Two Contrasting Views On Abortion And The Midterms

I say “contrasting” because the two views on offer here are not actually opposing views—but the contrast is valuable.

First up, Tom Luongo talks abortion politics. As so often, he has some incisive insights—that is, insights that cut through the fog of chatter in the public square:

The Ruckus over Roe is Just Another Racket

As far as the issue itself goes, here’s Luongo’s bottom line:

Roe has been used to radicalize suburban women politically now for more than two generations. It was a bad decision, and even worse law, but a brilliant piece of political kit which could always be brought to bear if American politics was beginning to stray too far from the Davos, nee globalist, agenda.

Having established a baseline, Luongo takes out after one of my preferred legal commentators, Jonathan Turley. Luongo’s beef with Turley is fair enough—Turley often offers highly intelligent legal analysis but too often pulls his punches when it comes to critiquing the real motivations that the legal maneuvering masks. Not always, but it is true that Turley sometimes leaves readers hanging, wishing for more. Turley’s view is probably that he provides the tools for readers to go the extra mile of analysis. That’s fair, too, but unsatisfying at times.

Anyway.

What I’m going to do is bypass Luongo’s criticism’s of Turley and go right to what I consider the heart of Luongo’s own view:

The whole point of appointing morons like Sonia Sotomoyor or Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court for life is to remove them from politics completely. The whole judicial impartiality thing is supposed to be a foundational principle of our society.

It’s a lie, but it’s a foundational one.

In doxxing the Supremes, after someone close to them leaked the draft opinion, that entire edifice of confidence in our system has been compromised. Yet another pillar of our Republic attacked with a sledgehammer.

These are Leninist tactics, meant to intimidate not just Supreme Court justices but anyone else who dares to object to their Party Line.

I agree. The clear intent of the Dems is to take a sledgehammer to the foundations or pillars—whichever metaphor you prefer—of the American republic. These tactics, a continuation of the coup against Trump, are not politics as traditionally understood by Americans. These really are Bolshevik style tactics, with the only difference being that the Dems are doubtful that they have a firm handle on a critical mass of the population.

This tells you we are closer to that moment when that special someone arrives at the train station to topple what’s left of the existing government than, again, anyone dared to admit to themselves just last week.

The current row over Roe v. Wade isn’t anything other than the starting flag going up on the race to the end of the republic here in the U.S. That race already ended in Europe. I’ve told you for year now that the people in charge are vandals, intent on destroying the fabric of U.S. society.

Again, Luongo is spot on. And note well—Luongo specifies “the people in charge,” not one party or the other. He understands that the designation “the people in charge” is not a partisan designation. John Roberts and Bill Barr shoulder to shoulder with Chuck Schumer, sledgehammers at the ready? Believe it. The utter disregard for the American constitutional order on display from the ruling class over the last decades has been remarkable.

The day we woke up to the Miracle of the 2000 Mules on November 4th, 2020 and Joe Biden took the lead from Donald Trump I told you, “Civil War it is, then.”

…

There is no going back to normal from where the Democrats and Davos went in 2020. Now in 2022, they are all but ordering their most loyal supporters to murder a Supreme Court justice.

Not only are the Democratic leadership now the keepers of the Revealed Truth of state-sanctioned murder but they have told their disciples they are the righteous warriors thereof.

And a womyn’s right to murder her unborn child is now Revealed Truth.

I guess murdering a Supreme Court justice to defend that stance is simply a logical extension of it.

Hard to disagree with that. The fly in the ointment, however, can be seen in the polling. Far from mobilizing suburban women, in the wake of the leak of Alito’s draft opinion the GOP generic numbers have actually risen, and suburban “pro-choice” women are unmoved. They care about other things more than about killing babies. As for the “righteous warriors” of the Left, anyone who has watched the unhinged antics of the demonstrators would know better than to place any confidence in that crowd to lead the revolution. So, Luongo’s analysis is brilliant, but American may yet dodge that moment that the Left is hoping for, “when that special someone arrives at the train station to topple what’s left of the existing government.”

The contrasting view is provided by Salena Zito. I came to respect her political analysis during the GOP primaries in 2016. Zito was one of the first to point out that something important was happening, and provided data to back up her view that Trump had a finger on the pulse of the nation.

Today, Zito has an article that compares the approaching midterm elections to the all time blowout midterm—the elections of 1894, when the Dems were swept out of power in stunning fashion, never since repeated. It’s fascinating history for political junkies:

The Anatomy of a Wave Election

Grover Cleveland, like Joe Biden, remained both stubborn and stuck ahead of the midterms and in his final two years in office. More than a century later, Democrats are in for another hard lesson.

Now, it’s true that America in 2022 is a very different place than America was in 1894. However, bear with Zito. Her observations are fairly simple and straightforward. I think they have merit.

Zito begins by setting the stage for the historic 1894 midterms. America was coming out of a difficult economic downturn—the Panic of 1893. Every segment of the country was in “a world of pain”. Farmers and laborers—ordinary, normal people of the time—were feeling the pinch. Then came the Pullman Strike:

It pitted labor against the company, the press, the federal government, and President Grover Cleveland, a Democrat …

Ordinary people, seeking to lead a normal life, pitted against Big Business, the MSM, an unresponsive Federal government. Does that ring any bells for you? Cleveland’s response to the strike was to use the US Army to put an end to it. Again, can you see the parallels? The Imperial City on the Potomac under military occupation for months on end, because ordinary people gathered to voice their grievances, the draconian lockdowns and mandates—enforced against the plebes and ignored by the elite. And more. Then as now, Dems screwed up every issue that the country was faced with, and attempted to maintain control by using the media against the people—Twitter, Facebook, etc.? It should all sound familiar.

Then Zito turns to the present:

It is astonishing to witness the messaging that Democrats in Washington, D.C., think their voters—in particular, Democrats in swing districts—should use to hold their seats or win new ones. Most of the messaging is calling Republicans extremist, insurrectionist QAnon members who are transphobic and want to take reproductive rights away from women.

That’s a lot of wasted spaghetti thrown at the wall, especially given that none of this messaging even attempts to address the many issues that are shifting voters away from the Democratic Party.

Crime, border security, a fentanyl epidemic, inflation. And the Dem response is … abortion? It’s all Putin’s fault?

Meanwhile, no one is shaking off inflation as a passing phase—it is real, and it is hurting all of us. Hardest hit are the working poor and the middle class. No one in Biden’s administration or the Democrats’ House and Senate majorities seems to have a message that they are in control of this—that there is some sense of a clear economic plan, at least to get things moving along the right path.

The only message Joe Biden has given people on inflation is that it is Russian President Vladimir Putin’s fault—an insulting premise to everyone who has been watching prices rise rapidly for the last 12 months.

Psaki says nobody saw inflation coming. Who believes that? We all saw it coming. Meanwhile, there’s no plan.

And as if that weren’t bad enough:

Suburban parents are moving rightward, even if they don’t want to, because Democrats have gone overboard on control of the classroom, questionable curricula, and over-the-top mandates.

Even the issues that surround Roe v. Wade are highly unlikely to save them. Indeed, depending on how they play it, the coming Supreme Court decision might actually cost them votes. Messaging on abortion is quite perilous. The more you argue in favor of it, and the more emotionally and graphically you do so, the more you turn people off.

Obviously Zito has seen the videos of the whacked out demonstrators, openly calling for the death of babies.

My seat of the pants impression is that people have had enough. But between now and November the overwhelming probability is that matters will only get worse.