Run away.
That's the progressive Left's time-honored strategy when it comes to open and honest discussions about the topic of abortion. And it's so painfully obvious everyone needs to stop pretending otherwise.
A friend sent me the video clip, and my initial reaction was that it had to be edited. After further investigation I came to the head-shaking conclusion that it wasn't fake. Clamoring for the expansion of abortion rights on the anniversary of the now-defunct Roe v Wade ruling, Vice President Kamala Harris actually said this:
In demanding a return to the days when it was a judicially-imposed, nationwide right to have human beings dismembered in the womb, Harris quotes the Declaration of Independence…and she leaves out the first, and most famous inalienable right of all, the right to life.
Obviously Harris isn't exactly the world's most gifted orator. Perhaps it was just her version of her boss's "you know – the thing!" blunder when quoting the Declaration of Independence. But if it was a slip, it was the Freudian kind.
She doesn't mention it because she's afraid to. She's afraid rational people will note the dissonance. She's afraid people will think instead of feel. She's afraid people will reasonably conclude that a society can't expect to value and embrace liberty if it doesn't first value and embrace life. She's afraid to actually talk about the subject of abortion – what it is and what it does – rather than play around the periphery.
It's the same phenomenon I pointed out last week in an article about MSNBC's Andrea Mitchell. Mitchell blew a fuse when one of her guests referred to those of us who believe preborn human beings are entitled to human rights with the moniker, "pro-life." Through pursed lips, the angry Mitchell corrected, "That is not an accurate description."
My offer to Mitchell and all leftists has been and continues to be simple: let's drop all labels and instead be explicit, upfront, and painfully honest about what we believe regarding who is entitled to human rights and who isn't. In a surprise to no one, I am yet to find any takers.
This isn't a new spectacle. Remember this facepalm-inducing exchange between Senator John Cornyn and Berkeley law professor Khiara Bridges:
It's so surreal to watch this kind of theater because everyone knows what's really happening. Everyone knows what has been exposed.
First of all, take note of the pregnant (no pun intended) pause that Bridges gives after Cornyn asked his initial question of whether an infant delivered and breathing on his own has value. It took her every bit of 4 seconds of thinking before she cautiously acknowledged "yes." What is that?
Why isn't the immediate answer an indignant chuckle and an, "of course." That's how normal people would respond to such a question. But Bridges can't. She has to be careful. She is scared to let reason and open dialogue enter into this discussion. She knows that if she admits a baby 1 second after birth has value, it is comically absurd to turn around and posit that a baby 1 second before birth has none. That's precisely why when Cornyn asks her, she runs away scared and answers "a more interesting question."
This isn't cleverness. It's cowardice.
If you're unwilling to defend your own position with clarity and conviction, if you're scared to subject your ideas to the scrutiny of other minds, if you're frightened of transparency when it comes to your beliefs so much that you have to live-edit the Declaration of Independence and hope no one notices, maybe it's time to own the fact that all those things are an implicit acknowledgement that you know you are wrong? Or at least untenably and unsustainably inconsistent?
I'm not saying it's easy to admit you've been fighting on the wrong side of the great human rights issue of our era. But since every person with objective eyes can already see it, there's just no sense in continuing the charade.
