In mid-terms, abortion was the big winner

A few days after the election, the results were still not certain. Some states seem to have difficulty counting votes. Others seem to be able to get the tallies on the night of the election.

It would seem, therefore, getting votes promptly counted is not an insuperable challenge. One wonders why certain states don’t want to have results until days later. There must be a reason.

So the red wave turned out to be a red ripple. Polls, as usual, were largely inaccurate. I’m beginning to wonder why anyone pays attention to them at all. The excitement of the horse race, I guess. It would appear to have been an ambiguous election, with no mandate for either the Democrats or Republicans. Razor-thin majorities in the Senate and House was the result.

One issue which was on the ballot in one way or another was abortion, and I think I can say without fear of contradiction that abortion was the big winner everywhere. In Michigan, for example, Proposal 3 passed in a most convincing manner, helping Democrats up and down the ticket to victory. (It will be informative to watch Michigan join its progressive sisters in California and New York in experiments in interesting government.)

In the lead-up to the Supreme Court’s Dobbs decision, many commentators — left, right, and center — suggested this ruling would be a big electoral benefit for the Democrats. Polling (obviously bad polling) suggested the issue was fading in the face of rising crime, rising prices and falling real wages. Not so! The Democrats rode this to victory, but I suspect the issue as a political issue will fade fast. Each state, Michigan being an example, will now enact what the voters of that state decide is appropriate for abortion. No holds barred in Michigan, nearly complete bans in a handful of states, and some compromise in others. (Compromise, when it comes to killing babies, is an interesting concept morally and philosophically.)

Poll after poll shows approximately 65% of Americans want abortion, in some form, kept legal. The only groups not approving abortion are evangelical Christians and Mormons. Evangelical Christians and Mormons perhaps make up 35% of the electorate, so you can see how this math shakes out. A few years back, the issue was gay marriage, and the whole gamut of LGBTQ+ issues; the “Culture Wars,” which the aforementioned Christians and Mormons comprehensively lost. Abortion is one more step away from anything resembling traditional Christian morality. This is not surprising, since the number of traditional Christians has been steadily declining, perhaps accounting for 30-35% of the American population. There are not many wars won when you’re outnumbered two to one.

The whys and wherefores of this decline are most consequential questions, and I expect to tackle it succinctly in the next few weeks, so stay tuned. 

In any event, it has now been a while since any successful politician has pronounced himself opposed to gay marriage.  President Barack Obama is the last of the breed, and he swiftly changed his tune. Similarly, abortion will disappear from electoral concerns within a few years. It is utterly senseless to oppose a done deal.

Progressives are consistently antihuman life. Carbon footprints, using up Our Precious Natural Resources, raping the land, destroying our environment, and all the rest: too many people! So how do we fix that problem? Abortion is an obvious solution. But the whole LGBTQ+ agenda, plus transgender surgeries, is another effective solution. All of these relationships are sterile. In addition, heterosexual couples are constantly bombarded with arguments for not having children. As a practical matter, aside from doing your part to save the planet, kids are expensive, potentially worrisome, and messy. Why not save the worry and money and enjoy an unencumbered life? Given the falling birthrates practically everywhere in the world, these arguments are highly persuasive.

What’s next on the list for traditional Christians to lose? I predict end of life and assisted suicide. If babies are undesirable, what about sick and aging grandmas?

Charles Milliken is a professor emeritus after 22 years of teaching economics and related subjects at Siena Heights University. He can be reached at milliken.charles@gmail.com.