Of course you need compromise to build a coalition - but there already is a coalition as we just saw evidence of in Kansas. Nearly 70% of Americans of all political stripes and tendencies already agree - no more building is necessary to achieve a moderate stance. In the face of that, focusing on a minority position that is mostly philosophical (and not pragmatic) and not remotely likely to ever gain significant traction is a distraction from focusing on the horrors that are already taking place. You've put the cart before the horse, worrying about something that by your own admission you have no evidence of having any impact. People vote with their emotions and for the past 50 years, the vast majority of the American public has had emotional resonance with the balances that were laid out by Roe. Extreme positions on the right did not change that, so why would extreme positions on the left?
I didn't demonize Dancova. I didn't say one word about his character, his intelligence, or my impression of his motivations in my response to him. I assailed his arguments, which were filled with falsehoods and didn't make sense. MLK was plenty pointed in his words at times. His Beyond Vietnam speech has been characterized as "blistering." And how about this quote from another speech?
“Why is equality so assiduously avoided? Why does white America delude itself, and how does it rationalize the evil it retains?The majority of white Americans consider themselves sincerely committed to justice for the Negro. They believe that American society is essentially hospitable to fair play and to steady growth toward a middle-class Utopia embodying racial harmony. But unfortunately this is a fantasy of self-deception and comfortable vanity.”
What I said was no more "belligerent" than that. And no, the gay rights movement did not gain traction through "niceness." I'm good friends with a long-time gay activist who remembers very well how much they had to fight (and still do). Letting people see them as just people who love who they love certainly helped, but it wasn't that which brought about necessary court rulings or legislation and it's not what is going to keep gay rights from eroding at a stellar speed today.
Absolutely everything in America has to do with dominance hierarchies. It's part and parcel of our social system and all subsystems stem from that. As Dancova failed to appreciate (because he believes in patriarchy) keeping women in their allotted place in the hierarchy IS the point of all of these anti-choice laws that have recently cropped up. Those people don't care about babies. If they did, they would be supporting them after they are born, rather than simultaneously assailing programs that make contraception more accessible, and doing away with social supports for women and children. They are pro-birth, not pro-life - because that is what women are supposed to do, and they shouldn't be having sex if not for that, etc., etc.
In a nutshell, there are people out there who don't believe in abortion because of their views on the sanctity of life or whatever. Those people are not having abortions, but they are also not legislatively imposing their beliefs on other people. What we just saw in Kansas is proof of that. A lot of the people who just voted down that state law don't believe in abortion, but they also don't believe in forcing other people into having babies that they don't want and overwhelmingly, can't afford to raise. Even most Catholics hold this view in this day and age. This is the true and actual dividing point and "angry white women" and others have every right to be screaming their heads off about the extremists enacting these laws.
The people who are making these laws are an extremist minority of religious zealots with a high buy in for the dominance hierarchy. They believe that women have a specific place and role in society and that if they refuse that role they should be punished.
“The metaphor of Moral Strength tells us that teenage sex and illegal drug use result from moral weakness — a lack of self-control — and therefore they are immoral. Providing condoms and clean needles accepts that immorality, and that, according to Moral Strength, is also a form of evil. A morally strong person should be able to “Just say no” to sex and drugs. Anyone who can’t is morally weak, which is a form of immorality, and immoral people deserve punishment.”
Joe Manchin isn't exactly a moderate person. He's not really a great example. Abortion access under WHPA would be protected from bans and medically unnecessary restrictions that do not apply to other similar health care procedures. These restrictions include six-week bans, mandatory ultrasounds, biased counseling, waiting periods, and requirements that providers obtain admitting privileges at local hospitals. This is not extremist rhetoric or asking for anything beyond the pale. Viability at 24 weeks is still considered the end of unrestricted abortion rights under WHPA. The fact that Manchin doesn't want to support it doesn't really speak to how left wing extremists might negatively impact abortion access. WHPA was strongly supported by the Biden administration. Biden is a lifelong Catholic.
If you want to talk about how to get right-leaning legislators like Manchin on board that's a bit different than saying "Don't scare the moderates away." The moderates are all on board. And what the people in the streets want has been made clear in one poll after another. The fact that certain legislators won't vote for that but will go against all but the fringes of their constituency is another issue entirely.
