I’ve said many times before, that the biggest obstacle for Republicans is ourselves. In a straight head to head battle of ideas, liberal progressive ideas are no match for individual sovereignty, free markets, and conservative values. It’s when those conservative values get dismissed or overlooked in an effort to cause chaos and anarchy within the voter base that things begin to fall apart.
And that is what’s been happening so far in the elections.
With Republicans up over Democrats big time in polls going into the general election, the Left has been desperate to find a single issue to campaign on, and show some sort of “support” for the radical agenda they’ve been proposing.
And that agenda has fallen onto the topic of abortion.
Since the reversal of Roe v. Wade in June, there have now been two statewide votes on abortion laws, one in Kansas and one in Indiana. The bill in Indiana banned most of abortions in the state except for the basic exemptions everyone talks about. The vote in Kansas “rejected” limitations on abortion, leaving the issue wide open to create some of the most loose abortion laws in the country. Democrats (obviously) are using the Kansas vote as the example nationwide to show that the American people want abortions, and want few restrictions on them.
But is that really the case?
Living in Kansas myself, I can say with certainty that is NOT what happened in our state. And the rest of the country needs to know what really happened.
Back in 2019 the Kansas Supreme Court made a ruling that said abortion was a constitutionally protected right in the state, putting the basic limitations and regulations on the industry in jeopardy. For years former Kansas Governor Sam Brownback and the state legislature had been working on simple, common sense regulations in the state. No abortions after the third trimester, state funding of abortion clinics, parental consent of abortions, etc. But after the Supreme Court ruling all of those regulations could potentially be revoked.
So the Republican-led legislature, along with Kansans for Life proposed a new constitutional amendment stating that abortion is NOT a constitutionally protected right, and the rules and regulations would go back into the hands of the legislature/governor, while also keeping the current regulations on abortion “as is”. The bill easily passed the legislature with the super majority of votes needed, and was placed on the ballot for the people of Kansas to vote on as a “Value Them Both” constitutional amendment.
However that’s when the chaos began.
Having been just a few short months after the reversal of Roe v. Wade on the national level, Democrats were already fired up and pretending having states make their own laws (as the way it should be) was somehow likened to “The Handmaid’s Tale” and taking women back to the 1800s. The radical activists were in overdrive, and Kansas was the best place to make an example of the issue to show that the “people” want abortions.
The election quickly changed from “preserving basic limitations on abortions and keeping the power of the issue out of the hands of judges” to “the bill would fully ban abortion in the state and leave women to die without medical treatment”.
No one understood the issue fully, and even many on the Republican side thought the bill went too far, thinking it was a complete ban on abortion, even in cases where the woman or child were in danger. Many even misunderstood the issue, thinking voting against the bill would KEEP the basic limitations, while the “yes” vote took things too far. The Left stole the conservative talking points and campaign messages of “freedom”, “liberty”, “anti mandate”, and fighting “big government”. We saw TV ads using mask mandates and COVID lockdowns as the example of what would happen to individuals if the bill passed (ironic for the side that supports mask mandates and community lockdowns).
None of it was true.
The vote failed 59% to 41%. And while Republicans overall turned out in vastly higher numbers than Democrats (over 400k voters), the “yes” vote on the bill received just over 300k votes, a near 76k drop from those in the Republican primary to voted from the governor’s race.
To me that’s a sign that either 1) there are A LOT of Republicans that voted to support open ended/unrestricted abortions with no limitations or 2) they didn’t understand what the bill actually did.
I tend to lean toward the latter.
Now the vote is over. And while we lost this battle, the war is far from over. We regroup and try again. But there are things to learn from this vote.
1) Democrats are experts in causing chaos to promote a specific agenda and abuse and confuse the voter base.
2) Republicans are still trying to figure out how to discuss social issues that they have tried to shy away from for so long, giving Democrats the upper hand on the issue.
This is not an excuse to dismiss the election results. Only a plea to the rest of the nation to understand what really happened here, and to understand that the American people do NOT side with the Left on their radical position of anti-human values. Republicans nationwide need to stand toe to toe with Democrats on the issue and spread a message of common sense, love, and the value of human life. And voters need to know this election will be about children, family values, education, and what our “equity” will be worth through the lens of a left wing socialist in power if they continue with their agenda.
Let’s get ready for mid terms 2022.
