When I was a hot shot college journalist, my BFF and I sought out all manner of stories in the New Hampshire seacoast area. In that vein, my buddy once interviewed a zealot named Warren Goddard, who carried out a lonely daily vigil at the Seacoast Women’s Health Clinic, where abortions were performed. Day after day, there he was, carrying a crucified doll, doused in ketchup, along with gruesome photos of all kind of atrocities. The abortion “holocaust” clarified his basic perceptions; the gist of his outlook was no punishment was too severe for providers and their patients alike. Why should an innocent baby suffer the consequences of a rape, and isn’t it simply natural a mother would be willing to die for her child? This was 1981, Goddard a lonely extremist. Today he’d be a member of the Freedom Caucus, or have his own Fox show, perhaps a role on the GOP platform committee.
Not long after I was introduced to Goddard’s views, I was interning for a Congressman on Capital Hill. Some other interns had a place just down Pennsylvania Ave. and were throwing a very wild party one night, fully attended by fellow youthful, twenty-something staffers. In walks a 50ish Republican Congressman from the heartland, about as far right on the political spectrum as was possible back then, abortion-as-murder his niche. One hand was around a gorgeous blonde, who surely had voted for the first time in the Reagan landslide the previous year, and the other grasped a six-pack of Hamms, swear to God on a stack of bibles. A buddy and I laughed ourselves silly at the surreal spectacle, and wondered aloud almost in unison how powerful his save-the-unborn inclinations would be should his eye candy show up at the door with a little conservative in the oven. True believers and hypocrites; it has always been thus.
In the divided United States of 2018 one side has united under an absolute maxim that permeates their entire worldview, and rationalizes any uncomfortable choices they may have to face… abortion is murder. Pro-life extremism is the moral Alamo of Trump’s America, it leeches into any issue, justifies any trade off, and discredits opponents everytime, on all issues. It is there always to fall back to and denounce anyone as morally inferior. So what if I want to execute minors, you’re for killing the unborn. Don’t get preachy with me about families being separated in Laredo, you’re for murdering babies. All I know is Roy Moore will protect the unborn. Nothing and nobody falls outside this umbrella. It’s not simply a litmus test for justices or candidates, it is the root of identity… you are either pro-life or not, and that means conception, buckoo! It is ground zero of the culture war.
The temptation for some time has been to beseech Democrats and women’s organizations to give some ground on the issue. Both Howard Dean and Jimmy Carter have framed this as a necessity to broaden the party’s tent. After all, medical technology is pushing the viability envelope everyday. But what really would be achieved, other than endless crowing from the Fox/AM legions that zealotry prevailed, the killers are surrendering, oh, and alienation of the party’s most ardent following?
Trump’s America needs Pro-Life fanaticism like air to breathe. It excuses the ever increasing ardor for the morally dispicable, and steady march toward atrocity. In short, they would never take yes for an answer; the goal posts would always be moved. In Trump’s America, on abortion, compromise means letting masturbators off the hook for cheating so many zygotes out of their destiny.
Of course the wretched core is also white, Christian and fully regressive. US demographics pose an existential threat, the Obama Presidency a galvanizing experience that validated a conspiracy mindset. The Tea Party gave flesh and bone to that desperation. Patriotism was redefined with a clear set of behaviors and expectations, exclusivity the guiding force. Trump’s candidacy and election was hailed as a defining victory, enabling a broad counterassault on decades of governance that had stacked the deck against “us”. Nothing wrong with reshuffling it to bring the game back to go, come what may.
But all of this can only be done with a conscience that remains clean; there always has to be that end at the exit of the tunnel to justify the means. Saving the unborn provides that moral clarity, that sense of mission required to be able to face the mirror while espousing the full menu of otherwise dreadful things that even Fox/AM’s relentless efforts, can’t completely whitewash.
Trump rallies are his little book reports on how his scorched earth efforts are coming. The toxicity of his venom punctuates his sincerity in the eyes of the wretched core. The more unhinged his attacks, the more genuine his commitment. But he now only rarely mentions abortion in passing, perhaps connected to the Supreme Court. He doesn’t have to. I suppose if there is a judgment day in line with evangelical sensibilities, Trump, like many of his supporters, will have plenty of fast talking to do in order to square personal history with political bona fides on abortion, but right now it’s all good; they are fellow crusaders.
When Brett Kavanaugh takes the oath to the Supreme Court, after the ugliest confirmation fight in memory, he will reflect a divided nation. Pundits have and will continue to spend endless air time debating why this is so. But, really, where is the mystery? It was always going to come to this, seems silly now to have ever hoped it wouldn’t. A middle-aged woman’s PTSD never stood a chance against the decisive blow to Roe v Wade. Trump’s America is about Offreds, not Dr. Fords.
Pope Francis, the otherwise radical leftist Pontiff, said this about abortion:
“Abortion isn’t a lesser evil, it’s a crime. Taking one life to save another, that’s what the Mafia does. It’s a crime. It’s an absolute evil.”
That Trump’s America takes Francis, who they otherwise detest, at his word about abortion clarifies any fellow traveler on the matter is welcome because, at the end of the day, it’s the mission that matters. There is no chasm between religious dogma and governance. Citing friend and foe alike is fine, what counts is that sense of right, the imagery of saving babies… and fighting criminals. A scared teenaged girl as Tony Soprano; if you can rationalize that, you can swallow anything. Can you do that? That’s the choice. BC