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What is the Point of a Republican Majority When They Pull Stuff Like This?
My faith in the Republican Party has already been pretty low, but now it’s almost non-existent. This is the party that is supposed to be the anti- abortion party but yesterday the Republican leadership decided to pull the “Pain-Capable Unborn Protection Act,” which would ban abortion after 20 weeks. This bill has the approval of most Americans (about 60%). Most Americans, Republican and Democrat, support a ban on late-term abortions. Why are they scrapping this?
Apparently the effort to drop the bill was lead by Renee Ellmers of North Carolina, Jackie Walorski of Indiana, and Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, who has the most ridiculous reason quoted that I have ever seen:
“I prefer that we avoid these very contentious social issues,” Dent told National Journal. “Week one, we had a speaker election that did not go as well as a lot of us would have liked. Week two, we got into a big fight over deporting children, something that a lot of us didn’t want to have a discussion about. Week three, we are now talking about rape and incest and reportable rapes and incest for minors. … I just can’t wait for week four.”
He would “prefer” to avoid this kind of contention social issue, WHAT?!! Why did you run for Congress then? That is your job; to represent the people of your district (and most people in Dent’s district support this bill). Also,why does he think these things aren’t going well? Maybe it’s because they are not representing the people who elected them and not keeping the promises that many of them made to get elected. If the leadership of the Republican party keeps this up, they will end up going the way of the Whigs.
Published in General
< devil’s advocate mode = on >
William Wilberforce:
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< devil’s advocate mode = off >
That’s what I keep thinking as I read the positive responses to the GOP’s move. Republicans have become so cowed and fearful of failure, they won’t even try anything.
The Left’s scapegoating of Republicans for everything has effectively paralyzed them. It’s pathetic, and a surefire formula for defeat. Republicans won’t even have any failures to learn from.
And this is why the GOP, as a solution, is useless: they’re more afraid of them than their own.
GOP Majority off to brisk start screwing over the people who put them there. http://thefederalist.com/2015/01/22/why-everyone-should-be-terrified-by-the-gops-abortion-bill-debacle/
Cowards. All of them. The GOP disgusts me.
Pathetic, gutless, spineless, cowardly. I’m ticked off too, Matede
Amen. Just Amen.
We are talking about the murder of humans. End of Story.
Robert Royal has an eye-opening article on Abortion and Magical Thinking at thecatholicthing.org:
I agree with all of the above, except I believe in pointing blame where it is due- the American electorate.
Anybody on this site think elected politicians of either party act independently?
I’ll go so far as to chastise Ricos for blaming the victim. We all need to look in the d*** mirror.
To all those making excuses for the GOP on this, stop. This was an embarrassment. If they suddenly didn’t feel this was the right time to bring it up for a vote, then they should never have scheduled it for today. Can’t they get their ducks in a row or are they wishy-washy on this? What an embarrassment. They better bring this up in short order or there will be hell to pay. Pro-lifers don’t necessarily support Republicans on all issues, and if the GOP drops the ball on this one, they will get dropped like a fifty pound weight.
Doing absolutely nothing to talk me off my Thomas Clarkson support the Revolution ledge, there, Mis…
I live immediately to the south of Boehner’s district. The chance of ever primarying him are probably slim and none. He represents a pretty unsophisticated district that seems happy just to have a member of Congress in such an influential position.
Elmers, however, seems like a one-term (now two-term) lightweight, and yet her constituents couldn’t primary her after she proved to be completely squishy on amnesty. She even had Laura Ingraham homing in on her.
If incumbency is that great a strength for officeholders or if Republicans can’t rise up to take someone like Elmers out, the country really is screwed.
Yes. The fact that this happened is severely disappointing. The fact that they did this today makes me furious.
Gee, it’s almost like the GOP is a ridiculously perilous coalition between interest groups that have just about nothing in common…or something.
Magical thinking is this handful of beans you say will happen in 2016. The GOP is already letting democrats walk away from Obama, which is just going to allow them to float free of any bad news — they will win in 2016 unless we fight NOW. We need to get these scaly creatures on the record NOW.
You who talk about playing the long game but do not see any value in forcing things to a vote are delusional. At best.
