Roe's Birth, and Death

[Sivafae]

justice Harry Blackmun did more inadvertent damage to our democracy than any other 20th-century American. When he and his Supreme Court colleagues issued the Roe v. Wade decision, they set off a cycle of political viciousness and counter-viciousness that has poisoned public life ever since, and now threatens to destroy the Senate as we know it.

When Blackmun wrote the Roe decision, it took the abortion issue out of the legislatures and put it into the courts. If it had remained in the legislatures, we would have seen a series of state-by-state compromises reflecting the views of the centrist majority that's always existed on this issue. These legislative compromises wouldn't have pleased everyone, but would have been regarded as legitimate.

Instead, Blackmun and his concurring colleagues invented a right to abortion, and imposed a solution more extreme than the policies of just about any other comparable nation.

Religious conservatives became alienated from their own government, feeling that their democratic rights had been usurped by robed elitists. Liberals lost touch with working-class Americans because they never had to have a conversation about values with those voters; they could just rely on the courts to impose their views. The parties polarized as they each became dominated by absolutist activists.

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/04/21/opinion/21brooks.html?

http://www.bugmenot.com/

[funflower]

1. Pro-choice to the end, but...

if the R's really do manage to overturn Roe, they'll be doing a huge favor to democrats running for state legislature.

[AndyTiedye]

4. It Doesn't Work That Way, Unfortunately

The abortion issue lost us votes in 2004,
EVEN THOUGH THE MAJORITY AGREES WITH THE DEMOCRATS ON THE ISSUE!

That is just another example of how ANY issue can be turned against us
when only THEIR side is ever heard on TV.

[Coastie for Truth]

7. Exploitation of Wedge Issues To Hide Their Real Agenda

The Republicans will always look for wedge issues - be it race, school integration, abortion, gay rights, stem cell research -- and they will cultivate a field of "true believers" on a side of the wedge issue, and use/exploit the "true believers" to hide their real agenda. Spelled out in What's the Matter with Kansas? How Conservatives Won the Heart of America by Thomas Frank.

What's their real issue - nothing to do with choice, or life, or family values. It is a return to the deregulated world described by Upton Sinclair (The Jungle), maybe with a pinch of Margaret Atwood's The Handmaid's Tale as lagniappe.

[Geekscum]

14. Sad truth is it may already be to late

See all the supreme court justices are either old, ill, or both. The republicans have the right of appointment until 1-2009. If they win in 2008 then until 1-2013. I do not think that the liberal judges can hold on that long. So if we lose in 2008 the republicans will get to have a supreme court with 7 to all 9 justice picked by them. Ask yourself this how many times to get change has it taken the courts to do it?

[fryguy]

2. Roe v. Wade created an atmosphere of incivility . . . . riiiiiiiight

and I'm sure if it were overturned today the world would return once more to the peaceful and wonderful existence that it once was . . . .

:sarcasm:

[Nite Owl]

3. Right

like killing doctors and bombing clinics is just so civil!

Now this is their excuse for terrorism, cause that's just what it is.

[musette_sf]

5. that asshat Brooks

seems to be getting even crazier since Safire left :-)

I'd say the constant slip in real wages, Reaganomics, and the attendant union-busting and continued tax breaks for the wealthy have done a hell of a lot more to encourage "incivility".

If I'm not sure where my next job is coming from or what I will be paid, and someone/something is standing in between me and that job and that money, I won't be very civil to that obstacle to having my basic needs met.

That's the way these scumbags operate... gradually (and these days not so gradually) pull away the safety net, and when society reacts predictably, blame it on those damn feminist witches and abortion.

[DURHAM D]

6. His premise is total b.s.

Thus his entire article is crap.

At the time, and at this date, a large majority of Americans believe in a woman's right to choose. The opposition to Roe v. Wade did not get started until many years after that court decision. Frankly, it was a non-isue.

But, the repugs needed a new wedge issue because bussing and the Panama Canal had played out. It looked like the Equal Rights Amendment was going to pass so in an effort to defeat it they created the fight over abortion to get rightwing nut (conservative christian) support against the amendment. The propaganda machine was largely funded by insurance companies because they really had a lot to lose (gender biased rates/profit) if the ERA passed and they were joined by some major corporations because of equal pay issues (profit). The corporations obviously could not publicly carry the water so they looked for tools like Phyllis Shafley and created the TV ministries to do their dirty work.

[im10ashus]

8. I was speechless when I read that.

Has Mr. Brooks LOST his mind? This is the same thinly veiled call to violence that a few fundamentalist Republican's have been recently inciting.

How in the world does a woman exercising her right to choose affect men like myself and Mr. Brooks? Is there some cause-and-effect between the decision a woman and her doctor make and OTHER people? Mr. Brooks, remember Eric Rudolph, an apparently violent opponent to abortion? You two may have a lot in common.

For politics to get any better we need to stop forcing the religious views of one person down the throats of others. When politicians stop meddling in the private lives of citizens and patients, then we can focus on what's really dividing America, and that would be the wage gap between men and women; decent and affordable healthcare for ALL; ensuring that ALL our votes are counted come election time; and last but not least, freedom of (and from) religion.

Edited to add: The Rude Pundit had a great bit on this today as well. http://www.rudepundit.blogspot.com/

[catzies]

10. Welcome to DU, im10ashus! Glad you found us!

:hi:

[im10ashus]

11. Thanks catzies!

Good company to be in. Love your Dylan!

[edhopper]

9. Brooks is such a tool!

First he chastises the Dems for blocking judges, but fails to mention that Repugs blocked FOUR TIMES as many of Clinton's appointments.
But Roe v Wade as the worst moment in 20th Century American democracy.
By that logic Brown v Board of Ed, was far worse. It stopped states from deciding "democratically" how and if they were to end segregation and push forward on civil rights. I think it's safe to say that that struggle was far more contentious than the abortion debate.
As I said, he's a major tool.

[Sivafae]

12. I thought the article was interesting to say the least, the very least

I didn't agree with it, but I wanted to discuss it. If i wasn't hittin' all 8's on the floor, I would think that this was a very insightful article.

[Bridget Burke]

13. Interesting, yes.

But--do you share his hate of Roe V Wade?