There's been a whole lot of crazy here lately. Wisconsin was a win. Sure. We took a Senate seat. Great. The President leads in the exit poll. Kick-ass.
Absolutely delusional.
On top of that, some magic about getting SuperPACS off the air and the end of the abortion debate.
But the problem is solved easily enough. Progressives just need to learn how to argue independents and conservatives.
The abortion diary is really what made this piece click for me. I mean, the end of the debate? Just like that? Crikey, I need to read this so I can learn the tricks. And what do I read? Progressive argument after progressive argument. I'm sure the piece worked great on all those progressives on the fence about the pro-choice movement. Really pushed some poll numbers there. We all know the Left is a hot-bed of anti-choice sentiment.
Oh, that's right. It's not. The abortion issue is a debate about values. Liberty vs. Life. If you lean toward liberty, you'll lean pro-choice. You lean toward life being the dominant value, you'll lean toward the anti-abortion stance. No Liberty argument you make will convince someone who is against abortion because they value the Life component.
So what is the point? Is it to feel morally superior, with our superior arguments? Or is it to make abortion safe, available and affordable? If you chose the latter, then you need some better arguments. Because even if you create a safe haven in the blue states, there's a lot of women that still need to be protected everywhere else that votes Republican.
Abortion is here to stay. The only problems now are future and current restrictions wingnuts want to place on abortion from state to state. Which means the pro-choice side needs broader support.
So make an argument they can handle...
#1 The fetus is a life. You don't have to call it a baby. But stop making the "small amount of cells" argument. Last I checked, progressives don't dismiss science. I'm actually more comfortable hearing people say (tongue in cheek) that the fetus is a parasite. At least that statement is technically true.
#2 Focus on the part that makes this a women's issue... females are the ones that must take on all the responsibility with an unwanted pregnancy. The scales are already tipped against them.
#3 Other people that make mistakes are allowed to correct them. Even issues of life and death, criminal vehicular homicide, being a good example. Why then, in this case only, must the woman live out the mistake forever?
#4 God stuff. This one can get annoying, and that's coming from a believer. The "nation founded on Christian values" crowd... don't get me started. But I hold tight to separation of church and state. Most Christians forget about the differences between Catholics and Protestants, Methodists and Baptists... shit... Lutherans (Missouri Synod) and Lutherans (Wisconsin Synod). Remind them. Would you want Catholics telling you how to live? Baptists? Mormons? Didn't think so. That's why we have separation of church and state, so you can't use the Bible as an argument against abortion.
#5 Drop the snobbery. You don't want to have the discussion, you say? Anti-choicers can't wait to sidestep right around your self-righteousness and move forward with any change they feel like.
And guess what? They're winning.
I won't spend a lot of time with the SuperPAC idea, because it's a non-starter. Advertisers drop shows. Shows do not drop advertisers. It's their money. It's how they pay their workers, and more importantly, their corporate overlords. Elections are their Black Friday. A six month long Black Friday. And they won't even think about turning high-value political ads away. It's just not going to happen.
It's like telling a logger not to log, telling a teacher not to teach, telling a pornographer not to pornograph. Change the law if you want change. Anything else will just be annoying and dismissed.
And finally, Wisconsin. I don't have any remedies. I have no clue what happened on our end, or why. Wisconsin going Koch? Never. But it did. And I ain't going to bury my head in the sand about it. It was a loss. Concentrate on figuring out how to change it back and forget about The Message War that it was a win.
But yeah, I expected better. And all I've seen lately is a big plate of fail.
P.S. Fuck the FreedomWorks "Defund Planned Parenthood" ad that I've been seeing on this site. I know it's just Google, but Jesus...