It's really all about abortion for the GOP base

Yesterday, I wrote a diary that wondered why Republicans were so loyal to such a nakedly corrupt, immoral man. I went to bed, woke up, and it finally hit me. It is all about abortion for them. For 50 years, they couldn’t do anything about it. Then this promiscuous charlatan comes along and beats Hillary Clinton. Just as the sinking of the Titanic was a miracle for the lobsters in the kitchen, Trump’s victory looked like divine intervention for those who think God cares about US politics.

Since I’m a man, I’ve had the luxury of taking my time to come around to the realization that a fetus only matters if its mother says that it matters. Abortion can be a unpleasant subject to think and talk about, so that’s why a lot of people come to the wrong conclusion about it, even if they aren’t particularly religious.  To be sure, there are atheists and agnostics who oppose abortion too, (and whatever their religious beliefs are, their secular belief that abortion should be illegal is still wrong.)

So if you are a person who sincerely (but incorrectly) believes that abortion is murder, that can float to the top of your political priorities. You can rationalize anything, including violence, if it causes fewer abortions to take place. You stop caring about things like the economy, the justice system, and national security. Everything else can be dismissed as a distraction, or be exploited in order to distract others.

Consider the topic of vaccines. If you care about fetuses, then you should care about the health of pregnant women. Maybe you might not support vaccine mandates, but you still might be making PSA’s about how pregnant women should consult with their doctors about vaccines, and how the rest of us should get vaccinated to protect pregnant women.

Except now there is a huge overlap between the anti-vax and anti-abortion crowds. The common factor is a misunderstanding of biology, and a weaponization of that misunderstanding.

Trump gave the anti-abortion crowd three Supreme Court justices. No matter how delusional they are about everything else, they know that TFG played a role in overturning Roe V. Wade. They would follow him off a cliff for that alone. If we can win the debate on abortion, then that guts the GOP base. 2024 could be a fun year.