Abortion

My parents knew some people who voted for Bush in 2004 because he was good on security, Israel, and tax cuts for rich people. Let's leave aside the reality that Bush was not actually any good on security or Israel (fine, I'll give him tax cuts for rich people.). Those people my parents knew who voted for Bush on that basis told my parents that they didn't like any of his social policies but they didn't worry too much about them actually getting shoved down our throats. "What about the Supreme Court?" my parents asked. "Don't you care about Roe v. Wade?" Oh sure, those people said. But we're not worried. They wouldn't do that. We're sure Roe is safe.

There were lots of reasons to oppose both Roberts and Alito, not least that they were clearly chosen in part to protect the Administration in the event they are prosecuted for war crimes and their cases come before the Supreme Court. But Roe is an extremely important reason, and one that is also easy to explain to people who don't want to think about torture, spying, or other icky aspects of the GWOT or Long War or whatever they're calling it today. My father went around in 2004 saying "Do you want abortions to be illegal?" and all his little "We're gonna vote for Bush" friends said "Yes, of course, and Bush and his minions won't dare touch that."

Now, those of us who were paying attention knew that wasn't so. For example, we were not fooled by Alito's pledge to be open-minded on the issue. We didn't really need the very first case the new Sandy-free supreme court takes on to be about abortion. We didn't really need South Dakota to pass a law banning abortion outright, specifically so that it would be challenged and move to the Supreme Court as quickly as possible, where, the bill's supporters expect Roe to be overturned.*

But we hope those people who voted for Bush in 2004, certain he'd protect their right to choose, are paying attention now.

*Granted, it's pretty hard to get an abortion in South Dakota anyway. Prohibiting them outright couldn't make it too much harder, in fact. It's the whole court challenge that matters, in this case. Because basically, you don't want to be pregnant (and not want to be pregnant) in South Dakota.