I was a young political operative back in 1981, enrolled in the University of Cincinnati Law School, and the manager of a Cincinnati City Council campaign. I\u2019d go to Law School in the morning, study for a couple hours, then campaign until midnight or so. I got a few hours\u2019 sleep, then another study session from four am until it was time to go to class. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Like most Council campaigns at the time, we were running on a shoe string budget. We tried to make up for our lack of funding by hard work, yard signs, knocking on doors, and being almost everywhere in the City where people gathered.\u00a0\u00a0I think our total budget was about $15000. It all went into \u201cthe litt\u201d, the slick brochure we handed out to everyone, and, of course, the yard signs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just a few years before, abortion was only one issue out of many in a political campaign.\u00a0 \u00a0When I worked for the Carter\/Mondale campaign in the fall of 1976, my direct boss was against abortions. That was not in line with the Democratic platform.\u00a0\u00a0But he was a through-and-through Democrat, and had no problem with that difference over a single issue.\u00a0\u00a0Overall, he believed in the Democratic Party.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And when I worked in Washington for the local Democratic Congressman, he was a “Pro-Life” Democrat. He even introduced a “Right-to-Life” Constitutional Amendment on the floor of the House (though it didn’t go anywhere). Pro-Life or Pro-Choice was not the defining issue in political parties.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But just five years later, abortion became a \u201clitmus test\u201d of political party.\u00a0Roe\u00a0<\/em>was nine years old, and the City of Cincinnati provided health services for women.\u00a0\u00a0That made abortion a direct issue for a Council candidate.\u00a0\u00a0My candidate was a woman. She wasn\u2019t personally \u201cin favor\u201d of abortions, but deeply believed that women should have the choice to make up their own minds.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was a dangerous position to hold.\u00a0\u00a0The west side of Cincinnati was an original hotbed of anti-abortion activity. They were led by a founding member of the \u201cRight to Life\u201d movement, John Wilke.\u00a0\u00a0He took an absolute position:\u00a0\u00a0no matter what else a candidate was for or against, either they were \u201cPro-Life\u201d, or Wilke and his followers were utterly opposed to them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The problem was that the \u201cpro-choice\u201d movement at the time was almost as \u201cpure\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0Either you were \u201cpro-abortion\u201d or they stood against you as well.\u00a0\u00a0So honest answers from my candidate satisfied no one, even though she was \u201cpro-choice\u201d, but not \u201cpro-abortion\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n We ended up thirteenth in the race, with the top nine vote getters gaining Council seats. My candidate continued as an amazing school teacher, and later earned several elective offices in Cincinnati and Hamilton County. I decided that I\u2019d rather teach and coach than do politics and law, and went onto my forty-year career.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And the battle between the \u201cPro-Choice\u201d and \u201cPro-Life\u201d continued, like a festering guerrilla rebellion that had no end.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cPro-Life\u201d became embedded in more conservative Christian churches (and the Roman Catholic Church) and the political parties became aligned by their stand on abortion.\u00a0\u00a0But it wasn\u2019t until the mid-1990\u2019s that the Christian Right made their \u201cdeal\u201d with the Republican Party.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n The deal was simple: the Christian Right would support the Republican Party, as long as Republican politicians and Presidents promised to appoint anti-Roe<\/em> Justices to the Supreme Court. Many of these Christians also believed in Christ\u2019s dedication to the poor and vulnerable, a view often supported in law by Democrats more than Republicans. But the one-issue \u201cPro-Life\u201d focus dominated, and made \u201cstrange bedfellows\u201d of the church and some Republican politicians.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It’s the only way that the \u201cmoral\u201d Christian-right could support the immoral Donald Trump. Trump became the immoral \u201cvessel\u201d for their \u201cmoral\u201d view, and it was Mitch McConnell who \u201csealed the deal\u201d. McConnell, with the backing and vetting of the Federalist Society, was able to guarantee that Republican Justice nominees to the Supreme Court were \u201cPro-Life\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n And it was the \u201cMcConnell Maneuver\u201d that prevented Barack Obama from putting Merrick Garland on the Court, then rammed Amy Coney Barrett through the Senate in Trump\u2019s last days. He locked in three appointments for the \u201cvessel\u201d, guaranteeing the current six to three conservative majority on the Court.\u00a0\u00a0Regardless what they said in hearings or private meetings with Senators, the vetting was correct.\u00a0\u00a0Gorsuch, Kavanaugh, and Barrett lied when they said the Roe<\/em> decision was \u201cstare decisis\u201d.\u00a0\u00a0They were \u201cPro-Life\u201d judges, dedicated to ending Roe<\/em>.\u00a0\u00a0And now will have their say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This is what the Christian Right worked for since the 1990\u2019s.\u00a0\u00a0And it\u2019s not just ending\u00a0Roe\u00a0<\/em>\u00a0they\u2019re after.\u00a0\u00a0The next phase will be a nationwide ban on all abortions.\u00a0\u00a0And there\u2019s also\u00a0ending same sex marriages, and controlling private bedroom behavior.\u00a0\u00a0The leaked Alito opinion over-turning\u00a0Roe<\/em>\u00a0and\u00a0Casey<\/em>\u00a0creates an entire legal basis for overturning\u00a0Obergefell<\/em>\u00a0(gay marriage), and\u00a0Griswold<\/em>\u00a0(contraception).\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n It denies there is a right to \u201cprivacy\u201d in the Constitution, as seen in the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments. It takes the Constitutional \u201cright\u201d to private human behavior, and puts all of that behavior back in the legislative arena, where it was in the 1950\u2019s and before. <\/p>\n\n\n\nGuerilla War<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
Victory<\/h3>\n\n\n\n