Democrats need to make the increased Abortion rate an issue

[Quixote1818]

First of all it's a tragedy that so many more women have been put into this position since Bush took office. With wages down and the poor getting poorer they often will have an abortion rather than have the child because they can't take care of it. I am surprised John Kerry did not make more of an issue of this. It should be said over and over and over until it sticks in peoples minds.

What Republicans have learned is that Memorization is the way to get your message out. When you you memorize a word you say or spell it over and over and over and eventually it STICKS in your brain and becomes real.

I don't want to trivialize the issue but we can hit three birds with one stone on this. It calls to attention that Abortion is WAY up under Bush, that the economy is suffering and the poor are getting poorer.

[etherealtruth]

1. You make an excellent point ...

...One that should appeal to everyone (I've never known a person who was "pro abortion" only people that are pro CHOICE).

[aden_nak]

2. No one wants to deal with the disease, just the symptoms.

And increased abortion rates, as tragic as they are, are a symptom of much larger problems in America. The same can be said of increased murder rates, increased crime rates, increased domestic abuse rates. . . they are all symptoms of the core problem that most Americans face. Specificly, the "quality of life" problem. There's a reason that most of these social problems exist in their greatest density in low-income areas. But no one wants to deal with that, because no one knows how to solve that problem.

[Quixote1818]

5. "Their are a thousand hacking at the branches of evil to every one hacking

at the root." Thoreau

[MemphisTiger]

3. It's a fools issue in my opinion

eventhough the majority of the country is on our side, most side with the republicans on this issue. We can talk about reducing them all we want, but our party want's to keep it legal. Kerry did bring this up in at least one of the debated with the same arguing points, but the public was unimpressed. We need to stick to our game and not try to play theirs, IMHO.

[Quixote1818]

4. What game? This is a legitimate issue

The fact is the abortion rate is up because wages are down and the poor are getting more poor. That's just a fact. Kerry brought it up but not enough for it to stick. If Abortion had gone up under Clinton Rove would have had Bush say this over and over and over until people could not help but know about that statistic. Instead Kerry talked for five minutes about the complexities of the abortion issue and got everyone confused and by the time he was done no one knew what he was talking about.

All Kerry had to say was that "Abortion had gone up under Bush because the poor are getting poorer and it should remain, safe, legal and rare."

I mentioned to my boss that abortion had gone up under Bush and that really resonated with him because he is Pro-Life for himself but does not believe the government should get involved in peoples life's. He does not like the idea of abortion but does not believe in telling other people what to do. It's a privacy issue. If I had not told him that he never would have know.

Most side with republicans on the issue because of the way Democrats talk about Abortion. Like you HAVE to be Pro-Choice to be a Democrat. Pro-Choice also sounds like you are going shopping and trying to chose between two Peaches or two brands of milk. Clinton had it down perfect when he said "Safe, legal and rare." Abortion should be refereed to as "Pro-Privacy" and not "Pro-Choice". The other side branded as "Anti-Privacy" That takes the attention off the act and puts it into the context of a privacy issue which resonates with the public.

Democrats must get better with the language of politics. Something Rove has mastered! We can win on Abortion if we sound like we actually care about people when we talk about it and aborting a fetus is not put in the context of choosing between two brands of milk but a very difficult situation for a woman to go through.

[MemphisTiger]

6. The safe, legal, and rare are the exact words Gore and Kerry

used. It didn't work then and it won't work now. These are not new tag lines. We need to stick to our bread and butter, which is education and the economy, IMO.