This post is prompted by this post "Fox News looks for abortion compromise".
JD Vance has a very revealing “tweet” on his views on what happened in his state and why the forced-birthers can never compromise or offer language of compromise.
He recognizes the his side lost.
For pro lifers, last night was a gut punch. No sugar coating it.
He then discusses five reasons::
1) people liked both issues in the last two elections
2) “voters mistrust us (meaning elected Republicans) on this issue”
3) we didn’t propose abortion restrictions with exceptions
4) “we have to do a much better job of persuasion”
5) we were outspent
(2) and (4) are linked. In (2), he proposes that pro-lifers/Republicans must recognize that having a child is expensive and must propose ways to take care of that. He pleads “We need people to see us as the pro-life party, not just the anti-abortion party.”
(4) is the key — better job persuasion. Note that (2) is an example of the consequences of poor persuasion. He cites examples of the poor persuasion in Ohio.
Some described themselves as "pro life" but hated the lack of a rape exception in Ohio law. Some were worried that Ohio law would prevent them from addressing an ectopic pregnancy, or a late term miscarriage. Some didn't understand the "viability" standard in Issue 1, and thought that of course you should be able to abort a "non-viable" pregnancy as that would be a danger to the mother.
He claims these were all lies, but he offers no solution other than force-birthers have “fallen behind on the moral argument.” Note how the “moral argument” doesn’t seem to relate to what he cites above.
At the end of his diagnosis, he writes (my emphasis):
There is something sociopathic about a political movement that tells young women (and men) that it is liberating to murder their own children. So let's keep fighting for our country's children, and let's find a way to win.
The decision to have an abortion is very difficult but it is much more “liberating” than having the government tell women that decision has already been made for them.
It is his language that is most appalling. The pro-choice movement is SOCIOPATHIC. Can anyone talk any sense to a sociopath? There can be no compromise with a sociopathic movement.
They created the problem they are now in. Their rhetoric has been so extreme for so long they can’t retreat from it creating even more pro-choice voters.