What do voting and abortion have in common? A tactic to make both of them harder for people conservatives don’t like.
by digby
This piece by Irin Carmen and Zach Beauchamp tells an important story that most people, particularly in Washington, don’t seem to appreciate: the long term conservative strategy to roll back successful policies won by liberals in the culture war. They haven’t surrendered, not by a long shot:
Texas has been ground zero for both crusades. In 2011, the state passed the nation’s strictest voter ID law, dubbed a “poll tax” by Attorney General Eric Holder, which is currently being challenged in federal court. In recent years the state has also passed restrictions on voter registration drives. Texas is also the living laboratory for the right’s attempt to end legal abortion. It is the only state where a federal appeals court has allowed about half of the state’s clinics to close. Doctors, thanks to opposition to abortion at local hospitals, were unable to comply with the requirement that they have admitting privileges there.
But the striking parallels go well beyond the Lone Star State.
On both abortion and voting, key progressive achievements thought to have been decisively settled decades ago during an era of relative liberal supremacy are now under threat.
“These are two of the most significant movements to roll back rights going on in the country right now,” said Wendy Weiser, director of the Democracy Program at the Brennan Center for Justice. Combined, she said, efforts to restrict voting and abortion rights “go contrary to the general trajectory of American legal history, of rights expanding…and I think that should be alarming to people.”
The 1965 Voting Rights Act (VRA) appeared to settle the question of access to the ballot for good. But the law was badly weakened by the Supreme Court last year in Shelby County v. Holder, a ruling that smoothed the path for a sequence of restrictive state voting measures—including Texas’s – to advance in its wake.
A woman’s right to end her pregnancy until fetal viability was asserted by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade in 1973. But the court subsequently watered down the right with later decisions that have left lower court judges with relatively free rein.
Strategically, the campaigns around each issue have been similar, too. In both cases, conservatives have largely taken a piecemeal approach, patiently chipping away at their targets instead of going for everything at once.
I think a lot of us who follow the right closely have been noticing this for a while. I remember posting about this cunning pro-life activist from Kansas almost a decade ago:
BRANCACCIO: The head of Kansans for Life, Mary Kay Culp has a good reason for watching the big story in Washington this week.
Appeals court judge Samuel Alito did not trip up in any grotesque way this week. The conventional wisdom that dictates these things signals that Alito will soon occupy the swing seat on the Supreme Court. And his rulings could shift the court’s position on hot-button issues like abortion.
It’s just that kind of shift on the court that Mary Kay Culp and her group in Kansas have been hoping for.
BRANCACCIO: Thanks for coming in.
MARY KAY CULP: Thanks for having me.
BRANCACCIO: Well, looks like Samuel Alito is going to get this. That must, given all the work you’ve done over these years, make you happy.
MARY KAY CULP: I am glad that President Bush’s nominee looks like he’s going to make it on the court. Whether or not it’s going to make me happy from a pro-life point of view, I think that remains to be seen.
BRANCACCIO: Why are you being tentative? He–
MARY KAY CULP: Well, he looks like he’s a real careful– a real careful, thoughtful, analytical guy, and I like that. And– because I’m a little tired of this being portrayed as if he has an agenda, that all of a sudden, poof is going to happen if he gets on the court.
BRANCACCIO: Agenda being getting rid of Roe v. Wade?
MARY KAY CULP: Exactly. I don’t think that that’s going to happen. And if it does, all it means is that the issue comes back to the states.
BRANCACCIO: But, with all the work that you’ve been doing in Kansas for all these years, don’t you think that if it becomes a State’s matter that in Kansas like that (SNAP) you’ll get rid of abortion? Huh?
MARY KAY CULP: No. I don’t. Unh-uh. I don’t think that’ll happen in the states. But, what can happen is a real discussion. What can happen are committee hearings in your Senate and your House where witnesses are called– witnesses who have had abortions– witnesses on both side of the issue. And, it can be heard — the most frustrating thing about Roe is that it just slammed the door. When you try to get a State law passed even to regulate just a little bit, or partial birth abortion, anything, a legislator will tell you– “Well, you know– we can’t do that under Roe versus Wade anyway.”
