Explain Todd Akin then. If this is working, then he wins, right?
The fact of the matter is that most women are not going to respond to an overt anti-abortion message. That's half of your electorate right there. How much of that are you willing to throw away? We just lost this election. How many more do you want to lose?
That's the question out there. It isn't a matter of right versus wrong. Its a matter of winning or losing and which side of that you want to be on.
Once you figure out what side you want to be on, then you carefully craft a message to thread the needle and turn off the fewest numbers of voters you can possibly turn off.
The opposition has this figured out. Why can't we?
Once you figure out what side you want to be on, then you carefully craft a message to thread the needle and turn off the fewest numbers of voters you can possibly turn off.
Carefully crafting a message is easy to do when the media's on your side. They never asked Obama about same-sex marriage in debates despite him radically changing his party's policy and his own position this year. So the DNC was able to carefully drop subtle references to it at the convention without saying it outright, and no one called them on it. Our guys could've called 'em on it, run ads about it, but they're either cowards or social liberals who agree with Obama.
Bottom line is, I'm happy to lose as many elections as I need to while standing up for my bedrock, core principles. That's what the left did on same-sex marriage, and they're not only winning elections on it and changing the laws of the land, but they're changing the public's mind on the issue slowly but surely. They didn't back away, they fought hard for what they believe in. I'm going to do the same for what I believe in. And if we unite on that and form great arguments, we will change the public's mind as well. Abortion is a far more important issue to me than gun control, taxes and many other conservative planks. If the party flips on that issue, I'll flip on them while I flip them off. Your mileage may vary.