By John Connolly
January 31, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Twenty-one of the United States go to the polls for their presidential primaries on Tuesday, with the nominations still very much contested by two remaining candidates in each party.
The big election news this week was the back-to-back dropout of both John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani. While Edwards’ withdrawal was unexpected, it doesn’t really change the election field for Democratic voters. The Democrat nomination is still hanging between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama in what has developed in recent weeks into a very nasty campaign. And although pro-life voters share a certain sense of relief that media darling Giuliani is no longer in the race, the 2008 elections bear witness to disconcerting developments for the pro-life movement in the U.S. electoral process.
With a sweeping win in Florida, John McCain became the Republican front-runner, topping both Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. For the pro-life movement, 2008 has been a confusing election year, with most of the Republican candidates claiming to be pro-life, yet often despite questionable voting records and otherwise troubling pasts. McCain has expressed his support for embryonic stem-cell research, and has repeatedly endorsed positions that do not hinder pro-abortion and gay “marriage” legislation. Mitt Romney has been difficult to read, since his questioned conversion to a pro-life stance several years ago.
It has been frustrating to watch a solidly pro-life candidate like Huckabee be marginalized by mass media and derided as “unconservative” by talk show hosts that claim to be the voice of conservatism. But the sad truth is that conservatism has taken preeminence over pro-life for the Republican party. The conservative populace has allowed foreign policy and immigration to take the place of human lives in importance. The candidates bicker about how “conservative” each other are, and strive to prove that pro-life issues do not have anything to do with conservatism.
Rudy Giuliani bowed out after a long stand in the political arena. The fact that he had such a strong showing among Republicans early on and that he didn’t drop out sooner is a testimony to how much the Republican party is distancing itself from the pro-life movement. He ultimately dropped out because he was not seen as conservative enough; but he should have been drummed out immediately because he is in no way faithful to what is supposedly a central plank in the Republican platform: the protection of life. It’s no surprise that he endorsed McCain, a kindred spirit on life issues. With more endorsements of McCain rumored, and several celebrities and politicians already backing him, pro-life voters will have to tread carefully.
To all appearances, the Republican Party (and, to a larger extent, the conservative movement) seems to be embarrassed by the pro-life movement. They prefer a solidly ‘conservative,’ yet obviously pro-choice candidate like McCain, to a solidly pro-life one like Huckabee, or even a questionably pro-life one like Romney. The political appeal of McCain is evident: in a two-party system polarized between issues, a candidate both ‘conservative’ and pro-choice will bring in votes from pro-choice voters who don’t like the entirely liberal platform of the Democratic Party.
The pro-life citizens of the United States must pray that fear doesn’t motivate the voters on “Super Tuesday.” The looming threat of Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton is spurring voters to settle for a candidate who will still cause a backslide in getting Roe v. Wade overturned and blocking funding to Planned Parenthood and overseas abortions. A Clinton-Obama coalition – though it seems improbable based on the recent sparring between them that has been trumped up by the media – is still very possible. This fear, coupled with the obsessive concern for conservatism, instead of an earnest concern for human life and its sanctity, can endanger the pro-life movement’s progress for the next four years.
No ideology can be accepted unless it endorses the basic value of human life and strives to protect it. Stronger military overseas, economic values and immigration protection must all be placed in a deeper context, one that is missing from this election. The damage that McCain’s nomination could do to the Republican Party would be long-lasting. The effect of a Republican president tolerant of pro-death policies would be to remove the pro-life plank from the Republican platform.