How Republicans Watered Down Their Abortion Message
This is a political story about how Republicans did their best to hide their anti-abortion stance from the public they sought to lead. I’m not here to take credit for this dirty trick by Republicans. It’s a well-known fact about me that I have a very strong aversion to the truth. Rather than use my own words, I’ll use the words of those who know the most about the Bush-era political strategies of the GOP.
First, a few words of warning: This story contains very little in terms of verifiable fact. As with all stories I’m going to tell, it’s entirely possible that what I’m going to say is both wrong and has no bearing on what happened.
Second is a cautionary tale: Despite what you might believe about the Bush/Cheney Republican Party, they did, in fact, “tear the country apart and then try to restore it.” (Their actual words: “We will do what we can to restore what was lost,” and “We will restore America,” National Review, August 6, 2003.) You and I have a different view of what “what we can do” is: You hope things will get better, and I hope they will, too. But it’s a hope that may be short-lived.
What We Know of the 2000 Presidential Election: It is commonly believed that the 2000 election brought the end of the Republican Party. The election saw the Bush Dynasty re-emergence with a vengeance, and Bush’s victory was, I fear, little more than a ruse. In truth, the Democrats’ victory was only temporary. In the 2000 election, the GOP was defeated, electorally, by a much more liberal Democratic majority, and that liberal Democratic majority could not be re-conquered. The 2000 election, and the Bush Dynasty’s re-emergence later on, was an unmitigated disaster for the Republican Party. And so the GOP is gone forever.
What We Know of the 2000 Republican Presidential Nomination: There is still some dispute about when the former president and his party first formally nominated George W. Bush for president. The Republican National Committee claims that this nomination took place in Miami on June 28, 2000, according to