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Contact a cardiologist before clicking on this Cannoli Send a noteboard - 28/09/2020 11:57:39 AM

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Even if it works for a year or two, which is already dubious enough, the Republicans would just retaliate further and possibly make things even worse.

In the mid to long term, the Democrats' real problem is not that there will almost certainly be a 6-3 conservative majority on the SC very soon. Their real problem is that, firstly, they need a liberal majority or at least a balanced court in order to preserve the constitutionally dubious SC decisions that legalized abortion, same-sex marriage and so on - when in fact those are things that should just have been settled by the legislative, like they were in almost all other countries. In decisions like Roe v Wade or Obergefell, 'conservative justices' weren't trying to push their own policy preferences in decisions, they just tried to block liberal justices from pushing theirs through far-fetched interpretations of the constitution. I don't see much reason for concern that they would try to invalidate, for instance, validly passed state or federal laws providing for reproductive rights.

And secondly, the Dems problem is that the Senate's bias in favour of small states has lately created a significant partisan advantage for Republicans, due to the increasingly urban-rural split between Dems and Reps which currently looks like it may become a long-term discrepancy. It's not that long ago that the Democrats held 60 seats in the Senate, but now they'd be unlikely to get beyond 52 or so even if this election would turn into a landslide in their favour.

Supposing that such a 6-3 conservative majority does in fact overturn Roe v Wade, we'd get to the point where every state would democratically decide about its own laws on reproductive rights. While that would be disastrous to millions of women in red states and I really wouldn't want that to happen, there's still something to be said for it because it would finally take the toxic abortion debate out of American federal politics. It's really not normal or healthy to what extent that one topic has dominated American national politics for decades.

Of course, Republicans should be careful what they wish for, because there are a number of potential negative consequences for them as well if Roe gets overturned - businesses or highly educated inhabitants abandoning red states for blue ones in large numbers, the Republican evangelical base having a lot less incentive to reliably vote Republican, the country becoming even more separated and even more at risk of eventually breaking apart. That last one is also a risk if this Senate discrepancy becomes too blatant or lasts too long.


I agree with every word you said here. Obviously not about the economic consequences of moving businesses. All they have to do is hire fewer women, unless you think that's a sticking point for the plutocrats of America But seriously, I don't see companies moving to states with higher taxes solely to get their employees access to abortion. Todd Akin derailed his whole campaign just for trying to equivocate on the issue of abortion in the case of rape. Allowing abortion in that circumstance makes no rational sense, it is purely an argument based on superfluous sympathy for the abortion perpetrator alleged victim. The only legitimate grounds on which to oppose abortion is the theory that a fetus is a human life. If it's not a human life, abortion is a private medical decision and none of the state's business, and being generated in a sexual assault does not affect that at all. Yet, Akin's argument, however stupid on its own, STILL conceded the issue of abortion in the case of rape, and he was considered too extreme. If that's the case with rape, I don't see abortion in the case of legit medical emergencies being banned in even the reddest states. And that's rare enough (600 a year, in a country of 150,000,000 uteri, according an abortion advocacy group) that no one is going to be choosing their residence based on it. Except as a matter of principle and how many people with that kind of principle will voluntarily live in Alabama or Texas anyway?

Regarding the political stance, I welcome removing abortion as an issue, and stripping the GOP of that weapon in their electoral arsenal. Just to be clear, I would applaud someone who killed a doctor to stop an abortion (I mean, to an extent - are abortion doctors really such tough adversaries that you can't restrain them? Obviously there are not many situations where performing a 200th trimester procedure would actually save many fetal lives), and I'm still sick of them hiding behind being the only pro-life game in town while being complicit in the destruction of our civil liberties, confiscation of our property and irresponsible spending. I don't even LIKE babies. I don't get why showing aspiring abortion customers a sonogram of the thing is an effective tactic (or an illegitimate one, as the self-identified pro-choice side maintains). If actual lives were not at stake, I'd cheerfully leave the prosecution of abortion guilt to a Heavenly court.

I linked below an article from a Christian satirical website on the issue.

Cannoli
“Tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.” GK Chesteron
Inde muagdhe Aes Sedai misain ye!
Deus Vult!
*MySmiley*
Republicans Nervous Roe v Wade Could Be Overturned
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