There's a reason that Citizen Ruth's satire of the abortion issue was made by a fellow Nebraskan
The news came this week that Donald Trump will be personally attending the annual March For Life march in Washington DC. This has never happened before, and is ironic considering Trump's earlier statements of being pro-choice and my absolutely certain belief that he has paid for at least one abortion in his life.
It is entirely in character considering Trump's craven, transactional instincts. If he waves the Bible and goes to Liberty and says all kinds of anti-abortion stuff he expects conservative Christians to vote for him in return. These Christians are also so craven that they do not care if Trump is a greedy, corrupt, immoral sexual abuser as long as he puts their judges on the bench.
Both Trump and conservative Christian leaders understand that abortion is their indispensable weapon. Christians who might balk at Trump's words and behavior, or question his other policies, are simply told that they HAVE to vote for him or else condemn the unborn to genocide. This issue has helped tie Catholics and Evangelicals together in a common political alliance, when those groups have traditionally been on opposite sides. Hell, even in private today they still talk the worst shit about each other. (I will admit that my disdain for American evangelicalism began with my Catholic upbringing and the fundie kid in school who said I wasn't a real Christian.)
I have special insight into abortion's power as an issue, having been brought up in a very anti-abortion devout Catholic milieu. In my rural Nebraska stomping grounds you can't throw a rock without hitting an anti-abortion billboard or bumper sticker. Abortion was and remains the sole political issue that priests would consistently expound on from the pulpit. We heard about it all the time in youth groups, and saw anti-abortion flyers on the church bulletin board. (My all time fave was for an event called "Guns For Life" at a shooting range.) I have been involved in many political protests over the years, but my first protests were anti-abortion protests.
My views on this subject have changed since then, but it wasn't easy. I still feel residual pangs of guilt over my newfound support for legalized abortion, and am more hesitant to talk about this political issue with my family over any other. (Just typing that last sentence made my heart race.) This issue was made the absolute center of my moral universe in my youth, and that is not something you can simply uproot from your soul.
One huge mistake that pro-choice folks make is that the stance of so many anti-abortion folks is just as cynical as Trump's. It's not. There is a genuine and deeply abiding belief that life begins at conception and that abortion is tantamount to murder. While I often hear it said that pro-lifers want to control women's bodies, which is true, that is not the sum total of their reasoning, or even their primary motivation. If it was, this movement would not be nearly so important to the Republican party.
The GOP knows that they (excuse the expression) hold a valuable trump card. For a large chunk of voters it is just flat-out morally unacceptable for them to vote for a pro-choice candidate, and nothing will change that. Like the gun issue, abortion is not a political view, it is a fundamental attribute of their very identity as human beings. Furthermore, they will go to the polls and vote even for Trump because if one truly believes they can stop a mass murder, they are obligated to do it even if The Donald is their champion.
Trump knows he's in trouble, that's part of the reason he's going to March For Life. It's the same reason he has prioritized putting judges on the bench. He knows that there is a fervent core of his supporters who will snap to attention when he and other Republican leaders invoke the fetuses. This will happen no matter how horribly Trump fails and whatever crimes he commits. If that's not an indispensable weapon, I don't know what is.
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