After the fundraising call from the DCCC yesterday through the Telefund group, I have been seething inside. I posted about it. I have not gotten over it because I saw two new realities that my rather naive view of politics is having a heck of a lot of trouble taking in.
Reality #1: When I mentioned we donated to the DNC because of Howard Dean, and also were members of DFA….her mood changed for the worse. Before then we had just been chatting about things in a friendly manner.
Reality #2: When I said I feared the party was going to give in on women’s issues to get more members this time, then it really got bad. I was not even allowed to tell her how much we did locally. It went downhill. The tone and her words, that no one was willing to give up their issues, made it clear I was right about the intent. She was furious, angry, that I was so presumptive as to differ on this.
I intend to keep eyes out now for what women are facing. I do a search regularly on the Democrats for Life group which is gaining access to the party now with Governor Dean’s permission. Love you, Gov, but that is not playing well with many of us.
The Democrats for Life refused to endorse Kerry last year. I found this article today about them. I do not trust them to just want a say in the party, I think they are sort of taking over women’s issues. Some of them are very extremist in their views. The head of the Florida chapter even wrote an article about Kerry called:
Could Kerry be the ‘Hitler of the Unborn’?
Last I heard Ms Mierzwa was still president of the Florida chapter of Democrats for Life, and still ranting like a fool.
I ran across this article today which tells more about Howard’s meeting with the Democrats for Life, and it also points out that Planned Parenthood is going to let us down as well. Don’t get me wrong. I know this is not just about abortion, per se. This is about women’s rights in general.
It won’t take much to go to the next level. This group is more religious in nature than it is political. They are misrepresenting the percentage of people who do not believe in a woman’s rights to have one. The next step will be forbidding certain types of birth control based on their view that life begins at conception. Then there will be other areas involving women on which the line could be crossed. The groups like this believe as a rule that a woman needs to be in the home while her children are young, and they do not for a moment hesitate to put a woman on a guilt trip if she chooses a career as well.
Pro-abortion groups realize `choice’ isn’t selling in U.S. politics
Democratic think tank, the Third Way, billing itself as a “strategy center for progressives” attempting to reverse the social tide in the United States toward traditional values, said that the Democrat party and abortion groups need to change their rhetoric.
After its success in moving the Democrats to the center on gun control, the think tank is now focusing on abortion with “a series of briefing papers on abortion, with policy and messaging that will help progressives win the war of ideas.”
Newsweek magazine obtained a brief from the Third Way that shows the country is locked into polarized positions, but that most of the public falls into the undecided category which the brief calls, “grays.”
“We’ve now gotten locked in a frame and policies for 30 years that speak to the polars but don’t speak to the grays,” said Third Way president Jon Cowan.
And this part breaks my heart because I know Howard Dean is sincerely for a woman’s right to choose. I hate that he is allowing himself and women to be manipulated by language. I don’t think he knows that this group for what it really is. I am furious to see George Lakoff’s words which are mentioned in this article. I have loved his works, have his book, appreciate much of his framing. In this article he goes overboard, I think.
“He said he wanted to take ‘abortion’ out of the political lexicon,” former DNC head Steve Grossman said.
Lakoff, whom Newsweek called an “unofficial guru to beleaguered Democrats,” suggested that the new approach to abortion should be on “reducing unwanted pregnancies” and using the phrase “personal freedom.”
This suggestion has been eagerly adopted by NARAL, which introduced its new advertising strategy, using the phrase, ” ‘culture of freedom and responsibility’… soundly beats ‘culture of life.’ “
And note that NARAL is toeing the line now. All is well, don’t worry. The sad part is that I am a very moderate person, a Christian. I never had an abortion, but I remember when it was not legal. This group wants to take us back to the 60s. I don’t think we should let them.
I read in an article that the President of the National chapter of Democrats for Life is a featured speaker at the National Right to Life group convention this month. They are also very close with Feminists for Life. All together these groups are powerful.