Abortion Endures as a Political Tripwire
Thomas B. Edsall, NYT
APRIL 15, 2014
Why is there such a difference in the durability of two foundational issues of American conservatism: gay marriage and abortion?
Same-sex marriage burst onto the political scene in the early 1990s, lasted through the mid-2000s, and is now quietly fading. Abortion, as a political call to arms, has been around twice as long and shows no signs of disappearing.
Opposition to same-sex marriage became a centerpiece of the conservative movement in the early 1990s, and resulted in the 1996 passage — with Bill Clinton’s support — of the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA declared that “the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”
In 2004, when George W. Bush deployed it to boost turnout during the presidential election, same-sex marriage reached its maximum efficacy as a tool to mobilize voters. That year, voters in 11 states — including the key battleground state of Ohio — approved, by double-digit margins, state constitutional bans on gay marriage.
(More here.)
APRIL 15, 2014
Why is there such a difference in the durability of two foundational issues of American conservatism: gay marriage and abortion?
Same-sex marriage burst onto the political scene in the early 1990s, lasted through the mid-2000s, and is now quietly fading. Abortion, as a political call to arms, has been around twice as long and shows no signs of disappearing.
Opposition to same-sex marriage became a centerpiece of the conservative movement in the early 1990s, and resulted in the 1996 passage — with Bill Clinton’s support — of the Defense of Marriage Act. DOMA declared that “the word ‘marriage’ means only a legal union between one man and one woman as husband and wife, and the word ‘spouse’ refers only to a person of the opposite sex who is a husband or a wife.”
In 2004, when George W. Bush deployed it to boost turnout during the presidential election, same-sex marriage reached its maximum efficacy as a tool to mobilize voters. That year, voters in 11 states — including the key battleground state of Ohio — approved, by double-digit margins, state constitutional bans on gay marriage.
(More here.)
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1 Comments:
Remember that the Supreme Court had to invent the right of privacy in order to take away the right to life. For those of us who believe that life is sacred and a gift from God, not to mention a right as described in our Declaration of Independence, the fight will continue as a matter of good conscience until life is respected at all stages.
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