My Dad used to,and still does say....
Posted on 05/23/2004 6:35:29 AM PDT by madprof98
Irish Catholic Kennedy fans - that's how Tim Dore has long thought of his family and their ties to the Democratic Party.
On immigration, business and the environment, the 31-year-old attorney still feels attached to the political party that's been home to generations of Dores.
But one issue has separated Dore from the party he loves.
"Abortion is a foundational issue," said Dore, the executive director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, the lobbying arm of the church. "If a candidate talks about the dignity of the poor, vulnerable and homeless, and yet doesn't talk about the dignity of life at its most innocent moment in the womb - there's an inconsistency there that's troubling."
So Dore has become that rarest of political animals: a Democrat who opposes abortion. He's head of the recently formed state chapter of Democrats for Life, which now has 28 members. Thirty-seven states have similar chapters, but all have been shrugged off by the party proper, Dore said.
That's not surprising, said Chris Gates, head of the Colorado Democratic Party.
"There's no doubt the vast majority of Democrats are pro-choice and for the vast majority of Democrats, being pro-choice is a litmus test," Gates said.
Chris Rose also fails that litmus test. He's running as a "pro-life Democrat" for the House District 27 seat in Arvada. Like Dore, he mourns a party that he feels close to on most social issues except abortion.
"I can remember the moment I decided I was going to be an active Democrat," said Rose, 29. "It was 1992, when Bill Clinton said America is a great country, and tomorrow will be better than today, and we have a moral responsibility to make it so."
Asked whether Rose will get the same support in his campaign as other Democrats, Gates said, "He is the nominee and he will have the same support as other people get."
But the issue of abortion still makes Rose feel like a stranger in his own party.
"Democrats have always been for the underdog and the disadvantaged," Rose said. "I can't think of a more vulnerable person in our culture than an expectant mother and an unborn child that faces difficult circumstances."
As a Catholic candidate, Rose, who is an associate director of the Colorado Catholic Conference, has come to terms with certain moral choices on the abortion issue. He said he's told Archbishop Charles Chaput that as a state representative, "I would never vote for anything on any issue that was unconstitutional - and if an abortion restriction was unconstitutional, I'd vote against it."
He said the archbishop understood.
Contrary to many Catholic Democrats who support abortion rights, Dore thinks the Democratic Party could end up the winner in the current controversy that pits bishops against voters and candidates who support abortion rights. In other words, Catholic Democrats who love both their party and their church could force open "the big tent" party even wider.
"I know the bishops didn't intend this, but they have forced open the door of the Democratic Party to the pro-life wing," Dore said. "This is like a breath of fresh air. I like to say it's bringing life back into the party."
Copyright 2004, Rocky Mountain News. All Rights Reserved.
Get a grip gentlemen, like me, you didn't leave the party, the party left you. Conservatives are the big tent.
I certainly hope so. Unfortunately there is a long way to go in terms of changing the pro-choice democrats on the subject of abortion. I think that the pro-life group is growing and more covered in the media now. But we must stay vigilant to make sure that the changes that have happened are not undermined by the liberals.
Yes, and the heirarchy of the party this putz subscribes to wouldn't let one of their own, the then Governor of Pennsylvania, Bob Casey (who has since passed away) speak at the Clinton convention because he was too 'inflamatory' in his anti abortion stance. Sure...there IS room for everyone in the Democratic party...just so you walk in lock step.
"Democrats have always been for the underdog and the disadvantaged,"
Yes, they've been for keeping them that way.
The end game for the socialists is an agnostic/communist state. They just haven't had the time to tell their constiuents yet.
The Democrats are the party of the poor people.
The Republicans are the party of the rich people.
The Democrats want to make everyone poor.
The Republicans want everyone to be rich.
"28 members".....transgendered aliens have a bigger voice in the Dem party...
My Dad used to,and still does say....
ss. Rose takes his cue from the most immoral? This guy is really out to lunch.
Pro-life RATS are to shut up and blindly vote RAT.
Catholic Democrats are people for whom rat socialist policies are more important than human life. I'm sure they don't like to think about it that way but, too bad that is the truth. Thurth is another problem that rats of all religions have but then again that's another story.
You can not be a good Catholic and a good Democrat.
My dad died when Kennedy was President - it's hard to imagine what he would have thought of Johnson, Carter and Clinton.
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This guy is not pro-life, as his own position clearly indicates he would not vote for pro-life legislation:
He said he's told Archbishop Charles Chaput that as a state representative, "I would never vote for anything on any issue that was unconstitutional - and if an abortion restriction was unconstitutional, I'd vote against it."
Well, my sympathy for him vanished about the time I read the sentence "I would never vote for anything that was un-Constitutional..."
Like, perhaps, a partial-birth abortion restriction? A restriction from abort-at-any-time to, say, abort-only-within-the-first-trimester?
Hard to know whether to laugh or cry.
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