So now some democratically elected office in Georgia wants to make miscarriages illegal. Cobb County Representative Bobby Franklin has proposed a bill that would potentially define a miscarriage as "parental murder".
Now this bill will probably die. But what a tactic to use. What he really wants is to outlaw abortion. So he proposes something outrageous like this, then he "negotiates" away the crazy parts and campaigns on what a "reasonable", "bipartisan" person he is. In the meantime, everyone in the opposition wastes time knocking this crap out of the way rather than focusing on the big stuff.
Who's to say that Walker in Wisconsin isn't using the same tactic against unions? It's good that the Obama Administration isn't getting involved in this type of stuff. It's better for them to stay focused on the big stuff and not get drawn into these fights. They are right to let their state organizations do that fighting.
Update:2/28/2011
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5 comments:
US West,
It is very likely that a solid majority of Mr. Franklin's constituents agree with just about any legislative strategy (how ever distasteful) that gets them to their goal of banning abortions. In that case, he's not someone I would ever vote for but he's not doing anything other than aggressively representing the priorities of his constituents. I think these priorities are horribly misguided and, as you rightly point out, misogynistic. But this is how democracy works.
I'd be inclined to think that Walker was just using the collective bargaining thing to finesse unions into accepting big pay cuts except that the unions have already agreed to the pay cuts and he's still pushing the collective bargaining thing.
BTW, the emerging national consensus is that Walker and the GOP are engaging in dangerous over reach here. In a democratic society that means they will be putting their reelection chances at serious risk.
This isn't about the fundamentals of Democracy. It's pure politics, democratic or whatever.
What Walker is doing is trying to give the RNC a new political hook. In fact, the RNC is behind this and him. They were hoping to make this a national strategy. It will be interesting to see what happens to their "golden boy" if (when) this fails. The Republicans have no one to run against Obama. They may have hoped they could crown walker.
Cobb County is very white (nearly 70%)and quite conservative- known as Georgia's Republican power base. But Marietta, where this guy is from, is only 56% white (median annual income: 40K, BA degree holders: 34%). Maybe he represents the views of those who elected him, but that may not be the same view of those whom he represents. Just because not all who are eligible participate does not mean you don't represent them. I am sure we will have some polling data soon.
I do not think this is just a case of "aggressive" representation, though. It is part of a larger strategy or political tactic. Take note of this article from the NYT: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/06/us/06abortion.html
The article reports that there are some in Georgia who want to call abortion genocide against blacks and equate it to latent racism. Talk about twisting a message.
Why women miscarry is still a mystery to medical science. There are untold factors that could influence whether the baby is carried to term or not. To find out more, read this: http://morningquickie.com/2011/02/25/miscarriage-is-not-your-fault-and-not-a-crime/
What I think is going on with people like Franklin and Walker is that they are making the usual mistake of thinking that because they won the last election they are now in a permanent majority. So they over reach.
Like you suggest, this is likely to backfire if (when) it fails. It may even backfire if it succeeds in the short run.
Just look at how much more energized the union movement is now (and they are solidly with the Democrats too) compared to a year ago. And I bet they outnumber tea-partiers by a huge margin. Imagine what it would look like if just half the union members in the country went to Washington to march on The Mall.
I love this stuff. I really do. The more the Tea Party Right Wing Nutjobs do this sort of thing, the less likely independent voters are to re-elect them. This is absolutely not why independent voters favored the GOP in the last election.
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