Time for Some Honesty

I watched the Alito hearings for as long as I could stand. It seems that the purpose of the hearings is, in fact, to afford committee members an opportunity for speechmaking and the nominee an opportunity for obfuscation. Somehow, I don't think that this is what the founders had in mind, but then they didn't expect third choice hacks like Alito to be nominated, either. But what strikes me is the dishonesty of the Republicans in their repeated references to Roe v. Wade.
We've had a Republican legislature for years. For the last five years, the Republicans have controlled the White House. Let's be realistic: If they had wanted to push a Constitutional amendment to outlaw abortion, they could have gotten it through Congress. If they had wanted to push an amendment to outlaw same-sex civil unions, they could have done it. It wouldn't have been all that hard. They would have needed a handful of Democratic supporters, but there are anti-choice Democrats and Democrats from anti-choice districts who might have supported these amendments.
Let's face it: If I get elected by running against abortion or gay marriage, it seems like a no-brainer for me to make sure that I at least put a proposal in the hopper. That's a lot easier than going back to my constituents and explaining why I haven't done anything. At the very minimum, I'm going to co sponsor someone else's measure. I may not care whether the measure passes, and I may not stick my neck out very far to secure its passage, but I don't want to have to face single issue voters and tell them that I didn't do anything the pet issue that brought them out to vote for me. And I'd probably try to get press coverage of my efforts.
But how many Republican bills for constitutional amendments have been proposed? If there have been any, I haven't heard anything about them, and I don't think the pro-choice groups would have let them die in silence. Anyone who wants can do the research, but my guess is that these amendments that the conservative Republicans claim to want so earnestly have never been proposed in Congress.
I suggest that there is a reason for this: The Republicans are afraid of what would happen if they lost abortion and same-sex unions as issues. They haven't had such wonderful wedge issues since the civil rights days. There are people who come out to vote only because they have these issues to be agitated about. Give them up and the religious right falls apart because the teaching of evolution simply won't galvanize them the way that "rights of the unborn" and "protection of marriage" do. So if the Democrats are smart, and I hope that they are, they'll demand that Republican incumbents for Congress this year give an account of their activities. And if voters are smart, and I hope they are, they'll draw distinctions between those who talk a good game and those who actually do something.