PRO-LIFE SAT:" MELLO DRAMATIC AT THE DNC" - Tony Perkins, Washington Update, April 25, 2017; http://www.frc.org/get.cfm?i=WA17D45&f=WU17D15
Nebraska isn't usually a pin on the map of political hotspots, but that all changed this week with Omaha's candidates for mayor. Thanks to Heath Mello's (D) pro-life views, a race that would have been a footnote in the national news has exploded into a front-page headline about the DNC's hard ideological line on abortion.
After years of squeezing out socially conservative Democrats, the party is struggling to win back seats in the heartland, where voters might lean Left on economic issues, but pro-life, pro-faith roots run deep. New DNC chairman Tom Perez tried to walk that line with an endorsement for Mello, only to face fire from the abortion militants in his own camp. Without pulling the DNC's support, he sent a chilling message to all Democratic candidates that nothing less than unconditional surrender on life would be tolerated. "Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman's right to make her own choices about her body and her health," Perez said. "That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state... At a time when women's rights are under assault from the White House, the Republican Congress, and in states across the country," he added, "we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice."
Telling pro-lifers to drop dead isn't exactly the smartest political strategy, Dave Freddoso points out. In his op-ed, "Democrats Unlearn Their Own Election History," he -- like a lot of voters -- couldn't believe his ears. "It is puzzling that the head of a political party, whose job is to win elections, would send such a clearly exclusionary message to officeholders and candidates without whose victory his party would probably remain a minority forever."
Obviously, Perez seems intent on following Hillary Clinton into some of the most radical terrain on abortion ever broached. From her shameless support of taxpayer-funded abortion to her elevation of groups that illegally sell baby body parts, the former First Lady was determined to make November's election about an extreme social agenda that's increasingly out of touch with women. And she paid dearly for it. With Planned Parenthood cheering her on, Clinton rushed to embrace the "abortion-ization" of the Democratic Party without any regard to the political consequences. Which, on November 8, were many.
Ignoring thousands of pro-life Democrats, the DNC's platform was a case study in over-the-top extremism. For the first time in history, it called for overturning the Hyde and Helms amendments, demanding that federal taxpayers fund abortion-on-demand at home and abroad. (Not only did DNC leaders want abortion to be a routine medical procedure, they wanted Americans to pay for the entire world's!) That in itself was a crystalizing moment for the country, which could only marvel at the sharp contrasts between the two parties.
Under the GOP platform, Republicans reiterated their support for the walls between taxpayers and the dark world of abortion, calling on Congress to make the Hyde amendment permanent in all walks of government funding -- including health care. They also insisted on defending the First Amendment rights of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and organizations when it comes to issues like abortion funding, procedures, drugs, and health insurance. The Democrats supported Planned Parenthood by name. The Republicans, for the first time, called for the defunding it. In every possible way, the parties confirmed what everyone already knew: they are polar opposites.
It's those growing ideological differences that set the stage for inner-party squabbles like Mello's. If anyone needed proof that the mushy middle is shrinking, it's the drama playing out in Omaha. Hopefully, the GOP will learn from Nebraska (and from last November) that being a social squish doesn't work. Donald Trump won the election by appealing to his base, not bowing to moderates. In a political arena with fewer gray areas, what wins elections is taking a strong stance -- which, in the GOP's case, also happens to be the popular one.
While the DNC continues to shamelessly promote abortion right up to the moment of birth, polling shows that it's a far cry from voters' position on the issue. Almost eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) would limit abortion to the first trimester -- including 62 percent who call themselves "pro-choice." Voters let the DNC know what it thought about its extreme social agenda last November. I hope the GOP was listening!
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
After years of squeezing out socially conservative Democrats, the party is struggling to win back seats in the heartland, where voters might lean Left on economic issues, but pro-life, pro-faith roots run deep. New DNC chairman Tom Perez tried to walk that line with an endorsement for Mello, only to face fire from the abortion militants in his own camp. Without pulling the DNC's support, he sent a chilling message to all Democratic candidates that nothing less than unconditional surrender on life would be tolerated. "Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman's right to make her own choices about her body and her health," Perez said. "That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state... At a time when women's rights are under assault from the White House, the Republican Congress, and in states across the country," he added, "we must speak up for this principle as loudly as ever and with one voice."
Telling pro-lifers to drop dead isn't exactly the smartest political strategy, Dave Freddoso points out. In his op-ed, "Democrats Unlearn Their Own Election History," he -- like a lot of voters -- couldn't believe his ears. "It is puzzling that the head of a political party, whose job is to win elections, would send such a clearly exclusionary message to officeholders and candidates without whose victory his party would probably remain a minority forever."
Obviously, Perez seems intent on following Hillary Clinton into some of the most radical terrain on abortion ever broached. From her shameless support of taxpayer-funded abortion to her elevation of groups that illegally sell baby body parts, the former First Lady was determined to make November's election about an extreme social agenda that's increasingly out of touch with women. And she paid dearly for it. With Planned Parenthood cheering her on, Clinton rushed to embrace the "abortion-ization" of the Democratic Party without any regard to the political consequences. Which, on November 8, were many.
Ignoring thousands of pro-life Democrats, the DNC's platform was a case study in over-the-top extremism. For the first time in history, it called for overturning the Hyde and Helms amendments, demanding that federal taxpayers fund abortion-on-demand at home and abroad. (Not only did DNC leaders want abortion to be a routine medical procedure, they wanted Americans to pay for the entire world's!) That in itself was a crystalizing moment for the country, which could only marvel at the sharp contrasts between the two parties.
Under the GOP platform, Republicans reiterated their support for the walls between taxpayers and the dark world of abortion, calling on Congress to make the Hyde amendment permanent in all walks of government funding -- including health care. They also insisted on defending the First Amendment rights of doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and organizations when it comes to issues like abortion funding, procedures, drugs, and health insurance. The Democrats supported Planned Parenthood by name. The Republicans, for the first time, called for the defunding it. In every possible way, the parties confirmed what everyone already knew: they are polar opposites.
It's those growing ideological differences that set the stage for inner-party squabbles like Mello's. If anyone needed proof that the mushy middle is shrinking, it's the drama playing out in Omaha. Hopefully, the GOP will learn from Nebraska (and from last November) that being a social squish doesn't work. Donald Trump won the election by appealing to his base, not bowing to moderates. In a political arena with fewer gray areas, what wins elections is taking a strong stance -- which, in the GOP's case, also happens to be the popular one.
While the DNC continues to shamelessly promote abortion right up to the moment of birth, polling shows that it's a far cry from voters' position on the issue. Almost eight in 10 Americans (78 percent) would limit abortion to the first trimester -- including 62 percent who call themselves "pro-choice." Voters let the DNC know what it thought about its extreme social agenda last November. I hope the GOP was listening!
[bold, italics, and colored emphasis mine]
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