to it by giving Moore an electoral victory.

Now some in Washington, D.C., have said they consider Moore to be unfit to serve in Congress. Perhaps that has some thinking that even if Moore wins, he’ll be rejected and this vote is about deciding which political party will get to pick his replacement.

Although I’d argue that continuing to back someone like Moore (who with all the right-wing nonsense he’s spewed throughout the years was unfit for office even before all the stories about young girls started cropping up) shows Republican leadership in Alabama is unfit to have any say on the issue.

OTHERS, I’M SURE, have their own odd rationalizations. Such as one I read in a public comments section of the Birmingham News.

Are Alabamans eager to add to list of absurdities built up during Civil Rights era?

One reader says everybody needs to vote for Moore because a vote for a Democrat is just too harmful to our societal morals. “Pedophilia will be legal if Democrats have their way! It will become a Civil Right and be protected by Title IX,” one wrote.

Now if one looks up the definition of pedophilia, one learns that it relates to people who have sexual attraction to children 12 and under. Which means that for them, Moore’s okay because his attraction was to girls 14 and up. He's in the clear, morally!

That’s quite a rationalization some are willing to make just to win an election with an unfit official. One whose stain will be smeared over the nation as a whole if he prevails on Tuesday.

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Do we really care about illicit sexual conduct by our political people?

I heard a pundit-type person recently state the view that the reason why we can’t really crack down on people like Roy Moore – the Senate candidate from Alabama who likes to posture himself as the epitome of Christian morals but may also have a thing for teenage girls – is because of Bill Clinton.

MOORE: Former judge to become senator

Supposedly, the fact that we didn’t remove Clinton from the presidency back in the 1990s for his deeds with a White House intern and with many other women is what lowered our societal standards to the point where we now have to accept Moore – the man who supposedly was intimate with four teenage girls, including one as young as 14 back when he was 32 (he’s now 70).

WHICH IF YOU think about it is a load of bull!

What is most likely means is that many people in our society don’t really care about one’s moral standards one bit. They’re into hard-core political partisanship, and so long as a man comes from the right side of the political divide they’ll put up with anything he does.

Bill Clinton was a Democrat whose presence as president gave strength to the opposition, which is what their real objection was. Bill could have had his flings with as many women as he wanted (they probably would have seen it as verification of his heterosexuality), so long as he’d have been one of them ideologically.

And since Clinton was a modern-day Southern man, they figure he should have been one of them – instead of believing the ideals of the modern-day Democratic party. Let’s not forget the old-school Democratic Party was the one that viewed Republicans as the “Party of Lincoln” and Dems as the segregationist party they preferred.

WHEN THOSE LEANINGS changed during the Civil Rights era, many Southern people switched sides. Or, they prefer to say the Democratic Party abandoned them – so they felt the Republicans were now their preferred choice.

CLINTON: Wrong side of political divide?

Roy Moore, the man who twice got elected, and removed, from the Alabama Supreme Court for his legal behavior, fits in with the leanings of the modern-day ideologues. So many of the same people who will forevermore lambast Bill Clinton as all that is wrong with our world likely will defend to the death a place for Moore in our political structure.

Which could come as soon as next month, if Moore manages to win his bid to fill a Senate vacancy from Alabama in a special election. Will the people of Alabama seriously believe that Moore has more morals than any Democrat could possibly have?

Moore has his backers – they’re claiming the allegations by the women now in their 50s are old, nothing more than he-say she-say, and some wonder if the women consented, despite their teenage ages at the time.

WHAT MAY WIND up helping the Moore self-defense is the fact that Alabama law sets an age of 12 as the minimum at which a girl can consent – in some circumstances. A 14-year-old may fit circumstances that, because of the age of the cases, would be difficult to do anything about.

Personally, I think the appropriate action against Moore is that the then-14-year-old girl’s father (who if he’s still alive would be in his 80s) ought to be called upon to give the would-be senator a whuppin’ like he’d never forget. Or maybe she has a “big brother” in his 60s who can be called upon.

Of course, that would give us the sight of aging men trying to hurt each other, but more likely to hurt themselves by over-asserting themselves – the end-result would be more ridiculous than anything else.

Besides, I’ve also heard some people try to explain the Moore situation as an example of differing Southern values with regards to young-girls-not-yet-women – a view I’m sure has Moore backers talking about “damn Yankees” who ought to shove it up their you-know-whats!

SO AS FOR the former Alabama judge who used to openly tout the need for the Ten Commandments as the basis of our morals, his followers seem to want to believe this puts God on their side. Even though I’m not sure how sexual behavior with a minor female can be acceptable in accordance with those commandments.

TRUMP: His own indiscretions ignored

 These are people who are willing to put partisan politics above all because they want political people who will view their desires as the only ones that matter in our society. Does this mean they would have been Clinton’s most vociferous backers if only he hadn’t have supported a more progressive (at least compared to them) view of our society?

Or maybe if he’d have put his wife in her place and not let her think she could be a legitimate politico in her own right; unlike current President Donald J. Trump whose own wives have had insignificant roles in his business and political dealings.

Then all would be right with the world, at least as perceived by the conservative ideologues amongst us.

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