To avoid electoral disaster, the president and Democrat candidates, including Sen. Patty Murray, are employing a tried-and-true political tactic: Distract from the Democrats’ failings by creating and vilifying an “enemy.”
The world has gone down that road before with disastrous results.
Democrats’ target group is women. The issue is abortion. The tactic is fear. The enemy is Republicans. The claim is that voting for Republicans will result in making abortion a crime. In fact, Sen. Murray claims our representative democracy is at risk.
You will not hear that the Supreme Court decision did not limit the right to an abortion or that Republican candidates like Senate candidate Tiffany Smiley have unequivocally stated they will not vote to outlaw abortion.
Smiley’s position is consistent with most Americans who agree that neither of the extreme positions on abortion is acceptable. The answer by Democrats is to ignore these truths. Instead, the decision was made to mislead and inflame. Good politics, bad policy. Dividing the country will come to no good end.
Exercising the cherished and constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of speech does not make a person an enemy of democracy. It is the willingness to vilify the exercise of that right that is abominable.
Whenever you hear politicians attempting to create an enemy, the famous Army-McCarthy hearing question should come to mind: “Senator, have you no shame?”
Susan Remund
Lewis County
