Oh, I know there are some just as bad; indeed, the pro-abortion ads being run in Maryland against Republican Larry Hogan in the U.S. Senate race are at this despicable level. The Kaine spot, however, reminds me of Mary McCarthy epic take-down playwright Lillian Hellman: “Every word she writes is a lie, including ‘and’ and ‘the’.”
Let’s see…
- The Supreme Court didn’t “rob” any women of anything. It sent the issue of abortion regulation to the states, where it always belonged.
- The issue isn’t a “right to choose.” The issue is how far anyone’s right to kill another human being can or should be acknowledged. There is no right to “choose” to kill those who inconvenience us. Using deceptive phrases that deliberately disguise the rights, parties and stakeholders in a political dispute is deceit, a lie.
- Abortion is legal in every Southern state. That it is not is an outright, indefensible lie.
- More deceit: “If Republicans take control in Washington and pass a national abortion ban” is like saying, “If Republicans take control in Washington and legalize slavery.” A national abortion ban is not going to happen, can’t happen, and would almost certainly be ruled unconstitutional if by some miracle it did. Legal scholar and ethicist William Hodes made that case powerfully in his article published on the Federalist Society website, pointing out that any such federal legislation would be unconstitutional, as it would exceed the scope of congressional power.
- Of course women would have “options.” Finding solutions to the result of their own actions, or the actions of others, that doesn’t involve killing nascent lives is an excellent, ethical option.
- “The Republicans won’t stop there” because they’re evil! EVIL! This is shameless demonizing and fear-mongering. They’ll legalize cannibalism! They’ll make everyone wear their underwear on the outside! How can the women in that video look at themselves in the mirror?
- Contraception is protected under the Constitution. IVF involves complex biological and ethical issues, but there is no indication that there would be sufficient support in the Republican Party to ban the procedure. Yet this ad states as fact that the GOP would do it.
That’s pretty impressive hysteria and dishonesty for a 30 second ad. And this was the guy Hillary Clinton picked to be her Vice-President.
I don’t see how anyone who has any standards for honesty in our elected officials can vote for some who puts out deliberate falsehood like these and “approves” them. I know, I know, it’s “the ends justifies the means,” the unethical fallacy that has swallowed the whole Democratic Party.
Anything to be able to kill unborn human beings at will.
Ethics Alarms 
I do not understand why the Republican Party or some Republican Supporting PAC doesn’t flood the media outlets with the points you make.
How difficult is it to run an ad saying short of a constitutional amendment there is no way federal legislation can ban abortion?
How difficult is it to state claims to the contrary are flat-out lies?
Beats me.
There are two reasons for this.
1. They don’t want to lose the anti-abortion wing of the party that actually wants a federal ban on abortion and that doesn’t understand- like their counterparts in the pro-abortion crowd- the Constitution sufficiently enough to recognize that it can’t be done. Why anti-abortion advocates would abandon the Republicans over this issue seems ridiculous and counterproductive but there are those who would by either voting for Democrats or by staying home on Election Day. Which brings me to my second point.
2. There’s a reason why the Republicans are known as the Stupid Party.
This makes perfect sense
I was going to say the same thing. Kaine’s ad is deceit but so too is Larry Hogan’s who says he will codify Roe. Dobbs specifically states that this is outside federal authority.
I will say women in every state have the power to protect their ability to kill nascent human beings if that is what they want to do. Push for a Constitutional amendment in your state.
This issue is merely a device to create division. Where are the feminists who would lead the effort to get a state to pass a constitutional amendment protecting the killing of nascent humans? They won’t do it because they need abortion to be a tool to get power. Abortion is merely a cudgel to get women to vote for progressives because progressives are actively pushing items that harm women. When women wake up to this fact progressives will have not a leg to stand on.
Chris, I think you have a point. Abortion, Guns, and Border/Immigration are three wedge issues neither party wants to solve. Focus on them to gin up the base; then you only have to pick off a few percent of the undecided or some other special interest group to win.
There is no “solve” regarding guns. The Second Amendment is the solution, and its not changing. The other part of the problem is human nature, and THAT’S not changing.
Don’t forget that continued conflict means continued fear means continued fund raising!
Have you seen the ads being run against Hogan, accusing him of secretly planning on banning abortion? It’s Big Lie stuff. The easiest way to counter it is with the opposite lie.
Alsobrooks ads are horrendous I admit. If the easiest way to counter a big lie is with another lie then count me out. This is what dumbs down the electorate and I blame the power hungry politicians for that.
It is lamentable that when I try to educate people and not spout talking point spin the electorate chooses the spin. Sheer laziness on their part.
But how do you do that? The reason Big Lies work , as Goebbels and Hitler knew, is that you force the target to deny it, and then it’s a debate, advancing the lie. “Tit for Tat” is unethical, except in cases where the threat of it is a legitimate deterrent, as in, for example, discovery abuse in litigation.
Just confront the liars everytime with proof. I make the point about Dobbs every time the issue rears its head.
