There is a heartening op-ed at USA Today called “Most Americans don’t want a standing ovation for abortion until birth. But Democrats do.”
The article by Ashley McGuire sounds the commonly heard refrain that Democrats have overstepped the American public, the implication being that Dems will be soundly rebuked come election time as a result.
The left may be celebrating the bill’s passage, but it is wildly out of step with American sentiment on the issue.
I wish I shared the confidence of Ms. McGuire and others, but that would require turning my back on history. I would have to ignore the fact that slavery was accepted and legal in the United States until 155 years ago. I would have to ignore the fact that Germans went into a trance-like state and accepted the barbarism of the Nazi regime and the Holocaust less than 80 years ago.
I would have to ignore the fact that as recently as 10 years ago the vast majority of Americans believed that marriage was a sacred institution between one man and one woman, yet today homosexual marriage is the law of the land.
I would have to ignore the proven ability of Democrats to push their agenda across the finish line while Republicans watch in stunned amazement as everything they believed to be true is ripped apart. Glenn Beck (RIP) wrote a novel a few years back called “The Overton Window” in which he explained the mechanism by which progressives gradually shift society leftward. They keep pushing and pushing until what once seemed outrageous is now the new normal.
I can’t swear that is what is happening with abortion, but I am far from convinced that New York is the last place that will normalize third-trimester abortions. Gov. Andrew Cuomo isn’t being vilified in the national media, and I doubt he will be. American society today is conditioned to accept abortion as normal and as a “woman’s right.” To get most Americans to now see abortion as murder would take a moment of self-realization so horrifying that I don’t think it will happen short of some national trauma.
Yep, I hope I’m wrong and Ms. McGuire is right, but don’t bet on it.
Frank Miele writes from Kalispell, Montana, at www.HeartlandDiaryUSA.com and is a columnist at Real Clear Politics. To see more of my columns about the Dishonest Media, the Deep Swamp, the failed presidencies of George W. Bush and Barack Obama, and Trump’s war to restore American greatness, read my “Why We Needed Trump” trilogy. The books are available at Amazon in paperback or Kindle editions. Also please considering leaving a review in support of my conservative commentary on one or all of my book pages at Amazon! Thanks!
