Democrats using one life-and-death issue to polarize Americans
Joe Biden at the Democrats' debate in Las Vegas on Feb. 19, 2020 (MSNBC screenshot)
[Editor's note: This story originally was published by Real Clear Wire.]
By Noelle Worley
Real Clear Wire
The Democratic Party is commemorating the first anniversary of Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health with a rallying cry of opposition. Rep. Suzan DelBene, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, opened a press call just before noon last Wednesday by characterizing the Republican Party as “extremists … and those who are too weak to stand up to them [that] are doing everything they can to restrict reproductive freedom.”
In part, because they made abortion a key campaign issue, Democrats were able to blunt an expected “red wave” in the 2022 midterms. The party’s ambitions for 2024 are even greater – and they believe public opinion is trending in their favor. DelBene referenced a USA Today poll finding that by a margin of nearly 4-1, “those whose views on abortion have changed in the past year said they have become more supportive of legal abortion.”
The DCCC, and Democratic National Committee specifically, plan to use billboards and social media to remind voters of Republicans' attempts at legislatively and judicially restricting access to abortion, including Dobbs v. Jackson and Alliance for Hippocratic Medicine v. FDA.
“Republicans have been very clear about their ongoing effort to pass a nationwide abortion ban,” DelBene said. “We're going to continue to highlight that and continue to hold Republicans accountable.”
Sen. Gary Peters, a Michigan Democrat who heads the Democratic Senate Campaign Committee, identified Ohio, Wisconsin, Nevada, and Arizona as key battlegrounds on this issue. “You look at all of the Republicans running for the Senate [in these states] – all of the Republicans hold very extreme views, no exceptions for rape or incest,” Peters said.
Democrats also plan to take aim at Republican presidential candidates who have expressed support for a nationwide abortion ban. Although DNC Chairman Jaime Harrison named Donald Trump, Ron DeSantis, Nikki Haley, Tim Scott, Asa Hutchinson, Vivek Ramaswamy, and Chris Christie as supporters of such a ban, that list was strictly accurate. Trump has ridiculed such a ban, while Haley and DeSantis have been studiously avoiding taking a position.
Hutchinson, Scott, and Mike Pence (whom Harrison did not name) are the only Republican candidates who have explicitly supported a nationwide abortion ban, and for Hutchinson and Scott, that restriction would apply only after the 15th week of pregnancy.
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On this issue, painting with a broad brush is part of the Democrats’ strategy. Over the course of the 22-minute call, Rep. DelBene, Sen. Peters, and Chairman Harrison collectively described the Republican opposition as “extreme” or “extremist” on 23 occasions – and tying Trump to it all is part of the strategy.
“The Republican Party is MAGA extremism – is about ripping away the freedoms of the American people going at the sacred liberties that we hold dear,” Harrison said.
“This is a party that used to wrap themselves in the American flag,” he added. “Well, what the hell does the American flag represent to them if they want to rip away the rights of people to life, liberty, and pursuit of happiness? That's what we're seeing right now in the Republican Party.”
Whether the Democratic Party’s ramping up the rhetoric on this issue will prove effective is yet to be seen, but its polarizing, us-vs-them narrative is alive and well.
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