We’re less than two full months into 2006, and already the wheels of election year politics are rumbling. Besides Congressional elections, many states are preparing to choose governors and legislators for the next term, including my own state of Alabama. And for many, choosing who to vote for will depend of course on the candidates’ stance on the almighty Issues. Also for many this will not be very hard: Republicans are conservative, Democrats are liberal. Or are they? In not every case will pulling the lever for Candidate A be so black and white.
Consider this scenario: the governorship of a historically conservative state is open and Candidate Bob is running. He favors decreased government spending, banning gambling in any form, teaching creation in public schools, and legalizing marijuana and other illegal drugs. Candidate Jane is the mirror image of Bob: more taxes, more gambling, more evolution, and no drugs. One could reasonably say that Bob would win in a favorable district despite his not-so-conservative view on drugs. But replace drugs with abortion and you can bet Jane will win the governorship hands down.
So what is it about abortion that makes such a difference that staunch conservatives would be willing to elect an otherwise liberal candidate over a pro-choice Republican? Obviously the answer to this question is “Christian conservatives”. No other group is as fiercely protective of the unborn, and rightly so. I need not expound on the Biblical reasons for prohibiting abortion. But at the state level, just how much good does it do to throw out a good conservative candidate just because he or she is pro-choice? With the recent confirmations of two pro-life Supreme Court justices pushing us ever closer to the overturn of Roe v. Wade, perhaps its time to start thinking about putting abortion lower down on the priority list of political issues.
The fact of the matter is that state level elected officials and the majority of federal ones just are not in a position to do anything about abortion. Allow me to clarify that I do not intend for this argument to apply to the President and the Senate. These people directly affect the makeup of the Supreme Court, and we should be very clear on their stand on abortion. But otherwise, throwing the baby out with the bathwater (so to speak) is not going to help conservatives in other vital areas, such as gay marriage. I’d much rather have a pro-choice Republican whose hands are tied in the area of abortion than a pro-life Democrat whose hands are tied in the area of abortion.
The focus of moral hot issues is beginning to shift away from abortion, and I fear that too few realize this. With the age of abortion drawing to a close, conservatives and especially Christians need to re-evaluate their political priorities. It could spell disaster if they do not.
Noah, if Roe v Wade is overturned, wouldn’t the issue of abortion become a state issue? If so, state level offices will become very important to the abortion debate.
You make an excellent point, Dennis. I see two possibilities once Roe v. Wade is overturned. One is that in addition to overturning the decision, the Court will also ban abortion completely. This is unlikely, in my opinion. The other possibility is the one you mention: the Court turns the matter over to the individual states.
Still, we don’t know how long it will be until the Court has an oppurtunity to reverse Roe. Until then, I beleive that we should proceed as I argue in my article. Once abortion becomes a state issue, I agree that it will become extremely important to have pro-life state legislators. If a state legislature is particularly liberal, it should (in theory) be easy enough to swing that legislature to a pro-life stance.
Noah: Your certainly correct about abortion being the “big” issue. But I also share Dennis’ concern; if the occasion should ever arise, I would still feel much better having a pro-life governor instead of a liberal Republican in office.
On a side note, here in Colorado, the only serious Democratic candidate for governor is opposed to abortion. And it is very likely that many Democrats will throw him out with the bathwater. And I don’t intend to stop them.