Will Re-Alignment On Abortion Issue Be Too Late for GOP?

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says Democrats are poised to "preserve our Democratic Trifecta for the first midterms in DECADES."

Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash

How does a major political party shoot itself in the foot?

By adopting an extreme stance on an issue that is contrary to the deeply held beliefs of three-quarters of the population.

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recently sent out a fundraising message that went beyond predictably optimistic. “Everything has changed,” she declared.

Pelosi says GOP Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell “ADMITTED that Republicans’ chances to win the Senate are slipping away” and celebrates the win by Democrat Pat Ryan in a special election in New York’s Hudson Valley, which is considered a bellweather for the midterms.

“Now, everyone from Fox News to MSNBC are saying we could buck all odds and hold the House AND Senate,” says Pelosi.

A Veritable Feast

It was all there for the GOP ‘s taking - record and painful inflation, a sense that Pres. Joe Biden is not in control, open borders, an epidemic of fentanyl, pervasive crime and homelessness, an out of control pandemic, looney Democratic policies equating trans biological men with women, a costly war instigated and financed by the U.S. in a tiny corrupt nation across the globe, etc. etc.

Then the conservative majority of the U.S. Supreme Court - made possible by former GOP President Donald J. Trump - overturned Roe v. Wade on June 24.

Then Trump, demonstrating his usual astounding lack of political acumen, endorsed primary candidates having the most extreme abortion stances seemingly because they agreed the 2020 election was stolen.

Meanwhile, the GOP leadership demonstrated a complete lack of leadership, almost as if trying to lose in November to say “I told you so” about Trump.

Second Thoughts

Faced with almost certain defeat, some of these extreme GOP candidates are backtracking on abortion but it may be too late.

Arizona GOP Senate candidate Blake Masters is being eviscerated 24-7 with TV ads excoriating his endorsement of a federal “personhood” law giving fetus’s rights and his support for prosecuting doctors who perform abortions.

According to NBC, Masters eliminated a claim on his website that he is “100% pro-life” and released an ad saying he supports “a ban on very late-term and partial-birth abortion.”

But the internet does not forget.

Vast Majority

Statista reported that as of July 2022, 76% of Americans surveyed supported legalizing abortion where women’s health is endangered by her pregnancy and three-quarters of respondents believe abortion should be legal in cases of rape or incest. Only 24% support a nationwide ban on abortion.

Axios reports that 55% of voters say abortion is a “very important” issue to consider in November’s midterms. What Axios doesn’t say is that the issue is especially important to women, who turn out in greater numbers than men to vote.