Just look at Michigan’s electorate. The abortion issue does not resonate with women there because they have already enshrined the right in their state constitution. When confronted with the rebuttal that they cannot muster enough support for a state constitutional amendment I remind them that that is what happens when the majority rules in a democracy.
Colin Allred, candidate for US Senate in Texas, has been running the same sorts ads against Ted Cruz. Shameful but effective. Allred is getting mountains of cash from California. Where is the outrage over dark money?
jvb
From what I’ve been reading, this ad is typical of what Democrats are doing in most competitive state races. I think I read that in Arizona the state GOP has been counter punching with ads basically going over why all these claims are lies.
My understanding is that Dobbs in essence said that the federal government cannot regulate abortion on a national level, that both national bans and national codification of Roe (whatever either of those actually mean) are both unconstitutional.
Why Republicans could not see these types of ads both in 2022 and this year, and effectively debunk them is beyond me, especially this year. They’ve had 2 full years to come up with rational abortion policies for their states. If they haven’t done so, it’s a major own goal.
On the other hand Trump, for example, has explicitly stated he is not going to do a national abortion ban. The Democrats still have as one of their major talking points, “Trump is going to ban abortion everywhere” or simply refer to ‘Trump’s abortion bans’ as if he had already issued them. That would be a neat trick since he’s been out of office nearly 4 years.
Bottom line is that the Democratic party knowingly uses these type of flat out lies as a major part of their campaigns, knowing that they are lies from beginning to end.
The problem the Republicans have is that these are the STANDARD talking points. You don’t just see them on this ad. They are also on MSNBC, CBS, ABC, CNN coming from every talking head and guest. Anyone who tries to refute them is yelled at and spoken over until they stop talking. You see it on Bill Maher’s show, on the Daily Show, etc. This is the standard administration narrative. Anything else is misinformation and I suspect if you tried to run ads counter to this, they would be flagged for misinformation.
Yet another politically narrative that false. Are they all liars or is it only the ones that speak and write?
I… am souring on American Republicans. There’s always been this… built in dishonesty about issues, especially around issues that the party knows will cost them elections, where the party at large will lie about the excesses of the crazies that they don’t want to police, but act in a way that’s palatable to a majority.
Roe was an issue like that: For decades Abortion had been this lightning rod issue, where people on both sides had very strong opinions, and the discussion was always held in the most shrill of tones because both sides know, deep down, that the issue wasn’t as simple as they’d like it to be, and the best arguments of their opponents weren’t bad arguments. For decades, Republicans had been threatening to repeal Roe, but at every opportunity they got: Majorities, Supermajorities, SCOTUS majorities, the repeal never seemed to materialize. This was because the Republicans were playing a very high stakes game: Courting both the people who wanted abortion restrictions, and people who didn’t. They would say all the right things to one, and do all the right things for the other.
This was the deal that allowed moderates to vote Republican, even as Republicans were saying things that polled very poorly with moderate priorities: They believed that the Republicans were lying, saber rattling, and blustering. Frankly, I believe that a lot of moderate Republicans, ones that have since retired or otherwise been forced out of the party, also believed that. I believed that. Trump has changed that deal: Things Republicans have been saying for years, that people didn’t belive would come to pass were all of a sudden happening. I can think of no better example, if not as domestically consequential, as the Israeli embassy moving from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem. America’s presidents in an unbroken chain had been promising to do that, it was mainstream American policy, but it never actually materialized until Trump did it.
You can sit back and say the obvious: It’s a good thing when a politician does what they say they’re going to do. But Trump isn’t exactly a lodestone for honesty, and things like this mean that I have to take everything that Republicans say literally and seriously, because at least sometimes they’re being literal and serious. The deal has changed. I can’t tell the difference between crazy things that are said to placate your crazies, and things that are just, straight up, the plan. Will America actually deport a significant number of illegal aliens? Will the entitlement programs evaporate? Will restriction on automatic rifles be repealed? Will Republicans attempt a national abortion ban?
I don’t know. And frankly, neither do you. Republicans say these things, and I don’t mean fringe crazies – JD Vance said he’d like to see a national abortion ban only a year ago, before demurring to run as Trump’s running mate.
It’s at least not as absurd as it was ten years ago.
Comment of the Day.
Will America actually deport a significant number of illegal aliens?
No.
Will the entitlement programs evaporate?
No.
Will restriction on automatic rifles be repealed?
No.
Will Republicans attempt a national abortion ban?
Some, but not nearly enough to make it serious.
Will a president Trump try to “lock up” those who did him dirt over the past few years.
No.
I am extremely confident about all of these, despite the rhetoric on both sides.
I was extremely confident that Roe v Wade would never be repealed and that the American embassy was going to stay in Tel Aviv.
In my defense, they’d been that way for at least 50 years.
Where does your confidence come from?
Let’s go further:
What was the chance Chevron Deference got repealed (1984-2024)?
Affirmative Action (1965-2023)?