I have no more room for strategic pauses. We’re all paused out over here. We still haven’t fought on the budget from 2008.
David Knights: #32 “Bring up a bill that has ALMOST no chance of making it thru the Senate and ABSOLUTELY no chance of being signed into law isn’t fighting smart.”
Spitting in the face of the people who elected you isn’t smart.
Cowardliness isn’t smart.
Avoiding the issues you were elected to consider isn’t smart.
Telling the public you believe in one thing and then denying it when it is possible isn’t smart.
You have no idea of what the Senate might do.
What Barry does doesn’t matter. What Republicans do is the ground work for 2016. Right now they aren’t doing anything smart.
Hmmm, I’m thumbing through my copy of the Constitution, looking for the enumerated power that gives Congress the authority to regulate abortion. And oddly, I’m not finding it. Commerce clause, maybe? Is someone transporting these fetuses in interstate commerce? Or maybe the Supreme Court could pretend that it’s a tax…
Standing by our principles indeed. Apparently, some of us stand by our principles only when it is convenient.
When you were thumbing through that Constitution did you also happen to find the right to have an abortion or the right to privacy that the court used to justify their decision?
What isn’t smart is demanding that to prove their fidelity to your cause you demand that your representative cast a purely symbolic vote that has ZERO chance of changing the status quo, but does have a chance to be used against them in the next election.
There is no guaranty of a GOP president in 2016 and/or a GOP congress. However, I’d like that to be more likely, not less likely. I see no value to forcing a vote you KNOW you will not win and that will cost your opponents nothing. Either it dies in the Senate or it is vetoed. No democrat will suffer for that happening. GOP in marginal districts will
Does anyone know how we got The New Deal, The War on Poverty, Medicare, Social Security and, yes, Obamacare? Our opponents played the long game. Why do we never roll back any government program or shrink the size of government? We play the short game.
So, not to be a dick here, but I’m going to point to the 10th amendment:
“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”
The Constitution only has to enumerate rights when it comes to what the Federal government can do. When it comes to state legislation or individual rights, there is a presumption of legality. This is why Roe v. Wade was such a travesty, by the way: not because it allowed abortion (which for better or worse has occurred in most cultures throughout history), but because it trampled the rights of the states to regulate an issue well beyond the scope of the enumerated powers within the Constitution. Ideally we’d let this issue go back to the states so New Yorkers could have all the Planned Parenthoods they want, and Mississippians could ban it all. Then we’d see how everything worked out. “Laboratories of democracy,” yo.
Yes, I know I was being sarcastic.
I think 40 years is a long game.
I’m confused by the whole “Republicans need to STAND for something” routine. Is there anyone alive in the U.S. who doesn’t know that the Democrats are the pro-choice party and the Republicans are the pro-life party? Who, exactly was confused on this point and thinking to themselves: “gee, I know where the Democrats stand on this abortion business, but I haven’t heard from Republicans recently. What’s their position again?”
I will admit that the fug-fingered fumbling in Congress was really putzy, and ought to have been handled better. Doesn’t speak well of the current caucus or of leadership that this went forward. Then again, I’m not terribly surprised by it since it seems we can’t go two weeks without hearing about some back-bench revolt or another against McConnell, Boehner, or both.
Ah! Very good then. Carry on :)
My suspicion is that the explanation is less dramatic than what people think. I can’t help but think that this has more to do with inside baseball than with cold feet. It smells like a deal or decision was made behind closed doors. If I was a journalist I’d probably check to see if any funding or approvals were made in the districts of the relevant members.
Remember, these women had advocated this bill so why the sudden flip flop? There has to be an offer for them to consider it.
Two things.
1. 40 years isn’t long in the scheme of things. The left has had a goal of government healthcare for all for well over 60 years, and they aren’t quite there even now. (But Obamacare was a major step forward for them on the issue. They fight smart.)
2. I think a good argument can be made that we’ve had abortion in its present form for so long because of the foolishness of the pro-life movement with stunts such as these. Meaningless demands for a symbolic act that don’t do anything to end abortion but end up costing sure pro-life votes their seats.