Monday, May 30, 2016

"Abortion Can No More Be Legislated Than Niagara Falls Can Be Dammed with a Spoon"

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Former right-wing evangelical Frank Schaeffer confesses his sins (seriously)

by Gaius Publius

Another in our series, "They knew and they didn't care." The video above shows ex-evangelical minister Frank Schaeffer talking about the birth of the anti-choice movement and how it's responsible, among other things, for the presidency of George W. Bush. Schaeffer on that:
"We [the anti-choice part of the right-wing movement] created that audience — alienated, angry people convinced of their own victimhood. So, they became a majority while the mainstream media slept, and when everybody suddenly woke up to the fact was when George W. Bush was sitting in the White House as a totally unqualified crazy person who launched two wars we didn't need to be in. So the fallout had a direct ramification on American history."
The title quote —  "Abortion can no more be legislated than Niagara Falls can be dammed with a spoon" — comes after the four-minute mark, as Schaeffer says he's come to think of abortion as simply a fact of life, "like broken relationships, and abortion is no different ... part of the warp and woof of life, part of our mortality as a human being."

It's really a striking clip, both for the admission and for the language it's couched in. And yes, he admits he was in it for the money.

Schaeffer Knows What He Did

Schaeffer and his family are directly and personally responsible for the anti-choice movement in this country, and in this five-minute clip he sees unblinkingly — and profanely (this is not-safe audio if your boss is nearby) — what he, to his deep and passionate regret, helped do to the entire country.

It's not a surprise, this confession, because he's said many of these things before. But it's on the level of Lee Atwater's deathbed regret for his Willie Horton-ization of Republican politics. Schaeffer and his family had that great an impact on the political landscape of, let's face it, almost the length of our lives.

The interviewer is Samantha Bee, though she makes no appearance. Also, it really is a profane clip. Schaeffer is both colorful, a delightful speaker, and effective. Headset warning.

GP
 

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3 Comments:

At 4:17 PM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

I love that he seems more motivated and beautifully expressive than ever. The very judicious use of profanity helps, I think.

 
At 9:46 AM, Blogger cybermome said...

Good piece

 
At 6:24 AM, Anonymous Anonymous said...

Oh how nice. Someone did something for money that was and still is pure evil... and now he's sorry.

So he joins Lee Atwater and one of the guys who pushed GLBA, directly causing 2008's crash and ongoing crush of the middle class. "Oopsie. What was I thinking. Oh well. I'm good now but it sucks to be you."

I get that someone can be wrong... **THAT** wrong... and then realize it and be sorry.

What I lament is that humanity.. well, americans anyway.. never ever seem to learn. We DEvolve, cause unfathomable human misery, then cannot seem to retrace and resume. We just keep the evil and double-down... iteratively.

Please remember that anti choice HAD to be combined with pro-ignorance in order to keep that "issue" operative for 40 years.

The right courted the Christian churches and even created the moral majority imbeciles (because politics is money) by combining anti-choice (leading to shootings, bombings and dozens of deaths) with the pro-ignorance position of banning sex ed and making contraception a sin (kudos to the cat'lick church for being the MOST relentlessly ignorant). If you push ed and contraception, abortions aren't needed except for rape and incest.

So you see, society had to be kept bone ignorant while Roe was retained in order to keep that issue active. They NEED both the ignorance and Roe in order to run against women's choice for decades.

And americans have been happy to comply with that puppetry.

 

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