Rob’s not making the claim that they’re not opposed to the bill. He’s pointing out that the Third-Way Dem establishment is so hapless and cowed and mired in the illusion that they can win over “right -leaning centrists and independents” that they’re unable to mount the unified and full-throated defense of women’s reproductive rights that’s required to counter the GOP’s full-throttle attack on those same rights.
He’s in good enough standing that he wasn’t kicked out despite just torpedoing a supremely qualified Biden nominee for Fed chair because he’s still denying the gravity of the climate emergency.
Here, as with abortion rights, the party establishment disagrees with the default GOP position but is too cowardly to take a stand on principle lest they lose power in the short-term (which isn’t the given their apologists claim it is).
I know that the whole point of the force-birth movement is to punish women. But, if the rapist and the rapist’s family members can sue the survivor wouldn’t this be an admission of guilt and liability to sexual assault?
There’s also a HUGE GOP majority in the Tennessee legislature, which makes blaming the minority party puzzling to me, too.
ETA: We know which party dominates the MSM, too. So, I’m not at all surprised by this:
Meanwhile, the tone and focus of news reportage constantly accepts conservative frames of reference while marginalizing even the most popular responses.
Given how often rapists get off in court (or are never even brought to account) it’s a form of double jeopardy for the victim… the first crime is the rape, the second is the perpetrator’s family suing the victim for having an abortion.
One could almost say triple - the injustices people have to go through to have rapes they’ve been subjected to even go to trial are criminal in their own right.
I mean… There are certainly still pockets of calcified centrism in the Democratic party, but they are also the only party that has an active platform that is actually attempting to listen their rank and file. There are plenty of people in the Democratic party who aren’t afraid to stake their claim to a strong, morally principled stance on many political issues.
In part, because they are playing outside the agreed upon rules and are aligning with far right elements outside of the political system to scare people into getting what they want (on both sides - scaring the white middle class into voting for them and scaring POC from trying to vote).
I do think that people are starting to understand the stakes if the current GOP gets its way.
If there are, it will be men who believe that since they are not directly impacted by these laws, it’s a marginal issue that if they give it to the GOP, they’ll get concessions on “real” issues. I don’t think that’s much of the mainstream of the Democratic party, but they are there.
