Saturday night and the main squeeze is out on the town with her gal pals. So I revert to my Neanderthal self and sit on the couch eating Old Bay shrimp washed down with hoppy beer. Eventually I get to surveying YouTube. There I find one of my favorite conservative pundits talking to Walter Issacson.
George Will brings up a lot of good points, as usual. He is especially eloquent on the vast difference between hog molesters…er…um…I mean populists, and conservatives. Granted, a point I make ad nauseum. But his really good catch is on the Mississippi abortion law, the Supreme Court, and state consequences.
Many people think that if Roe is overturned abortion thus becomes illegal. Nope. If that Supreme Court decision, one that even RBG said was bad law, goes the way of the pterodactyl then the kerfuffle merely goes back to state legislatures for decision. And there’s the rub.
Voters are fickle and indecisive. Their emotions, which generally guide their voting, can change from moment to moment. Thus I’m guessing there would be some surprises in store if Roe is kicked back to the states. Those developments would not be generally positive for the prolife side of the debate, as emotional appeals to women’s rights, as opposed to any right of the child in vitro, would sway many.
For like it or not, there are very dumb people out there who see abortion as a right guaranteed under the Constitution, as if James Madison was a member of NARAL. They would put tremendous pressure on state legislators to enact abortion on demand. But they would not be dispositive. The deciding factor would likely be the convenient sheep vote, people who go along to get along. These individuals don’t want to upset any apple cart. As abortion has been the prevalent apple cart their entire lives, they will vote to retain it even in some solidly red states.
In these locales, presently prolife state legislators, given the abortion fan and aforementioned sheep vote, will have to decide between their principles and their political futures. This is an eventuality they are scared to death of. It will make them vote on abortion, not merely give lip service on the issue. Conscience versus career? Guess which one they will choose?
Some will have a supposed political conversion. Others will suddenly find liberal women to talk to and be convinced by “finally looking at it from a women’s point of view.” Yeah, right. Some will just lie and say they were proabortion all along but it took the fall of Roe to clarify their thinking. Uh huh.
This won’t happen everywhere. Most red states will outlaw or very severely curtail abortion. All blue states will go to town and virtually erect baby guillotines on the grounds of their state capitol building. However, certain swing states and some surprising red states like Florida will keep abortion legal. They’ll rationalize it on a libertarian premise. But nah, they want the convenience they are used to. After all, what’s millions of dead babies as long as you don’t upset the status quo, right?