In Search of Lost Reason

As foolish and spiteful ideologues, the Republicans never imagined that they would arm the Democrats against them by getting the Supreme Court to overturn the constitutional right to an abortion, thus referring the matter back to the individual states. This was reconfirmed by Tuesday’s referendum in Ohio and elections held the same day in Kentucky and Virginia. In the power struggle between the Republicans and Democrats, the abortion question, the main election issue, is a millstone for the former and a key mobilizing tool for the latter.

When the Supreme Court, with its ultraconservative core, threw out the Roe v. Wade decision of 1973 in June 2022 — a decision antithetical to women’s freedom — dozens of Republican-led states rushed either to ban abortions or radically limit access to the procedure. What followed in the U.S. was an outcry, even in the heart of conservative America. Voters in the Midwestern state of Kansas led the way barely two months later, by opposing, with 60% against, a proposed amendment that would have repealed abortion guarantees contained in the state’s constitution. The no less conservative electorate of Kentucky, by a narrower margin, would follow suit. The 2022 midterms clearly showed that defending the right to terminate a pregnancy helped the Democrats cut their losses in Congress. There were so many encouraging signs that — in the face of the judicial and legislative determination of the religious right — the cause for freedom of choice at least partially transcends petty partisan manipulations. Nuances were found even among Republican voters. But only in part, since these successes at the ballot box are mathematically the result of widespread low voter turnout combined with strong Democratic mobilization.

In Ohio, where the campaigns of both camps were financed to the tune of tens of millions of dollars, voters — many of them women — clearly decided, 56.6% to 43.4%, to enshrine the right to an abortion in the state’s Constitution, thus laying to rest the risk of the Republican government banning the practice after six weeks of pregnancy. What would the result have been without the mobilization of women’s rights groups? In the very red state of Kentucky, a case in point in the American South, ultra-centrist Democratic Gov. Andy Beshear was reelected against an anti-abortion Republican backed by Donald Trump. In Virginia, where legislative elections were held, the Democrats won control in the state’s Senate and House, where before they controlled only the Senate. This surprise win has handcuffed Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin, who defended a “reasonable” compromise that consisted of limiting abortion access to the first 15 weeks of pregnancy. The proposal was aimed at freeing the Republican Party from the trap of its extreme posturing, which Trump would share if his position could be called consistent. A “reasonable” posturing, perhaps, that nevertheless raised eyebrows, as it in fact entailed haggling and negotiations among men over the health and freedom of women.

A year out from the presidential election, many have wanted to give the votes of the past week a national reach. The referendum weapon is proving so effective for the Democrats that they will want to utilize it in 2024 in pivotal states like Pennsylvania, Iowa, Florida and Colorado. And they would be wrong not to. However, abortion is one election issue among others, judging from recent New York Times and CNN polls showing Trump with a lead over Joe Biden in voter intentions — polls one would hope are not so much a real trending of opinion as panic about the nation’s troubles, particularly on the economic front.

That respondents in The New York Times’ sample prefer Trump for his management of the economy and immigration, as well as on international issues on the simplistic pretext of his projection of greater “strength,” is troubling. That he is deemed as trustworthy as Biden on respect for democracy, despite the contempt he has shown for the rule of law both during and after his presidency, is beyond comprehension. In essence, what is clear from this poll is that Americans long for a choice other than the Democrat with signs of mental decline and a populist exhibiting narcissistic dementia, as demonstrated again in New York during his appearance in court for civil fraud. There is hardly any clearer illustration that American democratic life is in poor health.