What is the chance that gay marriage gets repealed (2015-Current)?
Like… Don’t get me wrong… I don’t like Chevron or Affirmative Action, but these are examples of things that no one really expected to change ten years ago, that are now in question (or already overturned). There was a status quo in America that has been fundamentally upheaved.
Where I said before that Republicans would say things for one group and do things for another… They might still be doing that, just for different groups.
What Trump has said is that he will be deporting enmasse those with criminal backgrounds. We know there are nearly 500,000 of them in the U.S. My understanding is they will be sought out and ejected. Moreover, those convicted of future crimes will be deported before any mass roundup would even be contemplated. Anyone suggesting he will deport 10 -20 million illegal immigrants did not get his message. It is not logistically feasible.
Who is advocating for a repeal on the ban of AUTOMATIC weapons? This is a non issue. The issue is banning semi-automatic scary guns.
Trump is not pushing for a national ban of abortion and it is a very small minority who want an absolute ban and unfettered rights to abort.
Some entitlement programs should evaporate as should some business subsidies. I follow the platforms of both and I have not heard anyone talk about eliminating all entitlements. Nor have I heard anyone suggest that Social Security needs to be cut. I have heard that without reforms benefits will be reduced but that is based on actuarial assessments and not policy prescriptions. Shoring up Social Security and Medicare can be done by eliminating the income cap or increasing it substantially. The increase payroll tax will not affect employment because people at the upper end of the pay scale are relatively price inelastic.
Here is a question. Why do we say Social Security and Medicare will run out of money but we never say that social welfare programs or foreign aid will become insolvent? This is a wedge issue to scare seniors into voting for big government high tax advocates.
Your concerns could have been written in the 40’s and 50’s regarding civil rights legislation and court decision like Brown v Board of Ed.
Gaining a sense of comfort in knowing that they are lying to you and knowing they will not do what they say they are going to do is a cop out. They get to lie to you because they know you will accept the lie. They need to be kept on their toes by calling them out when they lie or fail to live up to their promises. As Charles Barkley once said the people in the neighborhood have voted Democrat for 50 years and they are still poor. They are waking up.
It’s not about what Trump says, it’s where the party is.
How many times on the campaign trail did Trump talk about repealing Roe? Ending Chevron Deference? Challenging Affirmative Action?
I don’t think Trump, on his third marriage, cares overmuch about the sanctity of marriage, but does Clarence Thomas have the votes at SCOTUS to overturn Obergefell?
You want to talk about Brown, as a comparison?
I think that you think that the comparison, painting me as being akin to the Southern Democrats fighting against Liberty, should make me question myself… But the reality is that regardless of the philosophical and political illiteracy of that, it still makes my point: Eisenhower said what he was going to do, did it, and the electorate rewarded him with a 2% bump in the polls for his next election. Republicans at the turn of the century weren’t hiding their support for civil rights: They were acting on it. The electorate wasn’t confused. It was a 9-0 decision in SCOTUS.
I’m not saying that bad decisions can never be repealed, I’m saying that the rug ought to match the drapes.
I’d like to see a national abortion ban. But I’m pretty sure Dobbs has made that possible only if all fifty states decide to ban abortion. And since some states have already addressed this issue, a total ban is never…NEVER…going to happen while the U.S. exists in its current form.
So saying that some Republicans would like an abortion ban?…completely true and accurate. But saying that Republicans “will” pass one…or “will try to” pass one…or “could” pass one…ANY form of that indicating Republicans have a way to pass a ban at the national level is completely preposterous.
It’s an outright lie, regardless of what happened with the Israeli embassy, and those in charge of making those flagrantly dishonest ads know it.
In Canada, Trudeau’s government has a storied history of passing laws that are facially unconstitutional. I don’t think he’s stupid enough to believe that those laws will stand long-term, or at least, I don’t think that his team is. I believe that the thought process is to get some “gains” in the months that the laws stand before they can be overturned.
He famously issued an order in council during Covid to restrict a whole lot of guns that existed in the market. A whole lot of people turned in guns that were restricted by the OIC. The OIC was never affirmed, and died on the branch, but it’s not like the guns could be unconfiscated at that point, they were already slag.
If a national abortion ban were passed… How long do we think it would take to make it through to SCOTUS to get overturned? Months? Years? Even if it only took weeks for a TRO or whatever equivalent we might be talking about to come into effect… How many children do we think that saves? It’s not like you can wind back the clock and un-gestate the baby.
Which…. Might be a good new story to you: Look at all the babies we saved.
But we’re not talking about you, we’re talking about the people who used to think that they could support Republicans, because Republicans were talk-big, but do-nothings when it came to abortion, and they cared more about financial issues, or border security.
Those people feel lied to.
And yeah, maybe Trump ekes out a victory this election, because he’s running against the worst candidate the Democrats have managed to trot out, since the one before last, and her policies are so bad that they overcome all these not-single-issue voters.
But what if they nominated someone halfway sane?