“The Pragmatic Party of Death”

Yet another excellent post by my good friend, Joe Carter, over at the Evangelical Outpost. Here’s a taste:

I am a political realist . . . Because I’m a political realist, I also believe that in the long run electing Rudy Giuliani will be even more detrimental to the pro-life cause than would a Hillary Clinton presidency . . . .

Giuliani supports abortion on demand, including partial birth abortion. He supports public funding of both abortion and embryo destructive research. Giuliani is unapologetically in favor of the right to end the life of the unborn. His position is almost indistinguishable from that of Hillary Clinton.

Anyone who thinks that Giuliani would disregard his deeply held commitment to abortion rights to placate a constituency who he despises doesn’t know the former Mayor of New York. He will relish sticking it to social conservatives, a group that will have done nothing to help him get elected. He will reason that his socially liberal positions will help win over enough Democrats to help him during his reelection efforts. And besides, if conservatives were willing to compromise and vote him in as the “lesser evil” in 2008, why would they do otherwise in 2012? Will the Democratic candidate be any better?

So on the issue of abortion, there will not be a shred of difference between Clinton and Giuliani. What will be different is that Clinton and the Democrats are already members of what Ramesh Ponnuru calls the “party of death.” . . . . However, if Giuliani is elected everything changes. Despite what a plank in the party platform might say, when the de facto leader of the GOP is pro-abortion then the party has crossed the line over into the “party of death.” A pro-abortion Republican President would be devastating, leaving the pro-life movement without a viable political party.

I can only speak for myself but I want to make the message clear: If Republicans choose to spurn the field of pro-life candidates, chooses to spit on the values of social conservatives, and chooses to remake the GOP into the “party of death”, they will do so without me. This isn’t a bluff; it’s a statement of principle. I’m a pro-life conservative who will never cast a ballot for a pro-abortion liberal. Here I stand. I can do no other. God help me. And God help this country if social conservatives aren’t willing to stand with me.

To that, all I can say is: Amen, my protestant brother.