ICYMI - 2020 Dems: A Base Hit by Abortion

by Tony Perkins: Barack Obama knows a thing or two about winning elections. So when the former president warns you that your campaign is out of touch, most people would listen. Not these candidates. If anything, they're setting out to show America just how radical they can be -- giving the 44th president and the rest of his party plenty to worry about.

It was a rare moment of admonishment from the 44th president -- and an even rarer moment of clarity for the Left. But when Obama sat down with a roomful of liberal donors last Friday, his concern was impossible to miss. Whoever Donald Trump's challenger is, they're setting a dangerous table of extremism in these primary debates -- too dangerous, he worries, for the average American. "Even as we push the envelope, and we are bold in our vision, we also have to be rooted in reality," he insisted, "and the fact that voters -- including Democratic voters and certainly persuadable independents or even moderate Republicans, are not driven by the same views that are reflected on certain, you know, left-leaning Twitter feeds, or the activist wing of our party."

If the 2020 field heard his cautionary words, they didn't heed them. Despite the "#TooFarLeft" hashtag trending on Twitter, the Democrats in Georgia did nothing to allay the fears that they've jumped off the deep end on abortion, infanticide, immigration, health care, gender, socialism, and climate change. "There are a lot of persuadable voters, and there are a lot of Democrats out there who just want to see things make sense. They just don't want to see crazy stuff." Unfortunately for Obama, this field specializes in crazy -- and proved it again last night.

After five of these events, the commentators are right about the boredom factor. Where I part ways with the analysis is that these are just "standard politicians saying standard things." There isn't anything routine about the agenda these candidates are proposing for America. Theirs is a country where mothers can rock their newborns to death, where criminals stream over our borders without consequences, where 230-plus years of democracy are swallowed up by a Venezuelan system of unrest and lack. "Listen to Obama," the Washington Post pleaded. And not that I want to aid them in their efforts to capture the White House, but I agree.

In choosing Atlanta for last night's debate, MSNBC did have the perfect backdrop to tee up their questions on one of the most controversial topics: abortion. "Most states, including right here where we are tonight in Georgia, have passed laws that severely limit or outright ban abortion," Rachel Maddow stated. Right now, Roe v. Wade protects a woman's right to abortion nationwide. But if Roe gets overturned and abortion access disappears in some states, would you intervene as president to try to bring that access back?" Their answers, as usual, went far beyond Roe. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) insisted that we should "codify" the ruling, meaning she would wipe the country clean of pro-life laws. Then, in a night that featured some statistical whoppers, she piled on with arguments that were ridiculous on their face.

"We have to remember," she insisted, "... the people are with us. Over 70 percent of the people support Roe v. Wade. Over 90 percent of the people support funding for Planned Parenthood..." For starters, the majority of Americans do not support Roe v. Wade -- which is abortion on demand through all nine months of pregnancy -- and certainly not by the fantasy figures Klobuchar used. Only eight percent of Americans support the Democrats' late-term abortion platform, according to the Harvard Center. And the objection to the Left's birth day abortion campaign are even more dismal: six percent. There's a consensus all right -- but it's not for abortion.

The numbers from Marist are even more frightening from the DNC's perspective. Their January poll found that found 75 percent of Americans favor substantial restrictions on abortion, including 60 percent of Democrats and 61 percent of those who identify as "pro-choice." Women, who've been exploited by the Democratic Party for years, feel even more strongly -- a reality even Democratic pollsters admit. So when Senator Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) says that "If there's ever a time in American history where the men of this country must stand with women," he's right. But, like the rest of his movement, he's dead wrong on what that stand should be.

As for the 90 percent "consensus" on Planned Parenthood, that's flat-out absurd. A generous number would be 50 percent, which is what the scandal-ridden group has typically polled at Rasmussen. But here's where Democrats are really in trouble: their blind assumptions about their own party. When Maddow pressed Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) on Democrats' abortion litmus test, she replied, "I have made clear what I think the Democratic Party stands for."

But her assessment -- and the other candidates' -- has the potential to severely hurt Trump's eventual challenger. If the party truly wants to make support for abortion a qualifying issue for people, it'll be kissing a significant chunk of its support goodbye. "The number of Democrats now identifying as pro-life is 34 percent, up from 20 percent [in January 2019], while the number identifying as pro-choice fell from 75 percent to 61 percent." "Does the party have a message to 20 million pro-life Democrats other than, 'Drop dead?'" Kristen Day, who heads up Democrats for Life of America, asked. Based on the last five debates, no.

For more on the pro-life laws in your states -- the same ones that would be in jeopardy if these candidates get their wish -- check out FRC's Pro-Life Map.
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Tony Perkins (@tperkins) is President of the Family Research Council . This article was on Tony Perkin's Washington Update and written with the aid of FRC senior writers.

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