Ouch! In pro-choice Washington, Rossi's gubernatorial hopes just got dimmer. Unlike Kerry, though, at least the R's saw the hit coming. Seattle Times resident conservative columnist Bruce Ramsey tried to head off the Democratic ploy with an editorial that ran the morning before the press conference--pointing out that local pols can't overturn Roe v. Wade. Similarly, at Rossi's victory party on primary election night, just a week before the pro-choice attack, Republican Party State Chair Chris Vance told The Stranger preemptively, "The Democratic playbook only has one page--scare people into thinking Republicans are right-wing kooks. But it's not true. And it's not going to work."
I must say, as a Democrat, I agree with Vance: Washington Democrats do rely on this perennial ploy. And it has always frustrated me. By reflexively and passionately highlighting the choice issue every single year, in every single race, Democrats unwittingly show that they don't have much else to run on, and they don't know how else to distinguish themselves from Republicans. The subtext is basically that D's are pro-sex and cool and R's are anti-sex and square. It's hardly a political platform. I wish Dems could get sharper (and more strident) about hyping the rest of the party's tenets.
I'm pro-choice, but I'm tired of choice being the defining issue for my party. Roe v. Wade became law over 30 years ago and has survived six "ominous" Republican administrations in that time period. Vance and Ramsey are right, it is a scare tactic--and moreover, Rossi can't do much to undo Roe v. Wade.
However, as to the rest of Vance's quote ("It's not going to work"), he's wrong. Scaring voters into thinking R's are right-wing kooks by hyping the choice issue does work. For that reason, (and because turnabout is fair play--after all, it's Vance's Republicans who are masters at relentlessly stereotyping Democrats as "wimps"), I'm willing to put aside principles and stand by the ploy. In fact, I wish the national Democratic Party would take a clue from us conniving Washington Democrats. I wish the national D's, like Washington State D's, were savvy enough to have a reflexive impulse attack issue that immediately put the R's on the defensive.
Just listen to how the otherwise tepid Gary Locke lit up on primary night about five seconds after the general election officially began: "The people of this state don't want a right-wing conservative."
D's in Washington State have the knack for framing the debate and putting R's on the defensive. John Kerry, are you watching?
