The Pending Doom Of Abortion

My original title for this post was, "What if the anti-abortion crowd actually wins?"

Then Justice Anthony Kennedy announced his pending retirement.

With two out of the last six presidential elections stolen, a stolen seat on the Supreme Court, and a 5-4 Citizens' United decision allowing the rich to spend at will leading up to all this, conservatives are about to steal one more. Heaven forbid, if Ruth Bader Ginsburg dies, this could become a loss for generations. The wall of church/state separation will be breached in a major way, and one can kiss women's rights, gay rights, voting rights and equal rights out the window.

Conservatives owe us all one year of leaving the court at 8 justices. But of course, they won't pay that debt. Not now.

One aspect of women's healthcare is about literally be against the law. Some women will turn to underground and less than sanitary sources for abortion. Others will turn to self-induced "coathanger abortions" which might go badly, resulting in internal bleeding or sepsis. Some women will certainly die.

But I argue that another consequential death will be Christianity in America.

Consider for a moment: Look what happened in Ireland. Abortion had been outlawed in that country since its inception, and the influence of the Catholic Church strengthened anti-abortion law in the mid 1980's. But over decades of suffering the consequences of their anti-abortion laws, the Irish attitude changed. By an overwhelming vote, the people of Ireland voted to legalize abortion in a country-wide referendum back on May 25. The Irish outlook changed because the harsh realities of outlawing abortion became too much for people to handle, and they rejected the religious right's arguments, and the Catholic Church with them. Ireland turned secular!

The same thing will happen in America.

In a way, it will be much like prohibition. In the 1920's, the religious-right campaigned strongly against the evils of liquor until they successfully got it banned. Then, several years later, after living with the devastating consequences of outlawing hooch, the American people realized their mistake, and quickly repealed the ban. Prohibition against abortion will work much the same way as prohibition against alcohol did. Today, there isn't a single hyper-conservative in the world who dares to suggest that alcohol be outlawed. Our nation learned its lesson the hard way!

Abortion is about to be moved into that same category.

In other words, Christians, beware what you wish for, you're about get it.

Think about it: With Roe v. Wade overturned, what leverage does the political right have on trying to force more Ayn-Rand disciples onto the Supreme Court? What reason do Evangelicals have for supporting the most un-Christian president (Trump, naturally) this nation has ever seen? What wedge issues does the Republican party have left except assault weapons or Euro-centric racism?

In fact, the consequences to of abortion being struck down are so severe to Christianity that my first draft of this blog entry actually argued that we might be better off doing a strategic retreat on the whole issue and letting reality slap the other side into submission. Naturally, my wife talked me off the ledge on that one. And the very next day, bam! Kennedy announced his retirement. I'm glad I didn't publish that blog post, and I'm ashamed that I ever considered advocating paving the road to freedom with the blood of the innocent. But on the flip side, we are so blind as a species that we don't tend to learn any other way but the hard way, and we never realize what we have until it's gone. I guess when one feels the tug-of-war being lost, the temptation is to suddenly let go of the rope to let the other guys fall on their asses. But that's all moot, now. We're about to lose, and the blood of the innocent is about to be shed anyway.

Jerry Falwell's Faustian bargain from decades ago linked the interests of the ultra-rich to the Christian culture-war. The result has been Christians joyously stomping on the rights of immigrant children and throwing our healthcare away, all while letting our healthy economy turn to complete shit through tariffs. For the sake of stopping abortion, Christians have been willing to vote for absolute monsters like Roy Moore and Donald Trump, and only when they are that monstrous does a Democrat stand a slim chance (and sometimes not even then).

Do Christians really think the next generation will turn out religious after all that?

Yes, the suffering that will follow abortion prohibition will be acute. But the silver lining of that cloud is that people will finally come to realize the fallacies of anti-abortion logic. With half the population getting the cold slap of reality across the face, this nation will have an Irish-like awakening!

In short, this is a loss, but not the loss. Not the end of the women's rights movement, but the beginning of its resurgence. In fact, it will probably be the major turning point in the culture war.

In the words of Rear Admiral John Paul Jones, we have not yet begun to fight!

So enjoy your Pyrrhic victory, Christians. When your religion is reduced to a tiny minority, and you stand in the charred ruins of its past glory, you'll at least be able to bask in the knowledge that you were able to elect a monster for a president and then outlaw abortion for a few nightmarish years.

I hope you'll think it was worth it.

Eric

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Which Dem For Wisconsin Gov?

There's a plethora of candidates for governor of Wisconsin on the Democratic ticket in 2018. Although current polling shows Governor Walker up against every one of them, it's early in the game, and the Democratic primary isn't until August. That's plenty of time for someone to catch the blue wave. But who to support? Ten candidates will make the ballot, and of those ten, none are well known. Who the hell are these people?

To answer that, I thought I would take a look for you. And to save you all time, I'm listing them by order of the one's I was most impressed with - the ones I think stand the best chance at defeating Walker in November. Such a person would: 1) be from rural Wisconsin (there's a real anti-Milwaukee, anti-Madison vibe throughout the state), 2) be an exciting candidate who would really turn out the vote, and 3) be a person of integrity who stands up for the right issues.

