Pro-Life, Anti-Preference Democrats?

The former seems more likely than the latter.

Abortion advocates are still upset with Democrat leaders who have coalesced behind two candidates for the U.S. Senate who oppose abortion. The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has recruited Pennsylvania state Treasurer Bob Casey and Rhode Island Rep. Jim Langevin to run in Senate races in those states.

Not only have top Democrats recruited candidates who oppose abortion, they’ve attempted to clear the field and persuade other Democrats from declaring their candidacies.

Kate Michaelman, former head of the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL), regards this as a revolting development (Anyone Remember “The Life of Riley”?), and is all too typical of others on the left these days when she regards opposition to racial preferences as “racist.”

Equating pro-life advocates with racists, Michaelman asked, “Can you imagine recruiting people to run for the Senate with a record of opposition to affirmative action or to Brown v. Board of Education?”

But Michaelman is profoundly right on one point:

“It is a problem when leading Democrats publicly recruit candidates who do not share the core values of the party,” former NARAL president Kate Michaelman told MSNBC. “I don’t think you ever win in the long term by sacrificing core principles….

She’s right: the Democrats sacrificed the core principle that individuals have a right to be treated without regard to race, creed, or color, and look what happened to them. (Corollary: If the Democrats ever do nominate someone to something who does adhere to that core principle, I’ll be happy to look at them afresh.)

Say What? (2)

  1. Chetly Zarko March 12, 2005 at 12:16 am | | Reply

    I know several close associates who are hard-core Democrats (who’ve actually run for office), and this issue is so sacred to the Party that even though they admit privately I’m right (especially when approached with a strong argument for socio-economic or univeral liberal alternatives) they also admit that if they ever ran for office again, they’d have no choice on this issue but to fall in line. There are a few though that realize a Democrat who defected on this issue would be a much more powerful candidate if they could get through the primaries.

    A sad situation, indeed.

  2. Richard Nieporent March 12, 2005 at 12:56 am | | Reply

    “It is a problem when leading Democrats publicly recruit candidates who do not share the core values of the party,” former NARAL president Kate Michaelman told MSNBC. “I don’t think you ever win in the long term by sacrificing core principles

    She couldn

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