I learned about politics from my dad, a yellow-dog Democrat, who told me that I could always count on the Republicans to do the wrong thing, but I couldn't always count on Democrats to do the right thing. That statement is still operative. Under the influence of the Christian right, we can count on Republicans to continue working to undermine our reproductive rights and we can't count on the Democrats to work to protect those rights.
Republicans, under the influence of right wing extremists have defunded the United Nations Population Fund, reinstated the global gag rule and are throwing money at abstinence-only education. As a result HIV rates have been increasing and a new resistant strain of the virus is developing.
In a recent speech, Hillary Clinton called abortion "a sad, even tragic choice for many," and she praised faith-based programs adding, "the jury is still out" on abstinence-only education even though it's promoting falsehoods and religious instruction. These "educators" have claimed that HIV can be spread through sweat and tears, that condoms fail 31% of the time and that women having abortions risk sterility. Apparently telling the truth is not a family value. When I receive requests for contributions to Clinton's campaign, I use the postage-paid envelope to send my opinion of her pandering to the right and I don't include a contribution either.
The Democrats demonstrated their lack of commitment to our rights by choosing anti-choice Harry Reid as minority leader of the Senate and the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (who won't be getting any campaign contributions from me either) is recruiting at least two pro-life Democrats for key Senate Races in 2006.
Even Howard Dean says the party should make room for "pro-life" Democrats and blogger Markos Moulitsas of Daily KOS, echoes those sentiments. When people disagree with his opinion, he invites "that women studies set" to go read other blogs.
We have alternative blogs to read but we also need another political party.
