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Jewish World Review Feb 21, 2005/ 12 Adar 1, 5765
Steve and Cokie Roberts
Breaking the grip of secular fundamentalists
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Democrat Tim Roemer won a Congressional seat in a Republican state,
Indiana. As a member of the 9/11 Commission, he had strong credentials
on fighting terrorism. Yet his bid for the chairmanship of the
Democratic National Committee went nowhere, and for one reason: as a
practicing Catholic, he opposes abortion in most cases.
"It was a very difficult mountain to climb from the beginning, and
people tried to hang a radioactive anvil around my neck on abortion,"
says Roemer. "They threw a couple of kitchen sinks and then some at us,
with phone banks and mailings and efforts to derail the candidacy just
based on that one issue."
Instead, the new chairman is Howard Dean a favorite of pro-choice
activists, and a leader of what evangelical Christian writer Jim Wallis
calls the "secular fundamentalist" wing of the Democratic Party.
Which choice made more sense for a minority party that's lost control of
every branch of government? A man of faith who doesn't need a visa to
visit Red State America? Or a classic Northeastern intellectual who
said, during his failed bid for the 2004 Democratic nomination, that he
had just discovered that Southern voters take religion seriously?
From any practical perspective, Roemer was the better option, but the
abortion rights lobby was simply too powerful. Democrats deride the
rigidity of religious fundamentalists in the GOP, but in fact, on the
abortion issue, they are no more tolerant of dissent than the
Republicans and in some ways are worse.
Three of the most visible Republican politicians California Gov.
Arnold Schwarzenegger, New York Gov. George Pataki, and former New York
Mayor Rudy Giuliani all favor legalized abortion. Where are the
comparable pro-lifers in Democratic ranks?
It's a mistake to let abortion define moral values in politics. One
example: during the election, President Bush opposed Catholic teaching
on a wide range of issues, from war to poverty. Yet the church hierarchy
ignored those lapses and backed Bush, over a Catholic opponent, mainly
because of his anti-abortion stance.
Moreover, when many parents talk about "values," their core concern is
not government programs and policies. It's the sex and violence sold to
their children by the popular culture.
But abortion remains the most volatile of all "values" issues, and
despite Roemer's defeat, some Democrats are struggling to break the grip
of the pro-choice apostles who treat even the most reasonable compromise
as heresy.
Start with Sen. Hillary Clinton, who took a brave step recently by
saying, "We can all recognize that abortion in many ways represents a
sad, even tragic choice to many, many women."
Clinton is reaching for a "common ground" reflected in Supreme Court
decisions and embraced by a majority of Americans. Abortion should
remain legal but rare. Greater efforts are needed to prevent unwanted
pregnancies and encourage adoption.
More important, all rights are subject to restrictions, and abortion is
no exception. Most people think it makes sense to notify the parents of
a minor before she has an abortion; the occasional case of incest or
abuse can be handled through a judicial bypass.
And as medical science advances, limits on late-term abortions become
more compelling. Anyone who spends time in a neo-natal unit, as we have,
and sees doctors saving 1-pound newborns, gains a new perspective on the
issue.
Another intriguing sign: some party leaders are defying abortion rights
groups and promoting the Senate candidacies of two pro-life Democrats,
Pennsylvania Treasurer Robert P. Casey Jr. and Rep. James R. Langevin of
Rhode Island. The new Democratic leader in the Senate, Harry Reid of
Nevada, is also anti-abortion, and he's been inviting progressive
religionists like Jim Wallis to counsel Democrats on how to broaden
their message to people of faith.
As Wallis told the magazine Christianity Today, "It's important for
Democrats to change the way they talk about a moral issue like abortion,
to respect pro-life Democrats, to welcome them in the party and to talk
first about how they are going to be committed to really dramatically
reducing unwanted pregnancies not just retaining the legal option of
abortion."
Clinton and Wallis are right. Democrats have to move beyond the
narrow-minded, with-us-or-against-us approach on abortion that caused
Tim Roemer's defeat. It's one way of convincing voters that the party is
not the prisoner of the secular fundamentalists.
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