"And what you'll discover is that leaving the Republican party over one issue is the quickest way to lose on that issue."
And what WE have discovered, after 30 years of organizing, contributing, and being the footsoldiers for the party in many parts of the country, is that we have ALREADY LOST on the issue we care the most about: the sacredness of life.
Republicans, Democrats, it's all the same: abortion on demand, imposed by an imperial judiciary, is the law of the land. And now so is euthanasia, imposed by an imperial judiciary. Including nearly all the Republicans on the judiciary who decided anything in the Schiavo case.
So, the only possible way to change that dynamic and actually put one single WIN in the pro-life column, was for the Executive to act, and for the Legislature to act on the nuclear option.
They both welched on both last week.
So, there is no sting or threat in your words.
You imply that we will lose something if we walk away.
We have already lost everything.
We remain where we were 30 years ago: at zero.
And the Republicans this week turned away from the chance to assert the sacredness of life over and above bad law and imperial judicial overreach.
They chose not to.
So, the "quickest way to lose"?
Actually, the slowest way for us to lose was to take 30 years to support the GOP, to have 5 of the 6 branches of government controlled by the GOP in the Schiavo case all turn away from doing the right thing.
We took a long time to lose.
We started at zero and stayed at zero.
We cannot lose MORE than abortion on demand and euthanasia on court order by becoming discouraged and leaving the folks who were not really our allies (and still aren't: where's the Nuclear Option?)
The only people with anything to lose, actually, are the rest of the Republicans. Because we got zero and are still at zero, but they got an economic agenda which will be dismantled if we are not there to support them.
There is still one thing the Republicans can do to save their coalition and agenda: pass the Nuclear Option now.
Not next year. By then, there will be a million new former Republican Christian pro-life Independents.
This is not hard.
Once again the Republicans have the POWER to do something, but just won't do it.
After the past two weeks, people like me believe that is because the Republicans don't ever really intend to spill any real political blood over life. They'll talk, but they won't act.
And that is not acceptable.
Good points, I have a feeling the Schiavo case is more highlighting the failure so far of the pro-life movement, on the abortion issue.
Which imo is why many pro-life people reacted so strongly to this case, even though I believe it wasn't the good versus evil struggle that some portray it as.
Ditto and amen.