Wait. Did I really just say that?
Yeah. In case you missed it, Republican frontrunner Rudy Giuliani decided this week that he is going to run as a pro-choice Republican:
After months of conflicting signals on abortion, Rudolph W. Giuliani is planning to offer a forthright affirmation of his support for abortion rights in public forums, television appearances and interviews in the coming days, despite the potential for bad consequences among some conservative voters already wary of his views, aides said yesterday.
“Ultimately,” Giuliani said, “there has to be a right to choose.”
I cannot emphasize enough how significant this is. For thirty years now, the fight for a woman’s right to choose has been largely waged on partisan grounds (which means that even if you personally disagree with Ben Nelson, ultimately the fact that he’s a Democrat helps women’s rights considerably). Republicans have been “pro-life,” while Democrats have been “pro-choice.” And to run against that in your own party, particularly for the Presidential nomination, is very nearly political suicide. Jerome Armstrong at MyDD has a great analysis of what this is going to do to the debate on the Republican side.
For a while, it looked like the war would be a central division in the Republican electorate, but the Cult of Bush has remained strong. It may still happen, particularly if Hagel gets into the race, but for now, the central issue for Republicans is going to be choice. And at every opportunity, Giuliani is going to be hammered by the other Republican contenders.
This isn’t The West Wing, folks. If Giuliani’s really going to seek the nomination of the Republican Party as a pro-choice candidate, he can kiss any chance he has of winning goodbye. They’ll all flock to Fred Thompson, or whoever the hell they think is the second coming of St. Ronnie today.
But this is going to radically shift the debate about choice in a direction that favors women’s rights. The frontrunner for the Republican nomination is saying that we have to recognize a woman’s right to choose. That’s significant. If he ultimately ends up winning, the religious right’s influence on the Republican Party could be dead. Now, I don’t think that’s going to happen, in fact quite the opposite, but they’re welcome to drive their party further to the right and alienate everyone who recognizes the need for sane, reasonable policy when it comes to reproductive health.
Keep an eye on the Republican Presidential race, is all I’m saying. It’s going to be entertaining.
(Any takers on when the first “Rudy: Baby Killer” ad is coming?)