When Democrats overreach

When's the last time Democrats didn't overreach when they reach a perceived advantage? The answer is that Democrats always overreach. Democrats always resemble the oft-made dig hurled at late PLO leader Yassir Arafat. It was said that Arafat "never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity."

According to Marc Thiessen's latest AEI column, Democrats are about to overreach on Roe v. Wade. In the opening of his article, Thiessen wrote "Democrats seem convinced that if the Supreme Court does in fact overturn Roe v. Wade, the decision would provide them with a political lifeline before the November midterm elections. Americans might disapprove of their performance on crime, immigration, inflation, the economy and national security, but when it comes to abortion, Sen. Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) says Republicans are 'on the wrong side of history and on the wrong side of the American people.' Don’t be so sure. If the court’s conservative majority does strike down Roe, Democrats might find that decision is not nearly as unpopular as they think."

The reason why this issue stirs such emotions is because it's complex to most people. While it's true that a majority of people don't want Roe v. Wade to be overturned, it's equally true that 65.7% of people think that if Roe was overturned that abortion would immediately become illegal.

Ted Cruz did a masterful job of explaining how the Supreme Court works, including their security procedures:

Democrats are lying when they say that overturning Roe will make abortion illegal nationwide. It simply returns the issue to governors and legislatures. Thiessen points this out:

Yes, polls show that most Americans say they don’t want the high court to overturn Roe. But polls also show that most Americans don’t know what overturning Roe actually means. A 2019 study reported that 65.7 percent of Americans incorrectly believe that if Roe were overturned, abortion would be illegal everywhere in the United States. It would not.

After that, things get tricky for Democrats. Here's why:

But a Fox News poll released this week finds most Americans agree with the Mississippi abortion law at the heart of the Supreme Court case. The survey found that 54 percent favor state laws banning abortion after 15 weeks of pregnancy, except in the case of a medical emergency, exactly what the Mississippi law does, while just 41 percent oppose such a law. This is consistent with the results of a 2018 Gallup poll that found most Americans want abortion restricted to the first trimester (the first 12 weeks of pregnancy), while only 28 percent support allowing abortions in the second trimester and just 13 percent in the third trimester.

It's especially worth noting that Sen. Cruz said that the bill Sen. Schumer tried passing in February doesn't just codify Roe. It goes far beyond that. That bill would've eliminated parental notification for minors seeking an abortion. It would've eliminated parental consent laws for minors seeking an abortion.

Further, the February bill would've allowed abortions up to the moment of birth. Roe allowed abortions in the first trimester. Planned Parenthood v. Casey changed that. Then came this:

If the Supreme Court does send abortion decisions back to the states, Democrats will have to own their abortion radicalism. Democrats used to argue that, in Bill Clinton’s famous phrase, abortion should be "safe, legal and rare." No longer. In 2012, they formally expunged "rare" from their party platform, declaring their support for “safe and legal abortion, regardless of ability to pay.” Polls show that a majority of Americans oppose taxpayer funding of abortion. Yet in 2016 Democrats approved a platform that called for repeal of the Hyde Amendment, which bars federal funding for abortions. To secure the Democratic presidential nomination in 2020, Joe Biden had to surrender to the pro-abortion radicals and renounce his more-than-40-year support for the Hyde Amendment.

Today's Democrats are a far cry from the semi-sensible Democrat Party of the 1990s. Today's Democrats are beyond lunatics. Today's Democrats think of Bill Clinton as "Republican lite.' They don't think Obama is far left enough.