Here's my ranking:

1.) Kelda Helen Roys. She's a former State Representative who presided over Wisconsin's 81st district (basically Sauk, WI) from 2009 to 2013, and served as minority chair in her final two years. Before that, she was Executive Director of NARAL Pro-Choice Wisconsin. Born in Marshfield and raised in Medford (although she did spend some time in Madison), she knows rural Wisconsin as well as anybody, and might therefore be seen by many as outside the Madison beltway. She wasn't really on anybody's radar until she did a campaign ad, and in an impromptu moment, breast-fed her baby on camera. It wasn't a Janet Jackson moment - she slid her baby under her pink sweater and fed her below the camera line (nothing to see here). But the ad went viral, and caught the attention of the national media. Now, both she and her baby are celebrities. She's an attorney who owns a real-estate start-up company, and has a fresh-faced prettiness that comes from being young and brilliant - Drew Barrymore with brains! If she were the candidate, the media would not be able to stop talking about her, even with millions of dollars flowing into negative campaign ads by the ultra-right. She didn't poll well this month, but her viral video isn't that old yet. There's plenty of time for her fame to translate itself into big numbers. She has the best chance of winning, hands-down.

2.) Mike McCabe. As a political reform activist, McCabe is a true outsider, somewhat in the same mold as Bob LaFollette or Bernie Sanders. He's an independent, but is running on the Democratic ticket. For 15 years, he was Executive Director of the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign, and later founded Blue Jean Nation, a group of "commoners that strive to house the politically homeless." He has lived and worked in Madison for many years, but was born in Stoughton and was raised in Curtiss. He was once the communications director and legislative liason for Madison Public Schools. He has an astonishingly loyal and excited fan base, and possesses the charisma that could really give Walker some serious headaches.

3.) Mahlon Mitchell. Bold, black, and head of the State Firefighters' Union, Mahlon Mitchell is an exciting option. The one knock I have on him is that he's Milwaukee through-and-through, and while I personally like that, the rest of the state does not. Still, Walker is from Milwaukee too, and the idea of Wisconsin's first ever black governor might be an idea that will catch on and create enough media buzz to unhorse Walker in November.

4.) Tony Evers. Tony Evers has been the clear front-runner so far, garnering 25% of the most recent Marquette University poll, putting him in a double-digit lead over everyone else. If he gains much more steam, he could gain enough momentum to blow the field away and make nearly all of his opponents drop out early, thus giving him a clear financial advantage that other candidates wouldn't have when facing Walker. That having been said, he strikes me as being somewhat weak-sauce. He's never won an election for anything higher than State Superintendent. He is currently the Head of the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction, which isn't exactly dog-catcher, but it certainly isn't State Representative status. He's laid-back, unassuming, and he likes the image that presents. In short, he's boring. But even though he's anything but exciting, he's got an inside-track with the Teachers' Union, and this has powered his campaign so far. He's from Tomah, WI, and so is definitely not part of the Madison crowd, yet his teaching credentials make him a darling of those opposed to Act 10 on the liberal left. This may translate to him being the last man standing in August. The real question will be whether he has the charisma or fight to be able to stand strong against Walker in November. At this point, it doesn't look like that's so.

5.) Dana Wachs. He's an Eau Claire trial attorney with a long track record of defending the injured. While this might cause some to label him an "ambulance chaser," his clientele swears by him as a man who stood up for them in their time of need, and nothing endorses better than happy customers. He made news last year when a document from his campaign was leaked to the press. It categorized Wachs as having "progressive values without the veneer of a Milwaukee elitist or a Madison liberal." He was sharply criticized for this, but it happens to be true. With his reputation for being a fighter, he sounds to me like a good option.

Everyone else below this line qualifies as a long-shot, and ought not be taken seriously, in my opinion. But they will be on the ballot anyway, and I wish to be thorough and let others know why I discount their prospects.

6.) Josh Pade. Of the candidates who are left, Josh Pade of Kenosha is the most likable to me. He reminds me of former state senator (and my grandfather-in-law) Joe Andrea. He even looks a little bit like an Andrea relative! He's a lawyer who once worked for J. Crew clothing. He's totally off the radar of most people, but he's young (38) and talented. He announced his candidacy in April, and by June 1st, garnered the 2,000 signatures that ensured his place on the ballot, and qualified him for a speaking spot at the Democratic state convention that same night! (Damn, somebody out there likes him!) He seems to be in the race more to build a name for himself if he decides to run for future elections. The tactic may well work, but in this respect, he is no Joe Andrea, who never lost an election in his long political career. Something tells me, however, Josh Pade will win his next one.

7.) Matt Flynn. If the name sounds familiar, it's because Flynn was once the state's Democratic Party Chair, and a frequent guest on Sunday-morning talk shows. The problem? He's a Milwaukee attorney who has run for office four times and has never won. That's hardly a confidence-builder when considering who can beat Walker. Yet his name recognition keeps him on the map.

8.) Paul Soglin. He's the mayor of Madison, which makes him beltway all the way, and automatically puts him in a category that the Koch brothers can mis-characterize. He also lacks the charisma to really build a campaign. (Imagine Tom Barrett, but a bit duller.) He consistently polls at #2 behind Tony Evers, but that's all connections with little excitability.

9.) Kathleen Vinehout. This candidate truly scares me. She's somewhat moderate on the abortion issue, and has a positive review from the NRA, and while these things play well in rural Wisconsin, they won't get out the base. She's the only other woman running for governor, but lacks the star-power and excitability that Kelda Roys brings to the table.

10.) Maggie Turnbull. This spot belonged to Andy Gronik, who was an interesting candidate who had Crohn's disease. But he dropped out the very day I started writing this. So instead I'm putting in Independent candidate Maggie Turnbull. She's a scientist, astrobiologist, and pragmatist, and that automatically puts her in my good graces. If Kelda Roys weren't running, Maggie Turnbull might be my first choice. As it is, her good ideas make her a spoiler. But somebody, please, let me know when her book comes out!

Eric

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