I also think we shouldn\u2019t underestimate the importance of having women on the stage in moments like this\u2014and not just a woman, a woman with Jamaican and Indian immigrant parents. The more debates we have that look like this, the more debates between two white men will stick out. Children who grow up watching debates like this will become adults who expect to see diversity on the stage.<\/p>\n
Also, after everything we\u2019ve been through, watching Harris\u2019s passion, confidence, and clear mastery of the material was both soothing and much needed. She refilled my joy.<\/p>\n
Before I open the thread for discussion, I want to touch on something that struck me as very, very odd. When the moderator asked Trump point blank whether, if Roe was overturned, he would ban abortion in Indiana if that were in his power, he \u2026 dodged. Pence has never been particularly secretive about the fact that his goal is to ban abortion. So why suddenly become cagey, when his object seems to be almost within reach?<\/p>\n
For god\u2019s sake, when he was governor of Indiana, Pence signed a law requiring women who have miscarriages to bury or cremate the remains. This is the level of absurdity he is willing to go to in his efforts to ban abortion, and yet, when given the question on a national stage, he declined to answer.<\/p>\n
Someone noted that if Roe were overturned, the Republican Party would lose one of their most important wedge issues. Look, I grew up in a conservative evangelical household. We definitely felt that we had no choice but to vote Republican\u00a0because of abortion.\u00a0<\/em>This is one reason many voters in 2016 voted for Trump, despite him being an appalling, horrible person: because no matter what objectively terrible things someone might be doing, nothing<\/em> is worse than murdering hundreds of thousands of babies.<\/p>\n If Roe is overturned and abortion rights are thrown to the states, the stakes might change. I\u2019m not dismissing the problems throwing Roe to the states would cause. We already live in a world where women who struggle with addiction can be charged with murder if they are miscarry, and all of this would only get worse. But it\u2019s nonetheless true that the abortion issue has pinned a specific constituency to the Republican Party.<\/p>\n Was Pence worried about the Republican Party losing a wedge issue? Is he getting cold feet about actually<\/em> overturning Roe? While I can\u2019t say for sure, I tend to think not. Pence, in my view, is a true ideologue. He actually wants to ban abortion. He isn\u2019t an opportunist merely using abortion as a wedge issue.<\/p>\n So, then, why didn\u2019t he state outright that he wants to ban abortion?<\/p>\n The answer, I think, banning abortion is incredibly unpopular. I suspect that Pence was concerned about answering for that reason. This is no excuse, though. Pence should be honest with the American people about what he\u2019s trying to do. Backtracking at this moment is also disingenuous, because Pence\u00a0hasn\u2019t exactly been\u00a0secretive about his intentions here in the past.<\/i> Hiding that from the American people\u00a0because it\u2019s unpopular is not okay. Whatever happened to being okay with taking an unpopular position if that is what is right?<\/p>\n
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