Maastricht lives thousands of miles away from our shores. While I welcome her interest in our politics and elections I don’t think she comprehends how vulnerable we have become with regard to the progressive advances of the past sixty years. Hell, maybe I should say the past eighty years.
In the recent election we made some impressive gains in taking over the House of Representatives but the Senate will likely remain in Republican hands after the dust settles, and our Senate wields significantly more power than the upper house of many other countries.
The Democratic Party can never afford neglect progressive ideals.
I can’t remember if it’s been mentioned already in this thread, but I know it’s been mentioned in other threads about abortion and reproductive rights – while getting an outright nationwide ban on abortions, or having the Supreme Court issue a ruling that effectively overturns Roe v. Wade, is the dream of many abortion foes, where the fight has really been happening so far has been at the state level.
It’s been in red states, particularly in the south and southeast, where the state governments have been pushing the envelope on how much they can impede access to abortions without an outright ban. As a result, while abortion is still legal throughout the US, how that plays out on the ground varies dramatically based on which state you live in.
In Texas, ( Texas !) a judge ruled that “ telemedicine abortions “ can go on. I still think this is a huge and clever victory for the pro choice movement, both “de facto” and “de jure”. Any girl can now get access to medication to end an unwanted pregnancy, using only her phone or a friends phone, or internet connection, and have the pills delivered to a friends or teachers house in a neutral envelope. The importance of this cannot be overstated. This is how winning the issue looks like. Spread the news ( and that particular service ) The Dems can now choose to focus on more broadly popular issue to fight for, like health insurance, or income Inequality.
Although there are still 17 states where telemedicine abortions are not yet legal. We need a pointed strategic legal fight to challenge that.
It’s a Kansas judge, and yes, it’s great that this outcome has prevented state lawmakers from further curtailing abortion access to women who want it. But no, this no how “winning this issue looks like”. If mail-order misoprostol becomes the only legal way women can get abortions in this country, women pregnant past 10 weeks are SOL. That’s not winning.
The strategy has to be multi pronged. Vote out politicians who run on pro-life platforms, educate the public about the importance of keeping abortion safe and legal, donate to groups that legally challenge laws undermining abortion access, and increase female representation in elected positions. Of these things I just listed, which should Democrats stop doing? Here’s a hint. The Democrats as a party can’t and aren’t really doing any of these things…activists are.
On Friday, the Supreme Court will consider in conference the case Box v. Planned Parenthood, and my bet is they will accept the case and use it to completely overturn Roe and Casey. If your “strategic legal fight” doesn’t take this possibility into account it’s not a very good strategy.