From The New Republic’s headline, you’d think a shiver would run down Republicans’ spines as their concerns about their chances of winning the 2022 midterms have grown since August. There’s a secret abortion army coming to destroy the Republican Party. Democrats are betting that Americans will care more about abortion than about the high inflation that’s burning through household budgets and the economic recession that’s gripping the country, which the Biden administration points to as an indication that they’re presiding over the greatest economic recovery in history. The recent consumer price index report sent the stock market tumbling, wiping $1.5 trillion off the books. With no legislative record to fall on since their August spending bill, which will exacerbate the inflation crisis, passed too delayed in the cycle, Democrats have only abortion left.
The problem is that this is a highly rated issue in areas where Democrats already dominate. The raise in importance to voters in those areas is irrelevant to the election results. The New Republic article on pro-abortion voters commits a sin that both sides commit with regard to voter registration drives. Registrations have increased in states like Florida, Ohio and Texas. Yet a key factor that is overlooked is that not everyone who registers shows up on Election Day. So efforts to encourage voting may be more critical than adding a group of voters to the rolls weeks or even months before they cast their ballots. Life goes on, and people will forget to vote.
The article drips with Acela Corridor bias, coupled with a blatant misreading of the recent Kansas abortion vote, which we discussed here . The pro-life amendment to their state constitution was defeated, which the left sees as a harbinger of a backlash against the GOP’s pro-life agenda, while willingly ignoring the fact that Kansas has parental consent laws, zero public or federal funding for abortion, and a 22-week ban. These are restrictions that liberals do not consider reasonable. Worst of all, the inclusion of a 12-year-old girl from Ohio who was raped by her mother’s boyfriend and forced to have an abortion in Indiana. This liberal narrative quickly fell apart, as the main actors were illegal immigrants, shining a lithe on the Democrats’ open borders agenda (via TNR):
Will an undetectable army of women and teenage voters save the Democrats? Predicting outcomes is risky, but it certainly looks like the troops are on the march.
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Over the weekend, the Houston Chronicle reported that teenage voter registration in Texas is “skyrocketing.” “It’s not that we’re not seeing an increase in women, but in Texas we’re also seeing, quite uniquely, an increase in men, particularly younger, more progressive men, who are matching the increase in women,” said Tom Bonier, CEO of TargetSmart, which works with Democratic candidates.
I could go on. The biggest raise came in Kansas, and we saw the results: a huge victory for abortion rights advocates as voters rejected a referendum that would have allowed the state legislature to tighten abortion laws. Registrations even rose in Idaho, where they are less likely to make a difference, given how deeply red the state is. On the other hand, it is a petite state, so it doesn’t take many votes to change the statewide outcome.
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Republicans respond in their classic style: by lying. They know that most of their positions are unpopular, including their extremist anti-abortion stance, so they try to sound “reasonable” while portraying Democratic opponents as extremists.
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What does all this mean? Well, no one wants to sound too confident about the Democrats’ chances in November. We all know that the incumbent party is losing about 25 seats in the midterm elections. And there’s still inflation to worry about, although it has seemed to be receding in recent weeks and gas prices are down significantly from their midsummer peaks. And there’s the MAGA rage, which seems to be getting worse as Donald Trump looks increasingly guilty.
But here’s what could happen: The number of voters in swing states could raise by, say, 5 percent, and that raise would consist almost entirely of voters pissed off by Dobbs. In Ohio, 5 percent would equal about 388,000 fresh voters. In Pennsylvania, it would mean 436,000. In Florida, it would be 714,000. Almost all of them are pro-choice. And because they’ve bothered to register—many of them for the first time, presumably—it seems likely that they’ll start voting.
Additionally, a typical constituency has approximately 400,000–450,000 registered voters.
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The Republicans called themselves the party of normal Americans. They still pretend to be. But they are not. They are the party of extremist violence. They are the party of authoritarianism. They are the party of the Big Lie. And they are the party that forced a 12-year-old girl who was raped to have a child and the party that took away a basic right that women have had for half a century. They will pay the price for this. An army of real normal Americans is coming for them.
“Normal Americans” are going after the GOP. It seems someone needs to remind this publication that “normal Americans” agree with the Republican abortion agenda, which bans sex-selective and late-term abortions. The American voter is opposed to spending taxpayer money on the procedure. They also support 20-week bans, with 60 percent of women agreeing with them, while a smaller majority supports heartbeat laws banning abortions after six weeks. Democrats want abortion on demand, paid for by taxpayers, and legal up to the moment of birth. It’s been codified law in New York for years, much to our dismay. Besides, who’s to say all these women will vote outright for abortion? Hoping voters will choose abortion over their own worsening economic situation is patronizing and deeply out of touch with reality, something that can only come from liberals.
