How The GOP Will GOTV In 2006
December 9th, 2005 | by christine |This is the approved language for a ballot petition put forth by Michigan Citizens for Anti-Privacy, Anti-Choice. The initiative seeks to amend the state constitution to extend civil rights to a human embryo or fetus. The language was approved by the Michigan Board of State Canvassers on Wednesday, December 7. The group now needs 317,757 signatures from registered Michigan voters to put the issue on the ballot. (http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051208/NEWS06/512080448)
Oh, I can hear it now: “we don’t want to outlaw abortion; we just want to give the unborn people the same rights as their parents.â€
Hopefully Michigan voters have learned their lesson about the deceitful ballot initiatives of the lying right wing.
This is a good move for the GOP, which makes it bad for the people of Michigan. It forces the pro-choice, pro-privacy, pro-family people to define when life begins. If there is no alternative answer, voters might well be inclined to accept the one offered by the ballot initiative. Since 86% of Americans favor keeping abortion legal, most Michigan voters will only accept the initiative if they’re tricked into thinking it means something else.
What makes this especially good for the GOP is that it can be replicated across the nation in the states that have vulnerable seats. This is a wedge issue initiative that will fire up their base, just like the gay bashing initiatives in 2004.
Shiawassee Democrats usually do better in non-Presidential election years, because the GOP just can’t get out their vote. This might change that for 2006.
We should expect this strategy from the right wing for years to come. Republicans can’t govern, so they have to use wedge issues to get elected.
Cordelia Lear has more: http://www.michiganliberal.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=4392
“The wackos get their information through the Christian right, Christian radio, mail, the internet and telephone trees … Simply put, we want to bring out the wackos to vote against something and make sure the rest of the public lets the whole thing slip past them.” — Michael Scanlon, former aide to Rep. Tom DeLay