BRANCACCIO: But you must be encouraged about the way things are going with Samuel Alito? All right, I’ll encourage you then.
MARY KAY CULP: Okay.
BRANCACCIO: You know– Pat Buchanan?
MARY KAY CULP: Uh-huh.
BRANCACCIO: My favorite conservative commentator.
MARY KAY CULP: Yes. Uh-huh.
BRANCACCIO: He said with Alito– here’s the quote from this week.
MARY KAY CULP: Okay.
BRANCACCIO: “Roe could go. George W. Bush is one Justice away from succeeding where Nixon, Ford, his father and even Ronald Reagan all failed.”
MARY KAY CULP: That would be – one Justice after Alito.
BRANCACCIO: One Justice after Alito.
MARY KAY CULP: Unless– not with Alito. Yeah.
BRANCACCIO: So, it’s gettin’ there.
MARY KAY CULP: Right.
BRANCACCIO: I don’t understand how Kansas wouldn’t– ban abortion quit quickly after that. What do you know about the state of that debate in your state…
MARY KAY CULP: It isn’t that. It’s just that I know how the political system works. Then you can have real discussion. Then every– both sides are gonna get aired, and if the media’s fair about it, both sides are gonna get aired. That– you know, that’s a question. But at least democracy will have a chance to work on it. But, that doesn’t necessarily mean anything either way.
But, well, I do know what might happen in Kansas. We have late term abortions in Kansas, and we’re known for having late term abortions in Kansas. Those, yes, we might be able to get rid of right away.
BRANCACCIO: But, really there are two questions here. There’s the political calculation that I did ask you about. Do you think that Roe v. Wade’s going to be overturned and therefore abortion will become illegal? You don’t think so. But, what about your goal? Would it make you happier? Is this your vision of America where abortion is illegal.
MARY KAY CULP: It would be nice to know that tomorrow morning no knives are gonna be taken to unborn babies. That’d be a nice thing. But, in order for that to happen and for it to– to stay in place, I mean, if you just boom turn it around– without people really understanding the issue, it’s not as– certainly not as satisfying as it happening for the right reasons.
Because, the media in this country becomes unafraid to actually hear both sides of this issue, ’cause that hasn’t been the case for 30 years. It’s been getting better. But, really it’s kind of an interesting dynamic, because– I didn’t notice really a change until a partial birth abortion issue came along in Congress, and that really earns you a lot of credibility. And, then people start to look and listen. And, as we got stronger politically, it’s really– it’s amazing how a political win really can draw peoples’ attention to an issue.
BRANCACCIO: You know, Mary Kay, from your discussion, though, there are a lot of people who do not like abortion, who want to reduce the number of abortions I America–
MARY KAY CULP: Uh-huh.
BRANCACCIO: But are very concerned about an America where if a woman chooses to do this for whatever complicated reason that they have that choice. You could have some of these States deciding based on a different Supreme Court, “We are gonna outlaw it.” And, that means if you got the money, you go to another state. If you don’t got the money and your poor, terrible things could happen.
MARY KAY CULP: You know, terrible things are happening right now– terrible things. But, nobody knows about ’em, because nobody’s really looking at the other side of this issue. Terrible things can happen on both sides of this issues, if it’s recognized for what it is and the way it impacts a woman’s life and impacts society. And that’s what I think we need to look at.
There are a lot of mainstream Americans out there that care about this issue. It isn’t– you know– people can stereotype us and call us names if they want to. You know what? We don’t care, because there’s just more and more of us, and we’re having more of a political effect. And, I hope we’ll get some credibility with the media only so that we can look at these issues in a– in a real way.
BRANCACCIO: Well, Mary Kay Culp, Kansans for Life, thanks for coming in to help us understand where you’re coming from and possibly understand where the ascent of Samuel Alito came from.
MARY KAY CULP: Thank you for allowing me to come. I appreciate it.
They decided some time ago to take one baby step at a time until there was nothing left. They lie about their intentions and go to great lengths to obfuscate their true goals. That woman was good but not good enough to hide it entirely.
Read the whole Carmen Beauchamp piece. If political activists read it they can see how this same approach can be applied to so many of the decent advances liberals have brought to our society at both the state and federal level. They just keep chipping away.
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