So now it's time for unity?

Were you touched by the calls for unity we heard after the election?

Not me. As someone who always views where society is going with some skepticism anyway, I felt no sentimental surge. Is it time to feel unity and forget our differences? To stand behind Barack and whatever change may bring?

To any on America's Left who call for unity now, I have to ask, where was the beautiful unity and brotherhood all this time during the last eight years? I noted how Obama characterized those who disagreed with him as divisive in campaign speeches, a clever rhetorical tool. But can anyone say with a straight face that conservatives are divisive compared to liberals? That liberals have not been divisive?

Aren't we forgetting about "Bush stole the election" and "Bush is not my president" along with many other lines not so kosher to print? About frenzied protests throughout the years, including protests at thought-suppressed campuses against well-known conservatives simply being invited to speak? The threats of riots if the media-Anointed One lost? The "bitter" people clinging to guns and religion?

Of course they're all for unity--when they are in charge! Then, of course, it's time for everyone else to fall right in step with their big plans. (Rather than fight an all-out guerrilla political war as they did.)

The truth is that conservatives have usually been more politically correct than the champions of political correctness when it comes to dealing with the opposition. We see pretty good sportsmanship on the whole after a political loss, which is admirable. However, conservatives mustn't forget what it takes to win a culture in the long run. Maybe this is a good chance for them to learn, by watching the Democrats in 2009, because I think we may see a powerful lesson.

Furthermore, it wouldn't hurt to contemplate the enormous gains liberals have accomplished for their causes during the last few decades. Step by step they have been literally remaking our society to fit their ideals, finding a multitude of effective ways to gain power and influence and create change. And all this before the current Agent of Change even took the stage!

The problem is that when Republicans were in charge, they held back on transforming the nation and the culture. Imagine abortion never being brought to a standstill, despite Reagan, Bush, and the Republican Revolution. In contrast, Obama has indicated his plans to enshrine the right to abortion and sweep away all restrictions, without delay. Which course of action is more effective? Obama is fighting to win. (He also outlined a simple plan to win more minds and thus bolster the culture as well as the law on this issue.) Conservative leaders have been putting up only a half-hearted fight in comparison.

Liberals (the supposedly pacifist folks) know that wars are won by relentless and clever fighting, not by negotiating, talking, or hoping; by winning minds, not by passively respecting other viewpoints.

If you're the type of conservative that wants to win (in other words, you believe that the issues really do matter, there is a great deal at stake, and you want culture and politics to change) then now is the time to start thinking about 2010 and 2012, and even more importantly, how to influence society--something that transcends election years.

Otherwise, just sit back and watch the show. Oh yeah, and don't forget to be part of the new big happy family of unity! (At least until the rhetoric from the "uniters" turns nasty again.)

What Obama has to say about abortion

Do you have 24 minutes? If so, I encourage you to watch this video of Barack Obama's speech to Planned Parenthood on July 17, 2007. For insight into Obama's views on abortion, there's nothing like hearing it from his own lips.



Here I've provided my notes and comments on the first half of the speech. However, please be sure to watch this video for yourself!

2:20 -- The speech gets underway and Obama opens up with what will be a recurring theme: he speaks of his daughters, and wonders what kind of America will they grow up in and whether they will they have "the same opportunities as our sons."

3:00 to 7:00 -- Obama spends four minutes of his 24-minute speech criticizing the Supreme Court decision in Gonzales vs. Carhart. His pro-abortion activist audience was familiar with that case by name; for everyone else, that's the one which upheld the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban three months before his speech.

It's noteworthy that he did not even say the words "partial-birth abortion" while doing so; the closest he came was "medical procedure." Instead, he called it a "federal ban on abortion."

3:35 -- He acknowledges his fear that the Partial-Birth Abortion Ban endangers Roe vs. Wade.

4:15 -- He lambasts the rationale of the majority in the Supreme Court decision and indicates desire to transform the Supreme Court's "attitude."

5:50 -- He says that the issue is "about whether woman have equal rights under the law."

6:10 -- Nearing the end of his rant on the Supreme Court decision, he praises the dissenting opinion of Ginsberg.

7:15 -- Here Obama paints the situation as a struggle in a system that places "the powerful over the powerless." Throughout the speech he also tosses bones to his feminist audience with calculated references to men and women. He's certainly got the class struggle rhetoric down pat, with a style that would probably make Marx jealous.

7:50 -- He talks about putting Roe "at the center" of a lesson plan when he taught Constitutional law, and mentions that he fought in Illinois State Senate against laws restricting abortions. "So you know where I stand."

9:00 -- Here he strikes a tough tone and speaks of a crossroads and the need to go on offense, and says that on this issue "I will not yield and Planned Parenthood will not yield." (Great, we have a 50-50 chance of Planned Parenthood's biggest fan running the White House.)

9:50 -- This is where Obama again demonstrates his mastery of the art of manipulative rhetoric, suddenly turning to cast his opponents as divisive, those who choose the narrowest ground and fight culture wars at home. In contrast, Obama and Planned Parenthood are evidently the uniters.

10:35 -- Now we get more insight into the spooky theme of returning again and again to his daughters in a speech about abortion rights. Obama provides some transparency by explaining that the argument can be won by avoiding "narrow ground" and asking people if they want their daughters "to have the same chances as men," to which he says that even the most conservative will agree. So, we see Obama's strategy for winning popular approval by presenting controversial issues in language calculated to appeal.

11:45 -- He turns his guns on abstinence-only education and equates it to opposing science.

If you watched the video, you saw Obama tell a room full of Planned Parenthood's activists, "you know where I stand." What more is there to say? Obama has made no secret of his unusually broad support for abortion. He is the pro-choice movement's best friend.

Now you too know where Obama stands. It will be sad if any Americans who do not support the cause of the abortion industry fail to realize this and cast a vote against life at a time when abortion has seen increased challenges, and purveyors of the medical procedure known as "choice" fear that Roe vs. Wade's bloody grip on America may be loosening.

Obama intends to make protecting and expanding Roe vs. Wade a priority if he is elected. There is no excuse for any who call themselves pro-life to vote for this man.