I’m seeing a bit of an echo here from some women on the left, about how somehow NARAL pulling their ad means that the Democratic party is making some sort of move away from supporting a woman’s right to choose.
Come on now.
First things first, I think the ad was not good. I think it was poorly produced and as someone who champions effective messaging – it was an iffy commercial. Please note that I don’t believe there isn’t room for NARAL and other groups to hit Robertson on the choice issue, because based on what scraps of his paper trail the White House will release – there’s a pattern.
But to cast NARAL yanking this ad as a victory for some sort of move to the right in the Dem party? Nonsense. We are the only one of the two major parties with choice in our platform, the only party who had every single one of their presidential candidates – fringe and legitimate – declare their support for a woman’s right to choose.
What NARAL and its supporters seems to not understand is that the era of single issue selfishness is over. There is a progressive movement finally coming to light and the only way we’re going to get anything accomplished is by forcefully advocating as a group for what we believe in. Now and for the forseeable future, the progressive party in America is going to be the Democratic party. The progressive movement’s wins will be Democratic party wins.
We need to elect Democrats.
A Democratic majority will preserve and protect a woman’s right to choose, fair wages, common sense foreign policy and real national security as well as a host of other issues that form the bedrock of our society.
Organizations on the left that don’t understand this and make the choice to push Republicans – no matter how moderate they may seem – will be actively hurting the cause and even worse, their own issue. A woman’s right to choose is more secure with Reid and Pelosi than Frist and Hastert, period.
It ain’t complicated.
Well, you can huff and puff about ‘unity’, but a person or an organization has the right to get tired and stop helping people who aren’t helping them.
Talking about how the Dems are on ‘our side’ won’t be very persuasive to a person who has already decided they’re not.
In my own case, my congressman Norm Dicks can make the military cash register play Yankee Doodle. As a pacifist, I don’t find this to be a very useful attribute in a congressman.
Combine this with almost everything else that touches our lives, and you have a Democratic Party in a “Roll Over and Play Dead” contest with the Rs.
That’s just my opinion. But I bet when gas reaches $10/gallon you’ll start to hear what I’m saying.
Via Digby, Brad Plumer had a good take on the opposing view:
So did you read my post? It’s really condescending and sexist to tell women, “Well, ladies, be quiet and know your place and we’ll make sure you get your reward. We prooooooomise. One day. Eventually. Once the ‘important’ stuff is done.”
Oliver, NARAL and feminists don’t care. Democrats will never win us over by telling us that they don’t think our issues are important but we should trust them. I don’t trust anyone who says that I’m not important to them.
Oliver, “Robertson” => “Roberts” Damn him for having such a generic and hard-to-remember name, eh?
If they do not understand that, then maybe the era of single-issue selfishness isn’t over. Andrea seems peeved that her issue isn’t being given sufficient attention. The Democratic party has to walk a fine line… because I think there are a lot of single-issue Democrat voters. You have your anti-war people, your abortion-rights-for-women people, your environment people, your social programs people, etc. Even though they might all agree on a lot of things, there are many of them who would be instantly turned off if for a moment they sensed that their issue wasn’t of vital importance to the Democratic party.
Oliver, you’re rather a melting pot of Democratic ideals, but many Dems aren’t. Asking people last year why they were going to vote for Kerry, I got a lot of one-line answers. “Abortion.” “The War in Iraq.” “Education.” “The Environment.” Etc. These people certainly had other reasons… but if their pet issue isn’t given appropriate attention, you might not be able to count on their vote.
Regarding the NARAL ad… it was dishonest. Shoddy work, all around. Denouncing dishonest hackery isn’t a move to the right, it’s a move towards a more sane political dialog.
I know I’m just a dumb girl, but it seems to me that the logic of electing Democrats to protect choice only applies if Democrats are actually pro-choice.
I think Harry Reid’s doing a good job, but he’s not pro-choice, and neither are several other candidates that the Democratic party has supported recently. Stop assuming NARAL and other women’s groups are dumb and don’t get political strategy – we get that y’all really think you can pick up the somehow more valuable white male values voter by selling us out and not only are we pissed about it, we think it’s bad strategy that does nothing to buildi a progressive majority.