Reply #124: Choice is a Conservative American value...

[born2reason]

Hi, I'm new here and this thread caught my attention because it is one of my soap-boxes. This is an issue that I am big on re-framing to put Republicans as well as the (anti-Christian) Religious Right in their places. It worked well in some debates I participated in before the election. I'd like to share my angle in hopes that others may pick it up and use it to help us regain footing on this issue....

First of all, abortion is not the issue at all. The only political issue is the question of whether you or the government makes your moral choices - whether or not the government legislates and article of faith. Abortion was chosen as the most emotion-laden example of this battle and used by Republicans to exploit the Christian vote (which I'm sure is blatant to anyone in this forum). By standing for choice, we are not condoning abortion, but rather condoning the constitutions promise of liberty of every American to make their own choices of faith.

Second of all, Choice is actually a conservative value. Conservatives are interested in negative rights, which tell the government what it can't do to us. Telling the gov't that it can't tell us what articles of what faith to base our laws on is a fundamental conservative belief. Thus, conservatives are obviously no longer on teh side of the people, but rather on the side of expanded government jurisdiction.

Thirdly, as for the (anti-)Christian Right, all I do is ask them how person X's abortion makes person Y any less of a Christian. For one thing, it doesn't. The action of others in no way affects any Christian's Christianity. Salvation is between one person and God. Second of all, to be true Christians, one must devote themselves to being Christ like. Christ never claims to judge others, except by the law of the land. It is God's job alone to judge the private moral actions of Christians, and any Christian who thinks its his/her job to judge the actions of others, or legislate faith to stop abortions, is in fact not being Christ-like - but attempting to be God-like which the Bible claims will earn them a fast-track one-way ticket to hell.

It is imperitive that we as Democrats, as liberals, unite in calling things as they are rhetorically. We have to stick to Choice and Anti-Choice, and any time we refer to the Christian Right, it has to be as the Anti-Christian Right, for the obvious reasons stated above. This provokes questions that allow us to prove ourselves while disproving conservative propoganda. Democrats better reflect Christian values through our policies (by using policy, it eliminates chances for them to bring up the tired "What about Clinton" crap) than do Republicans.

Also, Conservatives have had control of all 3 branches of gov't for 4 years. They havne't even talked about overturning Roe v Wade. This should be a wake up call to the Religous right that they have been exploited.