‘Baby-killers.’ It’s always ‘baby-killers.’

Finally we shall insist on seeing everything — God and our friends and ourselves included — as bad, and not be able to stop doing it: we shall be fixed for ever in a universe of pure hatred. — C.S. Lewis

“Baby killers.” It’s always baby-killers.

Yes, this graffiti vandalizing the offices of Eric Cantor’s Democratic opponent in Virginia has to do with the politics of abortion. But here is the key thing to understand: This vandal did not accuse others of being “baby killers” because he opposes abortion. He opposes abortion because he wants to believe he is a hero fighting against monstrous “baby-killers.”

The epithet “baby-killer” predates America’s abortion politics. It predates America. It’s as old as the blood libel, older than the New World (a place Europeans “discovered” and found occupied by “savages” who were deemed illegitimate because they were, why, yes, that — always ultimately that).

The inclination to accuse one’s opponents of being “baby-killers” does not arise from America’s abortion politics. America’s abortion politics arises from the inclination to accuse one’s opponents of being baby-killers.