The perils of a cheap and easy argument
by digby
Adele Stan is pitching in at the Washington Monthly this week-end and makes a point that can't be made enough: if you root your arguments in right wing assumptions, you will eventually find yourself backed into a corner by right wingers. She comments on Ross Douthat's latest scribble which points out that abortion rates are higher in places where abortion is more available (which strikes me as a thoroughly silly observation.) But then he throws the DLC tested "safe legal and rare" slogan in liberals' faces, pointing out that we obviously don't practice what we preach. Adele concedes the problem and then writes:
What’s really at issue in Douthat’s column is the perils of accepting the right-wing frame when constructing liberal positions. By unilaterally presenting abortion as a very bad thing in the 1990s, the message mavens of the Clinton administration, with their construction of “safe, legal and rare,” gave abortion opponents a rhetorical rationale for piling on restrictions that, in many states, make abortion inaccessible to increasing numbers of women — despite the fact that the Supreme Court decided decades ago that their right to the procedure is protected by the Constitution.
Reasons matter. Political arguments must be based upon truth if they are going to ultimately be persuasive. Those grounded in right wing philosophical assumptions are inevitably going to bring you to a right wing conclusion. The minute I heard that "safe, legal and rare" platitude (especially when uttered by Bill Clinton who put a whole lot of emphasis on the "rare" part) I knew it was wrong --- it gave credence to all these attempts to stop women from exercising their constitutional right to abortion. As Douthat says, according to liberals, it's as important that it be rare as it is that it be legal and safe. So, why aren't we supporting all these crude attempts to talk women out of it?
Stan makes the point further about the "born this way" campaign for the LGBT community. It's catchy. But it skirts the real issue, which is that it's none of the government's damned business who consenting adults love, sleep with or make a family. Every time we concede these points, we end up having to reinvent the wheel.
Fundamental human rights and liberties are fundamental human rights and liberties. Maybe we should just make the arguments on the merits for a change and see what happens. As Adele says:
Our rights come from the Constitution, not from some set of “Judeo-Christian values” selectively defined by right-wing politicians. Leave it to the religious institutions to promote their values as they see fit. After all, that’s their constitutional prerogative.
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