All The Rage
The left's insane reaction to the most recent Supreme Court hearing
Hey,
On Wednesday, the Supreme Court heard oral arguments regarding Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization. For those of you that don’t memorize all of my posts line-by-line (shame on you), I mentioned this case a while back and that it presents a real chance in changing abortion law throughout the nation. The lawsuit challenges Mississippi’s ban on abortion after 15 weeks. The prosecutors argue that it violates Roe and Casey, while Mississippi contends that both of those cases are hogwash anyway and should be overturned. I risk oversimplification, but I think you get the gist of it.
Anyways, since the hearing (and the weeks leading up to it), progressives across the country have been saying some pretty stupid things and regurgitating some “arguments” that are better characterized as dogmatic smears.
Yesterday, on The Late Show, Stephen Colbert went on a real doozy of rank punditry claiming that the mere chance of Roe v. Wade being overturned is proof that we “don’t live in a democracy.” I’m not going to waste too much time going over why this is so asinine because it should be pretty apparent to most people. However, let’s say that if Colbert seriously thinks that returning the question of abortion to democratically elected state legislatures is “undemocratic,” then I believe Colbert needs to seriously consider taking a class on critical thinking skills.
This brings me back to a point I’ve touched on before. The right’s main argument against Roe isn’t that abortion is deeply immoral (although that’s definitely a part of it.) It’s that Roe simply lacks any sort of Constitutional basis and deserves to be struck down regardless of the morality question. Roe was an act of grand judicial activism that perverted America’s legal system and created a political culture that sees the Judicial branch as merely another legislative institution.
The question facing the Supreme Court is not should there be a law protecting abortion rights. Rather, it is whether one such law even exists.
If the left seriously wants abortion rights to be protected throughout the country, they should propose a Constitutional amendment and pass it through normal democratic means. For a party that claims to love democracy, you would think that the Democrats would leap at the chance. Unfortunately, the evidence shows a sizeable portion of the left only prefers democracy when they can get exactly what they want.
Aside from a run-of-the-mill late-night comedian, a lot of actually intelligent people are going through a form of mental gymnastics trying to defend Roe from its critics. Take Supreme Court Justice Sonia Sotomayer, for example. During the hearing, she asked Mississippi’s solicitor general, “How is your interest anything but a religious view?” Justice Sotomayer fails to understand that the pro-life argument is perfectly consistent with a secular worldview. You do not have to be religious to believe that killing babies is wrong. Check out secularprolife.org if you aren’t convinced.
The New York Times even printed a guest essay titled “I Was Adopted. I Know the Trauma It Can Inflict.” The author makes the case that going through the adoption system can be traumatic for young children, which of course, has some truth to it. But then, she proceeds to make the argument that the solution to our imperfect adoption system is to make sure that all pregnant women have the opportunity to neutralize their unborn child. An interesting opinion given that the only reason the author can say any of this is because her mother didn’t decide to kill her in the womb.
During the hearing, Justice Amy Coney Barrett mentioned adoption and ‘safe-haven laws,’ which prompted numerous idiots on Twitter to dunk on adoption just so they can “own” Amy Coney Barrett. Who, I might add, has seven kids, two of which are adopted.
That reminds me of Reagan’s famous quote, “I’ve noticed that everyone who is for abortion has already been born.”
With all things considered, I think there is a good chance that Roe v. Wade will get overturned in the near future. Contrary to the doomsaying on the left, leaving abortion up to the states to figure out would cool the temperature in the room and allow for both sides to get a little more of what they want. As far as I am concerned, federalism is the best way to run a large, diverse country such as ours. Any other way is prone to authoritarian abuse.
What I’m Reading…
I picked up Amity Shlaes’s biography on Calvin Coolidge, our 30th president. It’s a fascinating read and affectively illustrates the political development of Coolidge and how it affected his time in office. For too long, ‘Silent Cal’ has been ignored and underappreciated in modern political discourse, and I think that’s a shame. He is one of the only presidents to decrease the size of government and leave the federal budget smaller than how he found it. Conservatives would be wise to study the lessons of one of our most underrated executives.