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politics and politicians Title: Trump Is No Pro-Lifer But since they are faking it, and not actually speaking from conviction, the risk is grave that they will say something that blows their cover. Indeed, the risk is always there that they will say something that sounds to true believers like a caricature or burlesque of the philosophy they are purporting to embrace. Do you recall when it happened to Mitt Romney? In responding to a challenge to the authenticity of his claim to be a true conservative, he proclaimed himself to be “severely conservative.” At that instant, every conservative in the country knew the former Massachusetts governor was faking it. For no conservative ever had, or ever would, describe conservatism (or his own conservatism) as “severe.” Indeed Governor Romney had spoken of conservatives as liberals speak of conservatives, not as conservatives speak of (or understand) themselves. He might as well have confessed outright to being a phony. The effect would have been no different. Now, predictably, Donald Trump has done it. The Republican base is pro-life—solidly, fervently so. To win the Party's nomination, Trump—a life-long abortion supporter and Planned Parenthood enthusiast—therefore had to pretend to have experienced a Pauline conversion to the pro-life cause. To make sure everyone knew how deep and sincere his conversion was, he yesterday stated that women who have abortions should be punished. But in saying this, he gave himself away, just as Mitt Romney had done. Most pro-lifers and the entire mainstream pro-life movement oppose, and have always opposed, punishing women who seek abortions. Their goal is, and has been for as long as we've had a pro-life movement, restoring the historic laws of abortion (which were overturned in Roe v. Wade) that punished abortionists, and did not punish women. In fact, Mr. Trump seems to have stumbled onto the best possible way of signaling to true pro-lifers that he is not one of them. He has inadvertantly embraced an idea that is falsely attributed to pro-life citizens by their opponents to weaken the pro-life cause by tarring pro-lifers as punitive, vindictive people who would send women, many of whom are desperate and frightened, and some of whom are acting under pressure or even coercion in seeking abortions, to prison. Mr. Trump evidently wants to show us how genuine his conversion is by depicting himself as severely pro-life. But pro-lifers are compassionate, seeking the good of unborn children and their mothers, never pitting them or their interests against each other. We are interested in saving babies, not punishing mothers. And we know that we don't need to punish mothers to save babies. What Mr. Trump has succeeded in showing pro-life Americans is that he is not one of us. Robert P. George is the McCormick Professor of Jurisprudence at Princeton University. Post Comment Private Reply Ignore Thread Top • Page Up • Full Thread • Page Down • Bottom/Latest Begin Trace Mode for Comment # 3.
#1. To: TooConservative (#0)
Doublethink.
Perhaps redundant. I think this was written rather hastily. The construction of the concluding sentence was clumsy. Of course, he is a grad of Swarthmore, Harvard, Harvard Divinity (Social Policy), and Oxford. IOW, a big brain type. He must have been angry to write a few of those less-readable sentences. Isn't it time for you to point out that this guy is undoubtedly a good buddy of Cruz's? He became an instructor at Princeton in '84 and Cruz didn't graduate Princeton until the early Nineties. He's also the primary big brain for the American pro-life movement, has been for a long time.
Not at all. Just doublethink.
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