Pro-Life Dems

...meet in NY:

At the Democrats for Life conference Wednesday, Oklahoma Democratic state legislator Rebecca Hamilton, who has successfully sponsored legislation to restrict abortion, spoke of the arduous role of being a pro-life Democrat.

She said she’d been “attacked about as much as a human being can be attacked by my party.”

Recently the Oklahoma Democratic Party state convention narrowly defeated a resolution to censure Hamilton and another anti-abortion Democratic legislator.

Hamilton has a sense of mission, telling her fellow Democrats for Life at Wednesday's meeting: “We’ve got to save the soul of our party because it is in trouble.”

“The pro-life movement needs very badly, for its own integrity, to have a strong Democratic voice, a strong pro-life voice,” she declared. “The Democratic Party for its own integrity needs to have a strong pro-life voice.”

Defining the meaning of 'progressive'

She even uses one of the trademark words of left-of-center people in her party, “progressive,” as she says, “To protect the sanctity of human life, if that isn’t a progressive issue, I don’t know what is.”

She said, “The logical thing for anyone who is a progressive or anyone who’s for human rights, would be to be very strongly in favor of the most important human right of all – the basic right to life.”

Comments

[CJ]

Did you see this piece in today's NYT? I'm surprised they ran it and expect vitriolic letters in response, but wouldn't it be great if the Democrats listened?

[Lynn]

Yes, it would be great, but don't hold your breath.
Anybody know of any chapter of Democrats for Life in Florida?

[Christina]

Feminists for Life, which is largely a Democratic enclave, has made great strides on college campuses. Give 'em time!

[SLowboy]

The article makes me feel better. It's not my fault I voted a jingoistic lunatic into office. It's the democrats. They just won't let go of the "abortion is good" mantra.

[bo]

we Okies are nutty people! but just to give it some perspective: here in red dirt country, local democrats will do some things uncharacteristic of their national brethern. For instance, in the last election, some of the Democrats were actually for the incredibly blunt anti-illegal immigration bills that have got our State Congress on the national news. They are also typically pro-military (Wesley Clark, anyone?), and typically do not have the anti-religion leanings of some democrats elsewhere. To look anything like a typical democrat in Oklahoma, you ussually have to be at least one, if not two, of the following: a) from the middle class to rich parts of Oklahoma City, b) ditto with Tulsa, c) a move in from out of state, d) a mainline Church member who self-identifies as being different from the percieved "fundamentalist" attitude of Oklahoma, or e) a college student who walked into an ACLU meeting because they had pizza and enjoyed their witty zingers against Bush. The only exception is the out of the way towns in little dixie (SE Oklahoma) or out west in cattle country that have kept their civil structure intact since it was settled back during the land run, and the town fathers happened to be dixiecrats.

this isn't to discount that democrats for life is up and rising, or isn't present elsewhere. Its just to point out that it doesn't surprise me to hear Okie democrats being pro-life. It actually makes me a bit proud. but only a bit...i'm not a democrat :)

[carlos]

DFL has been around for a while, but I've not seen them score any sort of victories. Until they take out a pro-abortion Dem in a primary with a pro-life Dem, I'm not going to give them much credit. Disclosure: I've never voted Dem, and I never plan to (though I've not always voted GOP either).

[mgarbowski]

Well, she gets due credit for being pro-life, but beyond that she's either disingenuous or inorant when she describes her position as progressive. The history of progressivism is the history of eugenics. Just google the 2 words and you'll find multiple references. Further, the association between progressivism and eugenics is not coincidental. Eugenics is a logical outgrowth of attempts to use state power to cure poverty. We are all called to help the poor, but unfortunately, we cannot eliminate poverty, and attempts to do so inevitably end up eliminating the poor and weak. You can't create a pefect society, as the progressives want, with imperfect people. Frankly, people like Ms. Hamilton scare me.

[Mike]

It's not my fault I voted a jingoistic lunatic into office.

Sure, it is.