The virtue signaling over abortion by a few sanctimonious Republicans is giving Democrats and Joe Biden a clear path to secure the White House and Congress for another four years.

Yes, virtue signaling. Some Republicans are relying on it in this, the most critical election year in American history. But it’s mere signaling because recent history suggests it stands almost no chance of success in the future.

That’s where we find ourselves following the stunning decision by Republicans in Arizona to take a recess and not address the state Supreme Court’s validation of a law from 1864 that almost completely outlaws abortion. Instead of heeding the voters in Arizona, a handful of pro-life Republicans insist they are “doing the right thing” and refuse to budge. They’ve embraced the failing political ideology of all or nothing on this divisive issue.

These GOP hardliners fail to grasp the straightforward political landscape today, where pro-choice abortion activists have won every single referendum on the issue since Roe v. Wade was overturned. They seem oblivious to the fact that when abortion is on the ballot, it wins regardless of whether it’s a red state or a blue state. Check the record in Michigan, Ohio, and notably in deeply red Kansas. Abortion prevails on the ballot, every time.

I understand it’s difficult for many pro-life Americans to accept, but you cannot simply burn the country down over a single issue. Yet, in Arizona, that seems to be the plan on the right.

They’ll stand on virtue, damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

They fail to comprehend what is crystal clear: abortion is the winning issue for Democrats in a year when pretty much everything else has failed them.

Democrats are grappling with challenges at the open border, with illegal migrants flooding into the country. They’re now shying away from the term “Bidenomics” because it’s become toxic. After four years of relative peace under the previous administration, the Biden White House is confronting wars and potential wars in several critical places. From the war in Ukraine to Chinese ambitions in the South China Sea focusing on Taiwan and the Philippines, to the recent attacks on Israel from Iran; Joe Biden is contending with an increasingly perilous world, much of it due to his failed and failing policies.

Weakness in the White House invites danger from all directions.

Yet, against this backdrop, which should favor Republicans in November, Arizona Republicans are clinging to virtue, insisting they are right and refusing to budge.

Republicans I spoke with in the Grand Canyon State have no plans whatsoever to repeal the 1864 anti-abortion law. Instead, they argue they fought for it, and it’s the right thing to do. Their commitment to defeat in the fall reveals a massive gap in common sense.

They seem so myopic that they cannot see losing Arizona and its 11 Electoral votes could reward Joe Biden with four more years in the White House, ushering in a far more dangerous era.

Democrats will treat any advantage in Congress as a mandate to pursue all their dreams. Just look at my home state of Michigan, where Democrats rode a wave of pro-abortion sentiment to secure a one-seat advantage in the state house and senate with a statewide Constitutional Amendment in 2022. They’ve proceeded to repeal right-to-work laws, revive prevailing wage laws, wage war on gun owners, and raise the state’s income tax, among other actions.

They’re ready to replicate the Michigan model nationwide, as seen in Ohio and Kansas already.

The Democrats are just a few seats away from regaining control of the House and could end up with a 50-50 tie in the Senate in November, meaning Kamala Harris would once again hold the tie-breaking vote.

So, I have to ask the Republicans of Arizona who refuse to budge on the all-or-nothing argument over abortion, a proven loser: will you be okay early in Joe Biden’s second term when Democrats hold sway in the House and Senate and a national Right to Abortion on Demand legislation lands on the President’s desk? Will you be okay when the Supreme Court is expanded to 15 members by that same razor-thin majority? Will you boast about your virtue when 15 million illegal migrants are granted citizenship by those same Democrats bent on one-party rule?

I often ask myself these days, whatever happened to pragmatism? How did we get here?

I suspect those few Republicans boasting about doing the right thing might be very hard to find by then. Let’s hope that some common sense prevails before it’s too late, but virtue isn’t in vogue these days in Phoenix.

The old adage “live to fight another day” falls on deaf and self-righteous ears. Sadly, it could precipitate the fall of this once-great Republic, as arrogance is no virtue at all.