05-13-2024, 10:02 PM
(05-13-2024, 09:48 PM)samhain Wrote: I'm kind of surprised that the GOP powers that be aren't putting a tad more effort into dialing back rhetoric such as Britt's. There are rumors (that I actually believe) that Trump himself was fairly vocal about his belief that restricting abortion would damage the party more than others in the ranks expected.
There's got to be an adult around to tell states not to try to criminalize citizens leaving for procedures in abortion-legal states. I actually recall a local Cincy talk show guy (Mike Allen, a disgraced former prosecutor) emphasizing that it was insane to think that the overturning of Roe would result in such draconian policies as penalizing for out of state abortions.
Every time the GOP downplays the changes to the federal law as totally not a big deal, someone like this is right there to paint the picture that Dems probably couldn't pay an ad agency to dream up for them.
I could actually see Trump changing the party narrative on the issue. There's zero chance that the guy is actually pro life. I would venture a guess that's he's paid for a few himself. He does things for people who say nice things about him, and that would be evangelicals in this case.
Either way, he's got enough of a grip on that party that he'd surely get away with it. He's done worse without much consequence. Trump doesn't need a platform because he is the platform. If he softens on the issue, most of the anti-abortion GOP with suck it up and deal with it. There may not be another party leader with that kind of juice for decades.
Does it matter on the national level if abortion restrictions are unpopular? Trump lost the popular vote but won in 2016 and appointed 3 SC justices who overturned Roe and he's likely to lose the popular vote in 2024 but win again where he can implement a national ban.
Republican policies don't have to be popular to get passed, otherwise Roe wouldn't have been overturned in the first place.
