One of my earliest childhood memories was going up to strangers at our local polling place in 1972 and trying to convince them to vote for Richard Nixon. My family was always staunchly conservative, and the notion of voting for a Democrat was anathema; my six-year-old self went along enthusiastically. (Nixon vs. McGovern was not a close election, so I doubt that my efforts made a difference in the ultimate outcome.) Myself excluded, my family's allegiance to Republicans has never waned. The only exception (that I know of) was in the 1990's when my Mom confessed the possibility that she might vote for Bill Clinton. When I asked why, she gave a simple answer: he was in favor of abortion rights, and she thought that was really important. Now, my Mom was certainly not in a position where she would worry about the prospect of getting an abortion for her own sake, and she has long been the kind of person who uses "feminist" as a slightly disreputable epithet. But this one issue was important enough to her to call into question a lifelong loyalty to Republicans. The reason is simple enough: as a woman, she understood the potentially life-altering consequences of an unwanted pregnancy, and felt that it was crucial to protect other women's right to avoid that possibility, even if it wasn't relevant to her own situation. I bring this up not to explain why abortion rights are important (although they are), but to make a more narrowly political point: fighting to protect such rights is not a losing move for the Democratic party. (To a large extent I don't care about the political ramifications, as I am happy to support wildly unpopular positions when I think they are important, but sometimes what is right actually aligns with what is popular, and why not take advantage?) Guys tend to not quite appreciate how important the right to choose really is to women, and they also tend to forget that women are a large fraction of the voting public, including a lot of Republican voters. As the Alito nomination moves us just a little closer to eroding the right to choose, this issue is going to loom increasingly larger in voters' minds. Rather than validating centrist bona fides by prevaricating on the issue of abortion, Democrats should be proudly emphasizing that they are the party of choice -- a lot of suburban swing voters might actually move their way. This is also Blog for Choice month. More details here.
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