Posted on 07/13/2018 9:12:09 PM PDT by Morgana
Popular Republican journalist Jonah Goldberg angered his base Wednesday by claiming people can be conservative and support abortion.
Goldberg is a senior editor at the National Review and a New York Times bestselling author. On Twitter Wednesday, he made the comment about fellow conservative journalist Tomi Lahren who has been openly critical of pro-lifers.
“Honestly, I think you can support abortion and still be a conservative. I just have a problem when you’re stupid about it or use left wing arguments for it — or both,” Goldberg wrote in the post, linking to one of Lahren’s recent comments.
Goldberg continued his thread to buttress his thesis that being a conservative is not about a single political issue:
No one would argue with Jonah that one could be an atheist and be a conservative or the many other things and be a conservative. But it is very difficult to be a conservative when you deny the most fundamental right to life there is and that is the right to life.
Thomas Jefferson, ironically the founder of the Democratic Party, understood that the number one goal of good government was to protect the right of life of its citizens. Conservative political philosophies are all about putting in place principles to make the lives of the nation’s citizens better by relying on freedoms and liberties free of undue governmental influence as opposed to government control. But it is impossible for citizens to enjoy any of the rights or freedoms under a conservative government if they are not alive to enjoy them in the first place.
Conservatives certainly can disagree about political policies like taxing and spending or foreign policy. President Ronald Reagan understood that Republicans can disagree on some political philosophies and policies and still be united as Republicans when they agree on 80% of the major issues of the day. But the pro-life former president clearly understood that human beings have a fundamental right to life they can’t be abrogated by government.
Mr. Goldberg has taken this news outlet to task for publishing this article. But the issue of the right to life and its primary place in the Republican or conservative political movements is a long-standing one. There have been decades worth of debates about keeping the Republican Party a pro-life party and having a strong pro-life position in the party platform, for example.
So the question of whether or not the Republican Party or the conservative movement rests on the fundamental right to life is a very important one for a considerable number of conservative Republican voters. To merely label this discussion as “clickbait or sloppy” is to do a great disservice to the merits of this very substantive and important debate and the considerable number of pro-life conservative Republican voters for whom it is the most important or one of the most important political issues they consider when voting.
In fact the issue of the right to life and its place in the Republican and conservative movement is so important that millions of Democrats who formally aligned with the Democratic Party are now Republicans/conservatives specifically because the Democratic Party and the liberals who control it moved in such a radically pro-abortion direction. To say that conservatives can be pro-abortion undermines the very reason so many people are conservatives in the first place.
When it comes to the debate over abortion in the Republican Party, Lahren has been openly critical of pro-life conservatives. About the debate about the open U.S. Supreme Court seat, Lahren told Fox News: “Implying that we’re sending a Supreme Court justice to the bench to carry out religious judicial activism is a mistake and unconstitutional. It’s not what conservatives stand for.”
While certainly not flattering to Lahren, his post did upset a number of his Twitter followers.
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Ummm…
Nope.
Jonah Goldberg? The make-believe conservative?
Not going to make “Trixie” proud!
Margaret Sanger wasn't pro-choice. She demanded a moratorium on babies for a period of ten years, damn the consequences if some woman thought she wanted to have a baby. Abortion is about control. It isn't freedom or liberating.
They have a word for that: Bush family member.
“Popular Republican journalist Jonah Goldberg angered his base Wednesday by claiming people can be conservative and support abortion.“
No Jonah, they can’t.
L
I agree with him, but Jonah is not a conservative.
Is that similar to being a vocal, proud homosexual and claiming to be a Christian?? Guy B., that is you.....
Jonah has a base? Bullshite.
“Jonah has a base?”
Well, there is his mom.
L
What about late-term abortions? And how late is too late? What about 50 years or 60 years or no limit?
I don’t support abortion. I just don’t go against it. The unity of Republican Party is the most important to our country. I think illegal immigration and border security should be THE MOST IMPORTANT issue all the time
Okay, Jonah, let’s play your game.
You said... “Honestly, I think you can support abortion and still be a conservative. I just have a problem when you’re stupid about it or use left wing arguments for it — or both.”
So that would mean... “Honestly, I think you can support the Holocaust and still be a conservative. I just have a problem when you’re stupid about it or use left wing arguments for it — or both.”
“I don’t support abortion. I just don’t go against it.”
That means you support it and pretend you don’t. And you pretend you don’t in order to salve your conscience. That’s pretty pathetic.
Why preface it with the word “honestly”. Reminds me of when someone says “To tell you the truth...”. That usually means a lie is coming.
George Will agrees.
It’s true that conservatism is diverse and there are many issues on which we disagree among ourselves. But there are a few central principles that unite us as conservatives, and defending life and the defenseless is a central one.
Exactly. Jonah, Kristol and Lowry are nothing but fakes. Oh, and add Hayes to that list.
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