From: sunder@altair.crhc.uiuc.edu (Srinivas Sunder)
Newsgroups: alt.politics.elections
Subject: Re: Abortion politics
Date: 23 Aug 1992 21:58:18 GMT
Organization: Center for Reliable and High-Performance Computing, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Distribution: world
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In article <1992Aug20.120308.10513@ornl.gov>, de5@ORNL.GOV (Dave Sill) writes:
|> In article <1992Aug19.223753.1236@wuecl.wustl.edu>, dgp@atlas.wustl.edu (Don Porter) writes:
|> >
|> >By the time the convention is over, there will be several pro-choice speakers.
|> >Whether they talk about abortion, we'll have to wait and see.
|> 
|> Don't count on it.  Lynn Martin didn't mention it in her speech.  The fact that
|> there are pro-choice speakers at the convention means nothing if they don't
|> talk about their support of freedom of (abortion) choice.
|> 

Bill Weld did though, and got booed a lot less than he had expected.

|> >Republicans are frequently sent to represent the party on pundit panel talk
|> >shows (Lynn Martin, Alan Simpson, Susan Molinari, etc.)  I can't think of any
|> >corresponding pro-life Democrats in high-profile roles at their convention.
|> 
|> The only pro-life Democrat I know of is Governor Casey of Pennsylvania.

Meet some more: Gov. Joan Finney of Kansas (someone back me up on this?),
Cecil Andrus of Idaho (yeah, he vetoed the bill, but that was more because he
was blackmailed into it), David Bonior (House Majority Whip, D-Michigan),
at least 2/3 of the Louisiana House and Senate (lotsa Democrats there),
Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-AZ), Sen. Bennett Johnston (D-LA), Sen. Harry Reid
(D-NV). Could someone post a fuller list of Southern Democrats and their 
positions on the abortion issue? Fred Barnes, writing in The New Republic, 
estimated the number of pro-life Democrats in Congress at about a quarter of 
the total Democratic  congressional caucus. Allowing for some partisan 
number-inflation (since Barnes  is pro-life), 15-20% is a safe estimate. 
Add to the list the 1984 edition of  Rep. Albert Gore (D-TN) who voted for
the Human Life Amendment which would have  banned all abortions. Of course, 
flip-flops are newsworthy only when the Republicans do them.


|> 
|> >But the pro-choice Republicans weren't excluded from the debate.
|> 
|> Nor were the pro-life Democrats excluded--there just aren't many of them.  The
					     ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Like to change your mind now? The Democrats are no more monolithic on the
abortion issue than the GOP. Only they also muzzle dissenting voices, and
not just at the convention. David Bonior had to promise that he wouldn't
take part in any abortion debates to win the backing of Congress bigwigs
when he ran for the post of Majority Whip in the House after Bill Gray left
to head the UNCF.

|> Republicans are much less aligned on this issue than the Democrats, which makes
|> it even more hypocritical of them to complain about the Democratic convention
|> considering what they've done at their convention.

Nope. The GOP just realized that the Democrats screwed up by barring Bob Casey
from addressing the convention. I am willing to bet that that slimeball Rich
Bond would have prevented any pro-choicers from speaking at the RNC had the
GOP-convention gone first. As it is, they prevented anyone from holding up any
posters in support of abortion rights. These goofballs never learn that muzzling
dissent is ALWAYS a stupid idea.

|> Dave Sill (de5@ornl.gov)  

-- 
Srinivas Sunder                                         sunder@crhc.uiuc.edu

If my employer shares these views, I'd be most surprised.
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