An how many innocent babies will be protected then, while you're sitting home smugly thinking about how you put the screws to the Repubs. who didn't do everything you wanted them to do?
You have to work with what you have, not deal in 'what ifs'. You don't alienate those who are able and willing to help you as much they can. We live in a Representative Republic where not everyone agrees with us. It took 15 years or so for the public to realize that abortion on demand was bad for this country. It has taken another 15 just to get them to realize that some restrictions are OK. It may take another 15 to get it outlawed entirely, if we can ever do so. You build alliances along the way, you don't scream, yell, pout, and take home your marbles when things aren't going EXACTLY the way you wish they would. You work with what you have, and you get the job done.
SuziQ wrote: "You have to work with what you have, not deal in 'what ifs'. You don't alienate those who are able and willing to help you as much they can. We live in a Representative Republic where not everyone agrees with us. It took 15 years or so for the public to realize that abortion on demand was bad for this country. It has taken another 15 just to get them to realize that some restrictions are OK. It may take another 15 to get it outlawed entirely, if we can ever do so. You build alliances along the way, you don't scream, yell, pout, and take home your marbles when things aren't going EXACTLY the way you wish they would. You work with what you have, and you get the job done."
Suzi, you're right.
But there's a piece missing from the puzzle here.
The pro-life movement is not just a little fringe group, sitting with its hat in its hand in the queue at the Republican front office. These folks have been loyal Republicans for a long time, and are a crucial constituency of the Republican Party. The Republicans cannot do ANY of their agenda if they lose power, and if the pro-lifers are deeply wounded and discouraged, and think that the Republicans have betrayed them, there are a lot of them, probably millions, who won't support the Republicans anymore, because they feel used.
That's what I read here: lots of people who have been loyal footsoldiers who feel used.
There is a politically free way for the Republican leadership to defuse this crisis in the base: OUTREACH.
They're going to put Specter in the Chair because they think they need to, for reasons having to do with the way Washington works.
The pro-lifers hate this, but most probably could abide it IF the leadership came down into the ranks and explained to the pro-life troops why this is necessary.
As it stands, as the headline of this thread indicates, not only are the pro-lifers angry because Specter is getting a job that could imperil their agenda, but even moreso because they are getting the stiff arm from Senator Frist.
Now, I said somewhere far above that I suspect that Senator Frist really does not intend to give the stiff-arm to pro-lifers, but when so many people who were elated by a victory are suddenly handed a plate full of unpalatable politics, AND the leadership isn't down in the ranks explaining that we need to eat our spinach now for good to come later, the venom starts to really do damage.
Look up the thread. There are FReepers here yelling at the pro-lifers for feeling betrayed. And there are other FReepers saying "relax, it will work out." The problem is that if we read the papers and watch TV, or listen to the radio, what's NOT there is Frist, Cheney, Santorum, Bush, or Rove for that matter, reaching out to the angry and frustrated pro-life core of the party.
We've just been handed a stinking pile.
Nobody is ever going to like that.
If officialdom explained the strategy and the plan, it would heal the rift.
But they aren't doing that.
They're acting every bit as detached and arrogant as the pro-lifers who are furious say they are.
I agree, pro-lifers need to keep their powder dry,
but the missing piece is that the leadership has to come down off of Mount Olympus and tell us everything is ok.
That doesn't cost a damned thing, politically, and actually would help strengthen the base.
But the silence is deafening.
We can do w/o your dramatics.
How many innocent babes are being protected now?