Happy Endings: Rethinking and repackaging abortion rights. [View All]

[ConservativeDemocrat]

Abortion on demand and without apology.

Patriarchy's got to go.

Dead women can't cook your meals.

Hey Bush! We wish your mother had a choice!

Those were some of the slogans on display 15 years ago when pro-choice activists marched in Washington for abortion rights.

It's a crucial moment for the abortion rights movement. Don't blow it.

Marches attract passionate advocates and concentrate them in one place. They foster the illusion that you and your sisters who have filled the National Mall represent a cross-section of America. You don't. Most Americans hate abortion and don't consider themselves feminists. You need the votes of these people. Praise abortion, shout about patriarchy, and you'll alienate them for another decade.

Smart feminists understand this. In 1989, they drowned out the radicals in their ranks by filling the pro-choice march on Washington with signs, buttons, and stickers asking, "Who Decides? You or them?" This message, developed by the National Abortion Rights Action League after months of polling and focus groups, was designed to appeal to voters who considered themselves moderate or somewhat conservative. The marchers thought "you or them" meant "women or sexists." The public thought it meant "families or government." The latter interpretation cut to the heart of conservative thinking. People who had previously voted Republican because they thought the government should stay out of the family began to vote Democratic — most notably in Virginia, where they elected a black governor for the first and only time in the history of the South.

The full article can be found here.

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Mr. Saletan's thesis is, of course, correct. But hardly applies only to the abortion rights issue. The problem of extremists driving away centrists is a significant issue for both parties. Speaking just for myself, I can tell you that I'd rather see a frothing-at-the-mouth freeper at a public debate than a frothing-at-the-mouth-D.U.-green. (You know the kind - people who like to write about how terrible Kerry is because he's too right wing). People in the center tend not to think of things in black and white terms, and they don't like people who attack them for not adhering to an extreme ideology.

- C.D.