Hey ... that reminds me ... I'd started a reply to you somewhere on the First Ladies which I'll go finish up.
Norman, I don't wish to drag you down or anything -- it's only going to hurt a little while, I promise -- but Morris is correct. The whole Republican "Pro-Life" thing is a joke. In fact, the whole idea that it's Democrats behind the "environmental" movement is likewise a joke. That's just one reason Bush's comment upon his 4/11/2001 approval of the UN POP treaty was such a laugh riot. I can look it up for you, but it went something like this:
And now a Republican administration will finish the work of a Democratic administration. This is how environmental policy should work.
Do you want to know WHY it was so funny?
Because the GOP set up in 1970 the "briar patch" into which they were to be repeatedly thrown by the Dems thereafter where population control and the environment were concerned. It's all there -- black and white -- in the Congressional Record. Sure, they have to be kinda careful when speaking to abortion directly but they make a bang-up argument for the "moral obligation" of the government to educate the public to take the proper "remedial" actions lest the government be forced to enact "controls".
(They don't get specific about abortion until Kissinger's 1974 defense memo NSSM-200 in which he states pretty plainly that no nation has ever enjoyed successful population control sans abortion: "
abortion is vital to the solution" of population control at home AND abroad.)
I doubt very seriously there's a damn thing we can do about it now but -- honestly -- I think that it's far better to be informed such that things finally make sense instead of getting your chain yanked all the time by a bunch of pretenders blowing smoke at you like you're some Pavlovian dog who's going to salivate every time someone says "God bless".
I'm sure if it were the least bit a serious or even "partisan" issue, even ONE of the First Ladies (besides the now pro-human farming Nancy Reagan) would have been against abortion. Don't you think so?
I mean ... even if the years and years and years and years and years of listening to yahoos like Alan Keyes yet bored you to tears and left your heart unmoved, surely the fact that lockstep Dems managed to beat your team every time they pulled the abortion card would get to you after a while, no?
(And I think it does ... else how to explain Barbara Bush's 2000 explosive suggestion that we yank the damn human life plank out of the platform entirely. I'll bet if anyone's sick to death of "keeping up appearances" it's Barbara "
Abortions in the First Trimester Only" Bush.)
Over the past few weeks, I've been beginning to some to terms with the definite possibility that the GOP pro-life stand is a fake crutch. However you are not doubting the sincerity of the independent pro-life/right-to-movements, are you? If so, how do you recommend the pro-life movement proceeds?
I used to love the first President Bush. Now I don't know what to think of him. And believe me, it leaves me feeling very confused hearing this all. I don't know why I get this emotional attachment to Republican Presidents but I do. G.W. Bush has been slipping too upon reflection.
For a further thought look at the host of Republican judges who voted to uphold Terri's murder. Reagan, G.H.W., and G.W. appointees. The irony is that the only judges for Terri were a Clinton judge and a Ford judge, and Ford was hardly a conservative Republican.
By the way, who was the only GOP First Lady of the last firve who is pro-life? I take it you mean Nancy Reagan. She would've been the last First Lady I would have thought of being against abortion. Very sad to hear about Laura, because I like her so much.
As for the interchangeability of the so-called two-party system, just take a glance at all the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR) members in both recent Republican and Demcratic administrations. For a taste test, look at Bush's most recent appointees. John Bolton (UN), John Negroponte (DNI), and Paul Wolfowitz (WB), and they are all CFR guys. In my opinion, too much power, in too few hands, too kept out of sight, and too highly unknown not to be suspicious. But that's just me.
We need to get back to grassroots conservatism sans the secret power clubs. And we need people willing to carry the pro-life agenda with passion and honesty.