XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.abortion, alt.politics.obama   
   XPost: alt.politics.usa   
   From: NoOne@private.corp   
      
   On 10/29/2024 8:21 AM, Ubiquitous wrote:   
   > Whatever happens on Nov. 5, one silver lining of the end of election season   
   > is that Americans will likely soon enjoy at least a brief respite from self-   
   > righteous, inaccurate and arrogant lectures from the Obama family. Recently   
   > former President Barack Obama jetted into Pennsylvania to insult voters who   
   > aren’t supporting Vice President Kamala Harris. On Saturday it was former   
   > First Lady Michelle Obama’s turn. In Kalamazoo, Mich., she exhibited the   
   > charming family habit of treating people who don’t share their politics as   
   > either ignorant or morally compromised.   
   >   
   > As is now Democratic custom, Mrs. Obama didn’t spend much time trying to   
   make   
   > the case that Ms. Harris has earned a promotion. What can one say? Instead   
   > the former first lady offered an angry harangue against Donald Trump as if   
   > he’s the incumbent presiding over an era of inflation and disorder. Mrs.   
   > Obama echoed her husband’s bizarre gripe from last week that as president   
   Mr.   
   > Trump didn’t look to Mr. Obama for guidance on dealing with pandemics. To   
   her   
   > credit Mrs. Obama seems to have learned from her husband’s mistake and so   
   she   
   > avoided presenting Canada’s liberty-crushing lockdowns as some sort of   
   model   
   > of Covid-era excellence.   
   >   
   > Much of the speech was devoted to forecasting a dark future now that voters   
   > rather than unelected judges are allowed to decide some social policies. As   
   > with any issue where the Obamas have staked out a position, no well-informed   
   > and sincere objections are tolerated. Even on the issue of abortion, where   
   > millions of Americans have a deep conviction that it’s wrong, such people   
   are   
   > simply cast as unaware of the implications of their beliefs or callous   
   > opponents of women in the Obamaverse of progressive discourse.   
   >   
   > Mrs. Obama’s Saturday rant included the claim that if elected again, Donald   
   > Trump “could take actions that effectively ban abortion nationwide.” She   
   said   
   > this even though by now she must know that Mr. Trump has repeatedly expressed   
   > his opposition to a nationwide abortion ban and has said that the voters in   
   > each state should set their own abortion policies.   
   >   
   > The absurd premise of Mrs. Obama’s remarks was that in post-Roe v. Wade   
   > America, where abortion policy is no longer dictated by the federal courts   
   > but instead left to up to the people, basic health care for women will   
   > essentially collapse as women are no longer able to find gynecologists.   
   >   
   > Much of the speech was presented as a lecture to the men in the audience, who   
   > were treated as insensitive beasts who don’t care enough or haven’t   
   > considered the needs of the women in their lives, and also deserve no say in   
   > the policies affecting them. Said Mrs. Obama in a speech excerpt published in   
   > the New York Times and described by Times headline writers as a “searing   
   > appeal to men”:   
   >   
   >       I am asking you, from the core of my being, to take our lives   
   seriously.   
   >       Please do not put our lives in the hands of politicians, mostly men,   
   >       who have no clue or do not care about what we as women are going   
   >       through, who don’t fully grasp the broad-reaching health implications   
   >       that their misguided policies will have on our health outcomes.   
   >   
   >       The only people who have standing to make these decisions are women   
   >       with the advice of their doctors. We are the ones with the knowledge   
   >       and experience to know what we need.   
   >   
   >       So please, please do not hand our fates over to the likes of Trump,   
   >       who knows nothing about us, who has shown a deep contempt for us.   
   >       Because a vote for him is a vote against us, against our health,   
   >       against our worth.   
   >   
   > To say that voting for a particular candidate in a tight election means the   
   > voter has chosen to vote against half the population appears to be an   
   > effective way to create political polarization, but why would any party want   
   > to celebrate such rhetoric? Here’s the closing in the Times excerpt, in   
   which   
   > Mrs. Obama once again shames men who dare to deviate from her opinion on   
   > abortion:   
   >   
   >       Let me tell you all to think that the men that we love could be either   
   >       unaware or indifferent to our plight is simply heartbreaking. It is a   
   >       sad statement about our value as women in this world. It is both a   
   >       setback in our quest for equity and a huge blow to our country’s   
   >       standing as a world leader on issues of women’s health and gender   
   >       equity.   
   >   
   >       So fellas, before you cast your vote, ask yourselves: What side of   
   >       history do you want to be on?   
   >   
   > Lest one think that Mrs. Obama only has contempt for men who disagree with   
   > her, she’s even less respectful toward women who don’t share her views on   
   > abortion. Perhaps because her entire argument would fall apart if she   
   > acknowledged their existence, she ignores them. But the truth is that   
   there’s   
   > never been a huge gender gap when it comes to abortion. Most Americans think   
   > that it should be legal but with restrictions, while a small minority favor a   
   > total ban. Gender has less to do with their views than personal beliefs.   
   >   
   > For example, the Pew Research Center finds that ideology and political   
   > affiliation are much more predictive of someone’s position on abortion than   
   > gender, where the differences are modest. Overall, Pew reports that 64% of   
   > women think abortion should be legal in most or all cases and so do 61% of   
   > men. Meanwhile 33% of women think it should be illegal in most or all cases   
   > and 38% of men share this view.   
   >   
   > Interestingly though, while very few Americans favor a total ban—in which   
   > abortion is illegal in all cases—this position tends to be slightly more   
   > popular among women than men. Pew reports that 9% of women favor a total ban,   
   > compared with just 6% of men who think abortion should always be illegal.   
   >   
   > Similarly, Gallup finds that 12% of women favor a total ban, a slightly   
   > higher percentage than the 11% of men who want the practice to be illegal in   
   > all cases.   
   >   
   > Obviously one doesn’t expect fair and balanced coverage of issues in a   
   > partisan political speech, but the small minority of women who favor an   
   > abortion ban and the even smaller minority of men who do provide a kind of   
   > political reality check. Even if Mrs. Obama is inclined to attack those who   
   > don’t share her views, she really doesn’t need to direct such vitriol at   
   > people who have no realistic chance of seeing their policy wishes enacted   
   > nationwide. And she shouldn’t be scaring men and women with outrageous   
   claims   
   > about the U.S. health care system.   
   >   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)