Marilyn Musgrave, who lost her last congressional election largely because of angst over her faith-based politics, has a new job, the Denver Post reports.
She will lead a “Susan B. Anthony List” project to try to defeat pro-choice candidates: “We’re going into districts where individuals are vulnerable… We’re going to use every possible means to make sure that people know the voting records of these individuals.”
I think this a great idea, as it continues to demonstrate the priorities of the religious right, which have nothing to do with preserving liberty and everything to do with destroying it.
Meanwhile, Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele has come out as a weak-kneed pro-choicer. Following is part of the transcript between Steele and GQ magazine:
The choice issue cuts two ways. You can choose life, or you can choose abortion. You know, my mother chose life. So, you know, I think the power of the argument of choice boils down to stating a case for one or the other.
Are you saying you think women have the right to choose abortion?
Yeah. I mean, again, I think that’s an individual choice.
You do?
Yeah. Absolutely.
Are you saying you don’t want to overturn Roe v. Wade?
I think Roe v. Wade — as a legal matter, Roe v. Wade was a wrongly decided matter.
Okay, but if you overturn Roe v. Wade, how do women have the choice you just said they should have?
The states should make that choice. That’s what the choice is. The individual choice rests in the states. Let them decide.
Do pro-choicers have a place in the Republican Party?
Absolutely!
So Steele is trying to please both sides by throwing the matter to the states. But the reason that abortion is properly “an individual choice” is that women have the right to get an abortion, because they have the right to control their own bodies. Thus, citizens of a state do not have the right, and should not have the “individual choice,” to vote away the right to get an abortion.
The entire point of American government is to protect individual rights from the tyranny of the majority.
Still, Steele’s comments indicate at least that some Republican leaders are prepared to slowly back away from the faith-based politics of the religious right.