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That said, how are you defining 'mainstream political opinions'? Also, should every effort and every position be determined on the basis of its political costs - or do we follow our principles for those things that are most important to us?

Poll after poll has consistently shown over the years that a majority of Americans support some form of legal abortion but also support restrictions, whether these be parental notification laws or trimester limits.

These opinions are generally not shared on this forum. They are also not shared on the liberal forums where abortion should be offered any time for any reason, a position that is equally out of step with mainstream political opinions.

Winning elections often requires compromise. Holding strongly to principals often means losing. Is it better to compromise your principals and win or hold on to them and lose? In other words, is it better to support the candidate that represents 50% of your views and could win or the candidate who represents 100% of your views but has no chance at beating the candidate who represents 0% of your views?

Carl Sagan wrote "The Demon Haunted World" before he died. In it he talked about what your comments address - that society was becoming 'all or none' in its approaches to issues, with no compromise or willingness to examine and discuss.

He actually addressed abortion, and said on one extreme you have those who think that contraception, or the morning after pill are equivalent to any later time of abortion. On the other extreme you have those for whom partial birth abortion is just fine, and for whom all abortions are OK.

I agree with your general sentiments, but right and wrong also exist. Not all people believe that there are absolutes in anything. I personally believe there are some absolutes. That said, sometimes you have to retreat, give up territory, and regroup. It depends on what is at stake.

Sagan may have been a liberal (I don't know one way or the other), but he definitely made some good points. This is from this book:

“I have a foreboding of an America in my children's or grandchildren's time — when the United States is a service and information economy; when nearly all the key manufacturing industries have slipped away to other countries; when awesome technological powers are in the hands of a very few, and no one representing the public interest can even grasp the issues; when the people have lost the ability to set their own agendas or knowledgeably question those in authority; when, clutching our crystals and nervously consulting our horoscopes, our critical faculties in decline, unable to distinguish between what feels good and what's true, we slide, almost without noticing, back into superstition and darkness. The dumbing down of America is most evident in the slow decay of substantive content in the enormously influential media, the 30-second sound bites (now down to 10 seconds or less), lowest common denominator programming, credulous presentations on pseudoscience and superstition, but especially a kind of celebration of ignorance.”