The War on Women...Again

Senatorial candidate, Representative Todd Akin of Missouri has committed political suicide by making a very poor choice of words about “forcible rape”.  However, the uproar against it reeks of political opportunism for both Democrats and Republicans.  I think it is very nasty of politicos to raise the “war against women” mantra again. For Republicans, it has given them an opportunity to throw another Republican under the bus, albeit one who probably deserves it (and who may actually be a Trojan horse, bought, paid for and delivered by the Democrats).  

I think it is reprehensible to attempt to make political hay out of an issue that is very important and needs to be debated by reasonable people seeking reasonable solutions.  Certainly, there is no such thing as “forcible rape”.  All rape is forcible.  That is a fact.  But to use this statement to tar and feather all Republicans is unscrupulous and unfair. 

Keep in mind, I’m not a big defender of Republicans and have done my share of ridiculing them.  But the idea that there is a war on women does a disservice to the women who have been raped and it unfairly tarnishes the reputations of the many Republicans who also care about women who have been raped.  Democrats are no more for women or against them than are Republicans.  If you want to have a reasonable debate, let’s stop calling people names and tarnishing them with having a war on anything.  According to this faulty logic, you could equally say that Democrats have a war on women because so many women have lost their jobs since Obama has been President. 

The mistake here is in the practice of invoking collectivism; the grouping of people, in this case, according to ideas that many of them do not hold.  There are many women Republicans who don’t feel they are at war with women. Some Republican women, a few, even favor a woman’s right to abortion.  In fact, they think that free market principles and policies are the best way to help women as well as men (and blacks and gays).  Many Republicans believe that you don’t help people by expropriating money from one group, and then using that money in wasteful and even harmful ways presumably to help another group…such as paying approximately $1,000,000 per job created – most of which jobs do not return the “investment” (like jobs are supposed to do).  It doesn’t take a Republican to adhere to sound economic principles - it takes a sound thinker adhering to individual rights.  In fact, this wasteful spending could be said to represent a war by the Democrats on the entire country.

Regarding tax payers paying for abortions or the consequences of rape, I first would like to state that I am in favor of a woman’s right to do whatever she and her doctor decide is in her best interests.  I fully support a woman’s right to control her body and to make all decisions without the interference of government (or men). I consider the idea of outlawing abortions to be a violation of the woman’s individual rights.  On this point, I disagree with many of my Republican friends who have a different view of the good and how it is derived. 

However, I do not support the idea that government should use tax payer dollars to fund abortions.  I consider it immoral to force one individual to pay for the needs of any other individual.  If I want to help women get abortions, I should support that privately with private donations and not ask the government to do it.  Using tax payer dollars to pay for abortions, houses, solar panels, cars, factories and windmills, etc. is wrong. 

The key question is what is the proper role of government?  I hold that each individual is properly responsible for him or herself and I consider it evil to demand that other people pay for anyone else’s stuff.

The fact that I don’t support the right of a person to take my money and give it to someone else does not mean I am at war against women.  Welfare and welfare services, or any government services (even those that support big corporations and thieving CEOs), are not a right.  No person has a right to demand that other people lose their rights in order to pay for someone elses "rights".  To insist that it is proper to take other peoples’ money by force is wrong – yet that is what the leftists (and some on the right) do.  This violation of individual rights is what the advocates of abortion are demanding.  They are demanding that government, meaning the tax payer, pay for abortions and contraception.  They have a right to abortions and contraception if they want to purchase them…but they don’t have a right to force other people to pay for them.

But I consider the issue of funding abortions to be part of a larger struggle for freedom.  People should be free to use their hard earned money as they see fit - and that right is more important than someone else's need. 

The real issue in this election is about fiscal solvency.  The issue of funding abortions is an important part of that debate but it is only part of the wider debate.  Most of us are aware that once the present crop of Democrats is done implementing their re-distribution policies, if we elect them again, there won’t be any money for anything…and that includes money for abortions and rape victims.  If we become insolvent as a country, there won’t be any benefits for anyone, seniors, women or government cronies.  There won’t be any money to scream about and demand (as a right) because the Democrats will have forced us into bankruptcy…and bankruptcy means there is no more money. 

Supporting the Democrats and their spending, even their spending on abortion, will not make things better…it will eventually cause the financial and economic collapse of our country.  That would cause a real war on women…and men…and children…and Blacks…and Hispanics…and…and…and.  I

f you want our country to collapse, vote for the Democrats.