Perry Abortion
Okay, I admit it – I am actually starting to feel sorry for Rick Perry.
As you know, Texas Governor Rick Perry is one of the thousands of people vying for the Republican nomination for President. Early in the process, he held back for a while to let the others do their thing, then with great fanfare he entered the race, figuring all of the others would step aside in his triumphant wake. Well it didn’t work out the way he hoped it would. A few gaffes here and there, a brain fart that went viral, a very bizarre speech in New Hampshire and his numbers dropped dramatically.
So, here we are just two days from the first test, the Iowa caucuses, and he is stuck in fourth or fifth place. The Sword of Damocles is dangling precariously over his head. So, a few days ago he figures he needs to do something dramatic to prove to those right wing nuts who basically run the caucus process that he is the really, really, true, consistent conservative in the race. So, what better issue to stake out a claim then abortion?
Perry has been around politics for a long time so he has had to face the abortion issue in many capacities, particularly as Governor. And, to his credit, he has been rather consistent. He has always opposed abortions except if the mother’s life was endangered and in the cases of rape or incest. No, don’t get me started on why it should be okay to “kill a baby” if the father is a rapist, but he has staked out that position for years. Then, suddenly, a week before the caucus, Rick Perry has seen the light! Praise the Lord!
Abortion
Now he is saying, wait a minute, I don’t think abortion should be allowed in cases of rape or incest! To what can we attribute this startling, pre-right-wing caucus conversion? Well, Perry says now that he had a “change of heart” after watching a movie called “The Gift of Life.” Reportedly, after the movie Perry “started giving some thought about the issue of rape and incest” and when he talked to “Personhood USA” spokeswoman Rebecca Kissling, who was featured in the movie, her story “pierced [my] heart.” It seems that Ms Kissling was a product of a rape.
“We had a fairly lengthy and heartfelt conversation about how she was conceived in rape,” Perry said, “and I couldn’t come up with an answer to defend the exceptions.”
How convenient. After all of these years, Perry has now decided to really think about this issue and, voila, he is now coincidentally taking the position that is supported by the radical anti-abortion crowd. Later, to make his conversion even more “credible,” he added that he believed that “God was working in my heart.” Always remember, it’s okay to change your mind on a fundamental issue like abortion, to have an affair or to commit any other sin as long as you then have the conversation with God and ask him to forgive you – unless, of course, you are a left wing liberal and then you are going straight to hell.
This one incident forces me to say something about Senator Rick Santorum, who is creeping up in the polls – at least he has been consistent. He has always opposed abortion in cases of rape and incest and he has always been outspoken about his desire to outlaw abortion. I don’t like it, but I have to respect his consistency. And maybe that’s why he is picking up steam. Maybe the conservatives are realizing that he is a very consistent conservative unlike Gingrich, Romney and Perry.
In the long run, however, forcing the Republican nominees way to the right is only good news for President Obama. Right now, he is sitting there licking his chops, knowing that positions like Perry’s will only frighten the independents who will be so crucial in November.
Related articles
- Rick Perry Shifts Views On Abortion (huffingtonpost.com)
- Rick Perry: Abortion Okay If Woman’s Life At Risk (huffingtonpost.com)
- You: Perry says he opposes abortion unless mother’s life is at risk (latimes.com)
- Rick Perry Suddenly Realizes He’s Against Abortion In Cases Of Rape & Incest [Roe V World] (jezebel.com)
- Rick Perry Flip-Flops On Abortion Twice In One Week (thefrisky.com)
- Perry Has “Always Struggled” With Abortion Issue (dfw.cbslocal.com)
- Perry: Abortion allowed if woman’s life at risk (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Rick Perry Abortion Stance: Shift Puts Him At Odds With Organization His Wife Fundraises For (huffingtonpost.com)
- Perry shifts views on abortion, opposes exceptions (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
- Iowa Drives GOP Field Far Right On One Issue (huffingtonpost.com)
Abortion - Abortion Clinics, Abortion Pill, Abortion Information 
January 1, 2012 at 8:52 pm
Pat, the Iowa caucuses are at bottom a money-grubbing exercise. The candidates have to pay the state Republican party to get in, and they pay more to stay in.
Only the most virulent voters participate– about 1/3d of registered Republicans. That circumstance does allow or encourage all the candidates to tune their sales pitch to the whacko element. Which the national electorate never discovers six months later as the Citizens United money floods the airwaves with PIG (corporate-fueled “Public Interest Group”) ads.
Were Governor Goodhair to win the nomination (he won’t), he’d modify his position again for the other two-thirds.
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:17 am
I agree, Charles, it’s kind of a wacky process. Interesting how well Santorum (Mr Partial Birth Abortion) did last night. I’ll betcha Obama is rooting for him!
LikeLike
January 2, 2012 at 2:00 pm
I find the whole Iowa Caucus, Personhood Rightwing shenanigans, making this one of the most bizarre batch of GOP candidates in my recollection. I feel bad (in a happy way) for the entire GOP. And on many trajectories, Iowa making themselves irrelevant. I guess we will know that after NH, almost certainly if not by SC.
It seems the only electable GOP candidate, if they can nominate a potentially electable one, will have to back peddle on their promises and views if they were to be elected in the general election.
Mississippi somehow “got it.”
I am having trouble understanding how the nation won’t, let alone moderates and independents.
It is going to be interesting to watch the Circus as the year plays out!
