abortion

Here We Go Again [Updated]

Featured image In the 2022 off-year election, nearly everyone expected Republicans to make big gains in Washington. But they didn’t: Democrats held the Senate and Republicans eked out a bare House majority. Meanwhile, gains in state elections were muted. In Minnesota, where I live, GOP hopes were dashed as the Democrats held the House, took the Senate, and won all the constitutional offices from the governor on down. Why these disappointments? The »

The Daily Chart: The Dobbs Effect

Featured image The aftermath of the Dobbs decision overturning Roe v. Wade has concentrated chiefly on its political effects, but has it reduced the number of abortions or increased the birth rate? Abortion with few or no limits remains available in most states, and as most abortions occur early in a pregnancy even those states that have adopted a 15-week ban should not be expected to see significant changes. Is anyone trying »

Newsom jumps the shark

Featured image California Governor Gavin Newsom promised to appoint a black woman to replace the late Dianne Feinstein in the Senate, so you know this is a man who has his priorities in order. Politico reveals that Newsom will appoint Laphonza Butler to fill Feinstein’s seat. Butler apparently does not reside in California — Politico reports that she is registered to vote in Maryland. However, Butler owns a home in California. When »

A Feminist Heroine?

Featured image I wrote here and here about Susanna Gibson, a Democratic candidate for the Virginia House who, it turns out, live-streamed sex with her husband on the porn site Chaturbate, for money. One might think that this revelation would doom a legislative campaign, but no: Gibson has gone on offense, and the Associated Press reports that she is gaining support, especially among feminists: A Democratic Virginia legislative candidate whose race was »

Worst Take On Last Night’s Debate

Featured image As usual, opinions on last night’s debate are all over the lot. People always react differently to such events. But there is such a thing as a fact, and Al Franken got one badly wrong, while throwing in his trademark crudeness. This came after Ron DeSantis went after the Democrats’ extremism on abortion. Via Breitbart: No one is trying to allow abortions right up to birth. You asshole, DeSantis. #GOPDebate »

Is Abortion Over As an Issue?

Featured image Rasmussen has some interesting data on that question. First, the good news: most people agree with the Dobbs decision: One year after the Supreme Court overturned the 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, so that each state can now determine its own laws regarding abortion, a majority of voters approve the decision. The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters approve of the »

At the Supreme Court

Featured image Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sat down with James Taranto and David Rivkin for the Wall Street Journal weekend column “Justice Alito: ‘This made us targets of assassination.” As the Journal loves to do on its opinion pages, the column breaks news. Behind the Journal’s paywall, the whole thing is worth reading. Here are the quotes I think are particularly worth pulling: • “I personally have a pretty good idea »

Democratic Voters Really Do Love Abortion

Featured image Here in Minnesota, the DFL party is using its slim legislative majorities–one vote in the Senate–to enact a radical agenda. The new legislature’s first act was to adopt a sweeping abortion law that legalizes abortion up to and including the moment of birth. Many observers thought that the party’s leaders had overreached. Voters, many thought, couldn’t possibly have intended such radical legislation. So my organization included a question on abortion »

Let’s go crazy, Star Tribune edition

Featured image Minneapolis’s Star Tribune illustrates how the major daily newspaper of a metropolitan area can contribute to its decline. The owner of the newspaper has a high tolerance for mediocrity and the local news reads like public relations for Minnesota’s DFL. Today’s case in point is Briana Bierschbach’s page-one story on the new abortion law Democrats rammed through the legislature in record time: “Gov. Tim Walz signs law strengthening abortion rights »

Riding Abortion to Victory

Featured image The Dobbs decision upended last November’s election. Democrats successfully rallied their pro-abortion core and apparently convinced a lot of swing voters to turn out in favor of abortion. In Minnesota, where I live, abortion was the decisive issue that allowed the Democrats to sweep the Minnesota House, the Minnesota Senate (by a single vote) and the governorship. Democrats apparently think there are more victories to be won by promoting unrestricted »

A Dobbs leak footnote

Featured image I read the documents released by the Supreme Court in its investigation of the Dobbs leak as soon as they were posted on the Court’s site Thursday afternoon. They are posted here. Giving the Marshal’s 20-page report on the investigation a close reading several times over, I commented on it in “Dobbs leaker still at large.” I raised the question whether the justices had been interviewed in the course of »

Dobbs leaker at large

Featured image The Supreme Court announced this afternoon that the leaker of the Dobbs draft opinion remains at large. That is unfortunate for many reasons, including the damage done to the Court as an institution and the physical danger to which the leak subjected the justices supporting the draft opinion. It’s also unfortunate that the Biden administration appeared not to give a rip. I gleaned from one of the stories on the »

It Could Have Been Worse

Featured image Just kidding. Out of the range of possible outcomes, what we saw last night was about as bad as it could be. The GOP’s failure to make progress stunned everyone, not least the Democrats. What happened? * Fantasy vs. Reality. It turns out that there are a great many voters who don’t care much about what traditionally have been considered decisive issues: inflation, crime, illegal immigration, lousy schools, etc. Many »

Ramirez’s take

Featured image I expended something like 1,000 words yesterday trying to highlight the Democrats’ use of abortion in this year’s elections. I would say “coming elections,” but early voting has already commenced around the country. As for abortion, Democrats long ago took it up as a positive good. In the elections now it’s just about all they have to talk about. In yesterday’s editorial cartoon Michael Ramirez gave us the proverbial picture »

Kamala makes a house kall

Featured image Kamala kame to town yesterday to shore up support for sagging DFL candidates. In Minnesota, abortion remains a right protected by our state constitution. In case you hadn’t heard, however, Democrats believe in abortion. It is something of a positive good. Kamala came to town to talk up abortion. What else? The White House has posted the transcript of Kamala’s konversation at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul under the »

Stacey Abrams explains

Featured image Stacey Abrams represents the beating heart of the Democratic Party. Pressed on the relative salience of abortion and inflation, Abrams explains: “Having children is why you’re worried about your price for gas. It’s why you’re concerned about how much food costs. For women this is not a reductive issue.” Showing the advantages of a sophisticated vocabulary, Abrams aptly expresses her point. Let us not “reduce” abortion to an issue of »

Biden’s closing moves

Featured image We are within three weeks of the midterm elections. Democrats’ control of the White House leaves them in a good position to mitigate anticipated losses by taking action to affect the political environment. President Biden’s handlers seem to me not to have chosen well so far. The Biden economy inflicts pain on a daily basis. What have they got for that? They served up the Inflation Reduction Act. In other »