Neuroscientists posit that moments of shock bring about an extreme slowing-down of time. That theory is what accounts for the altered perception of time as the mind tries to regain control that many people experience during a car crash.
That feeling is what many of us have been experiencing while watching the Democratic party botch its response to the leaked Supreme Court decision set to overturn Roe v Wade—bracing before impact and wondering what the hell the driver is doing to stop it. In a moment when Republicans should rightly be on the defensive, Democrats have inexplicably handed them a lifeline.
After the draft decision leaked, Democrats—who for the last year had been anticipating a red tsunami this fall—took to the airwaves to prematurely state that the pending decision will dramatically alter the midterm elections. Hoping to change the conversation from the economy, giddy operatives proclaimed that Mitch McConnell had inadvertently punished his party while costing Republicans their imminent majority with his role in re-shaping the court.
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Talk about missing the forest for the trees.
First, the theory that abortion rights will overtake the economy as an electoral issue in November is yet to be seen. With inflation at a 40-year high and the national average for a gallon of gas reaching an all-time high, families are struggling to make ends meet. Indeed, when asked what the most important issue facing the country is in a poll conducted just after the Roe draft decision was leaked, a whopping 52 percent of Americans answered inflation. Just 4 percent said abortion.
Second, does anyone think Republicans would give up the pending decision if it costs them a potential term in the majority? Agree with them or not, there is no denying that Republicans have two things Democrats don’t: message discipline and execution. They spent 40 years methodically working to get the Supreme Court, and in doing so got Roe! There is nothing more consequential than that when it comes to long-term Republican priorities.
Meanwhile, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, the proverbial dog who caught the car, offered another spectacular demonstration of ineffectual leadership when he proclaimed last week’s vote on Roe to be “one of the most consequential we will take in decades” moments before it inevitably went down in flames. Finger-pointing immediately ensued with moderates in both parties who purportedly support abortion arguing that Schumer’s bill, which lost the support of one Democrat senator who joined all the Republicans in voting against it, was a PR stunt, exceeding Roe’s current constitutional protections.
No longer an academic exercise, in the absence of any federal protections, governors in red states are set to begin banning abortions altogether. It was unclear what strategy Schumer, no master of the Senate, was pursuing past reminding voters that Democrats were unable to deliver while producing headlines about how the “Senate fails to pass abortion rights bill — again”.
Joe Biden attempted to address American’s frustration with Democrat’s one-party rule in Washington when he said “we control all three branches of government. Well, we don’t really… You need 60 votes to get major things done.” While it is unquestionable that politics has never been more divisive, the public doesn’t care about the cloture rules of the Senate. They don’t want to hear excuses—they expect their leaders to perform. After all, it was only a few years ago that Republicans were able to pass the most sweeping rewrite of the tax code in decades with a 51-person majority, demonstrating that slim majority rule is capable of producing results — at least when Republicans are in charge.
Eager to change the subject from crime and the economy and make abortion the electoral issue, Democrats in blue states where Roe has been codified appeared political and tone-deaf.
Kathy Hochul, a former NRA A-rated conservative Democrat who previously boasted about how many times she voted against “Obamacare”, declared that “abortion is now on the ballot”. She announced $35 million to fund services for an anticipated influx of out-of-staters seeking abortions. Other Democratic officials advocated for $50 million to pay for out-of-staters’ travel expenses for abortions. More than one pro-choice, overburdened taxpayer I know suggested that while New York should be a safe haven, if the state is so flush with cash they’d like their tax dollars back. Hochul then penned an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal appealing to businesses to relocate because of the state’s abortion policies. In a post COVID world where businesses have moved to more tax-friendly states and in the midst of a crime wave, does the governor really believe that pitching businesses based on abortion policies is persuasive? It was a piece so ill-advised it felt like a set-up by the paper’s conservative-leaning editorial board.
What’s abundantly clear is that the Democratic party has no message and no plan. At a time when voters want and need meaningful, effective outreach to the center, Democrats are doing everything we can to alienate and polarize an issue that 64 percent of Americans agree on.
But even amongst those who support abortion, 56 percent do so while being conflicted or with limitations—and that doesn’t make them bad. Our party’s politicians need to understand that or risk setting the issue back another 50 years.
Democrats have to stop letting Republicans dictate the terms of engagement. While Republicans want to focus on rare late-term abortions, 91 percent are performed in the first 15 weeks. Roe is about preserving 50 years of case law on personal privacy and making one’s own health decisions. Democrats should be arguing that America is a country that upholds an individual’s freedom to make those decisions.
More importantly, Democratic officials must prove that they are competent and able to address very real economic problems as well as choice—bearing down with results, not just rhetoric. As with the bi-partisan infrastructure bill, leadership should empower the center of both parties to find common ground on issues that they can deliver on today—not some amorphous date in the future when Democrats magically grow the majority.
Take the existing appetite for a bi-partisan climate and energy bill, get the strongest and best deal possible and usher it over the finish line—Democrats won’t get everything we want, but it would demonstrate that we know how to pull the levers of government and make progress.
And act now on reproductive health. We are already late to the game—we should have anticipated that this day was coming. Democrats should not make the mistake of believing that they should hold the issue out as an election tactic and in doing so sacrifice shoring up the rights that we can while we still tenuously hold the majority. If Republican Senators Lisa Murkowski and Susan Collins say they will codify Roe, Schumer should pull up a chair, give them a seat at the table and charge them with being part of the solution—at a minimum start by passing national protections for contraception and IVF.
Democratic leadership must take this fleeting moment while the car is spinning, and calmly and effectively message to the American public—not just those who already agree with us—what is at stake and act. Otherwise, Democratic voters should buckle up and hold on.
If nothing changes, we are heading straight into the crash barrier on the hard shoulder.
