Interest Group Politics Continue To Enrich America
I just got a hot tip from the "What Did You Expect" department here at TMAB. (Note: this branch differs from the Department of Redundancy Department in which my high-school friends will eventually be given cushy jobs.) Anyway, you may remember my treatise on the trouble with interest-group politics when pro-choice advocacy organization NARAL went ahead and endorsed Lincoln Chafee in the RI Senate race, despite the fact that both Democratic candidates are firmly pro-choice. Here's the latest news:
Some national abortion-rights activists have sharply criticized Sen. Lincoln D. Chafee's decision to support the nomination of John G. Roberts Jr. as chief justice of the United States.[NARAL]'s former president, Kate Michelman, pronounced herself "deeply disturbed and disappointed" by Chafee's support for Roberts. "As a women's rights leader, I must say it does raise an enormous amount of questions about whether women can depend on Senator Chafee to stand on principle," she said.
Because of Chafee's legislative record, Michelman said, she has counted on Chafee as an abortion-rights supporter "who'll never flinch at a threat to women's rights -- and he flinched this time."
I mean seriously, what the fuck. I am happy, very happy, that there is a dawning recognition among Democratic and left-leaning activists that a coherent philosophy will win more for all of us than splitting up will earn for any of us. NARAL certainly has every right to advocate for choice on its own terms, just as the Sierra Club can for the environment and the ACLU can for freedom. But Team Republican has a different worldview, and if you think a prominent Republican is with you on an issue, they'll screw you over eventually. NARAL looks at Lincoln Chafee as pro-choice, which he is, but Chafee is a politician, and he's not being pulled in NARAL's direction.
NARAL should not be surprised: they tried to play politics, endorsing Chafee to try to get the Democrats to stop promoting pro-lifers in their ranks, and now they look like idiots. If NARAL takes away their endorsement, as it looks like they might, that would be a great sign that they've decided to stop fucking around.