The US Republican Party is very lucky to have the opponents it has. Even though it was informed on Monday () that American voters are more concerned about the state of the economy than the abortion issue, in a proportion of (44 to five, the President of the United States has decided to end his party’s feverish campaign for the midterm elections by focusing on… abortion. Even now, with the American public furiously voicing their disapproval, Joe Biden fails to get the message.
“In a big speech three weeks before the midterm elections, Biden makes it clear that the right to abortion is the main Democratic banner,” the Washington Post said on Tuesday (18). The British Telegraph was more forceful in its assessment: “Joe Biden mobilizes voters around abortion rights as his party sinks in the polls for the midterm elections”. In fact, that is what has been happening.
It would be too simplistic to suggest that Biden’s party is sinking just because it is focused on the abortion issue. But it’s not overly simplistic to suggest that, once again, Biden is focusing on the wrong issue.
Abortion is not the key issue of our era, as much as Biden wants it to be. It’s not a key issue, in fact, none of the other issues he’s tried to bring to the forefront since taking office.
The Democratic Party’s broad public spending agenda never aroused the interest of voters. . Nor is his obsession with climate change, his hostility towards domestic energy production, his crusade for draconian firearms control or his absurd insistence on the argument that the future of these issues is inseparable from the future of democracy itself. From day one, the fate of Biden’s presidency has been linked to the fate of the economy. Yet, for some reason, Biden never realized it.
Instead, the president has chosen to bow to the leadership of a progressive movement that, inexplicably, continues to terrorize him. Joe Biden won the election of 2020 because he realized that Twitter wasn’t real life. His presidency foundered because he promptly forgot that Twitter wasn’t real life.
The stimulus/response mechanisms are crystal clear: Progressives complain that Biden doesn’t talk enough about abortion, so Biden does. more on the subject; progressives insist Biden must violate laws on evictions, student loans, and vaccine passports, so Biden violates laws on evictions, student loans, and vaccine passports; progressives demand that Biden spend $2 trillion in March, then another $6 trillion in June, and Biden complies. Like Ado Annie Carnes in the musical “Oklahoma!”, he’s a kid who can’t say no. And, my God, he’s in trouble!
Substantively, it’s not clear that shifting focus to the abortion issue will help the Democratic Party in the November elections, as the party’s approach to policies on the subject is absurd. If Democrats had taken a moderate stance on the issue after the Roe v. Wade was overthrown, perhaps they would have managed to split the Republican Party and put its candidates at a disadvantage.
But the Democrats did not take this attitude: instead, they opted for an entirely revolting position, which maintains that none of the restriction of procedure is acceptable and which presupposes that the federal government should prosecute those who disagree, fill the courts with cronies and deprive states of their express constitutional powers.
In Joe Biden’s mind, his crusade for “reproductive justice” is comparable to the struggle for civil rights. In fact, it only involves Democratic Senate candidates who refuse to oppose infanticide and party icons like Stacey Abrams who provide gems like this: “Let’s be clear. Having kids is the reason you are worried about the price of gas. That’s why you’re worried about how much food costs.”
This is not an abortion policy; it’s eugenics. In an attempt to combine public interest in the economic issue with the Democratic Party’s desire to talk about abortion, Abrams ultimately suggested that the main problem facing American families today is that they didn’t kill their children.
It’s basically a parody – like one of those bland British sitcoms where an economist asks the prime minister if he’s ever considered solving the problem of poverty by killing the poor en masse. Biden’s problem is that these sitcoms are jokes, while the Democrats’ abortion policy isn’t funny at all. The party will soon pay a heavy price for this strategic neglect.
*Charles CW Cooke is a columnist for National Review and host of The Charles CW Cooke Podcast
© 2022 National Review. Published with permission. Original in English.
