A political gaffe is usually
inadvertently telling the truth.
Donald Trump is not usually known for
truth telling, but ironically, when he told the truth about the
consequences of making abortion illegal, he got himself in some hot
water both with the pro-choice people and the pro-life people at the
same time. That in itself was an amazing feat. But we are already
used to the Donald being amazing.
It's not surprising that the pro-choice
crowd was critical since he abandoned his life-long position, tuned
in to New York, to pander to his Republican base, predominantly
pro-life. But the real surprise was that he was unaware of the
conservative Christian hypocrisy on the subject. When confronted by
Chris Matthews on the subject he just simply followed the logic of
outlawing abortion to its natural conclusion.
After all, if abortion is murder as is
claimed by the pro-life movement, then it stands to reason that the
perpetrator be found guilty of 1st degree murder. But the
current pro-life position is that the doctor should be the guilty
party – after all, the doctor does the procedure. Except the woman
in question is the one seeking the abortion, hardly an innocent party. It would be like letting a spouse off the hook if they hire a
hit man to off their partner. Yes, the hit man did in fact pull the
trigger, but he was just killing under contract. And yes, the
contract killer deserves jail time, but the person hiring the trigger
man is the one guilty of 1st degree murder.
One could make the argument that much
of the pro-life crowd is not that interested in making abortion
illegal because it would complicate their argument. Today, they have
the luxury of legal abortion so they don't have to deal with the
consequences for the women. They can afford to be lenient towards
women having abortions because they are not criminals, only sinful
reprobates. They can have it both ways, take the moral high ground
and not punish the perp. So the “abortion is murder” is merely a
feel good slogan that has no meaning or legal standing. It is merely
a value judgment.
However, when Trump was confronted with
the real possibility of making abortion illegal, he had no choice
but to follow the argument to its logical conclusion. If abortion is
indeed murder, and is indeed illegal, then it follows that the women
committing said murder (along with their doctors) should suffer the
consequences of their crime. So the thought of a scared 14 year
old girl who made the mistake of letting her boyfriend impregnate
her, and then undoing the deed via an abortion and facing the death
penalty might be too much for the public to bear. One can see why the
pro-life crowd has a hard time dealing with that.
So we have the happy talk of no
punishment for the “victims” of abortion. Can you blame Trump for
being a bit confused? So he was forced to join in the hypocrisy lest
he be forever shunned by the religiously correct.
Trump supporters are keen to say they
are attracted to him because he is not politically correct and tells
it like it is, unless, of course, telling it like it is conflicts
with their version of political correctness. And in that case,Trump has to change
his tune in a New York minute.
Trump still has a lot to learn about
being a politician.