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:20 am
Last night’s vote shows that the Reps are clearly not comfortable with Romney and I suspect part of that is the Mormon thing. Santorum is rock solid as far as his conservative credentials but, of course, that would hurt him in the general election. He’s also cute, which is very important. He may do well in New Hampshire next week, or at least I dont expect Romney to run away with it. Then, Santorum will probably do well in South Carolina, then who the hell knows? Fascinating, huh, Evan??
LikeLike
January 2, 2012 at 8:55 pm
As people will point out, Iowan delegates to their national convention are not bound to support the victor in the Iowa Caucuses. Mike Huckabee– a truly sleazy governor– won the last time around and got buried nationally, so Iowa went for McCain at the convention.
The whole thing is a moneymaker for the media, who sell the public on its horse race aspects and don’t take the time to point out that every single candidate is in one way or another, too evil, too crazy, too stupid or too Nixonian to be even a mediocre, much less good, President.
Thomas Frank: “Republicans campaign on the premise that government is bad for you. When elected, they proceed to prove it.”
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:21 am
I think the media is constantly taking down the candidates, i.e., showing the public how “evil, crazy, etc.” they are. It’s always “gotcha” journalism that drives them….
LikeLike
January 3, 2012 at 9:16 am
The “ever shifting sand of….. the “political primary season”!! Hum…we’re braced and ready in SC!! I wouldn’t be surprised if Ric Santorum won in SC…they love those “radical anti-abortion candidates” here….
LikeLike
January 3, 2012 at 5:54 pm
The Civil War left a legacy of multi-generational peonage mindset, so that even when they have life good, they can’t let go of the anger that 35 years of Northern domination and another 70-plus years of Northern superiority created. The trouble with many people in the Southern states is that they never get exposed to the idea that life can be different. This is a big reason why they love those “radical anti-abortion candidates.” They’ve inherited the same mindset that made the German culture such a fertile ground for Nazism– repression, punishment, manipulation, fear, anger and a focus on exerting power through exercising revenge.
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 9:26 am
Interesting.
I don’t like making Nazi analogies. But I see where you are going.
However, It always is peculiar to me when southern states (or legislators, or legislatures) and individuals try to still hold on to the Notion or the Reality of hanging that Confederate Flag.
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:25 am
Of course, Evan, they will say they are merely honoring their history, their heritage, those who died in the civil war. They will never respond to the charge that that flag is a reminder of slavery. It’s funny, I have mixed feelings about that issue. Of course, I do not support racism but that flag is “historical.” Just like the concentration camps are “historical.” Should we get rid of them?
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 7:32 am
The Confederate flag is history!!
“Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Pat I agree with you!! We lost the “War of Northern Agression” let us keep our flag and holld it in reverance for all the soldier’s that perrished….but most of all forgive us for “Jimmy Carter”…LOL
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 7:38 pm
Wow.
I really believe a lot has been lost in this little tidbit.
History as a study, a science and/or a fact is very different from waving the confederate flag at the state legislature. History should be studied as a lesson to be learned, so the bad parts may not be repeated.
Waving a confederate flag, as described by most that do it, by their own admission, is just a symbol of the beliefs of 150 years ago.
When Muslim history describes Jews as the devil with horns, that a Jew should be killed no matter what (again I do not believe most Muslims believe this) – when Southern history describes northern aggression as history instead of an attempt to preserve the union and ultimately abolish slavery as most European nations had already done – when Nazis describe history as killing innocent Jewish children we learn that inhumanity is despicable. I hope.
We should not censor or suppress history, it should be revealed in a scholarly fashion as a lesson.
We do learn from history in textbooks.
Not by waving a symbol of slavery and southern complete loss of a sense of rule of law and belief in slavery.
Unless I am mistaken, I hope to believe to not believe what I am reading here about the purpose of the study of history.
I find some of this, unless misread, utterly repulsive.
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:23 am
Spoken like a true Yankee, Charles 🙂
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 7:09 am
Aah!! Really we have been exposed to all that “northern aggression” so long we just “don’t trust” ya’ll damn Yankee’s!! Come on…we aren’t all a bunch of “moonshine makin…crock huntin…roadkill eatin” rednecks!!!
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 7:40 pm
Sorry, did not read this before my prior comment.
LikeLike
January 4, 2012 at 11:22 am
As I stated above, Lorraine, I agree with you that Santorum has a chance in SC. Indeed, I hope you go out and vote for him, if they allow open voting like that. The more right wing the candidate, the better for Obama!
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 7:43 pm
How can Obama lose? Except against Romney, the one guy the conservatives cannot trust to be more than a lying moderate? And why would they choose a lying moderate that completely does not represent the conservative agenda to replace the present president?
The GOP is a circus as far as I can tell.
LikeLike
January 6, 2012 at 10:05 pm
Obama can lose if Wall Street–thanks to Citizens United– dumps enough money into the Super PACs to flood the airwaves with enough lies. They could peel off some of the African-American vote by insisting that he favors ethnic cleansing of that community by supporting Planned Parenthood. Look at what Jerome Corsi’s swiftboaters did to the Kerry campaign. (Of course, Kerry lost in the end because Ken Blackwell, Ohio’s Secretary of State at the time, stole the state for the Republicans.)
We’ll see about twice the amount of money poured into this season as we did in ’08– about $8 billion. Thank you, Justice Arthur Kennedy and the four Federalist Society members of the Supreme Court– Roberts, Alito, Scalia and Thomas.
LikeLike
January 7, 2012 at 4:25 am
Exactly what we intend to do, Pat!!
LikeLike