With Republican Gains in Senate, Social Conservatives Tighten Their Grip (08conservatives) (08conservatives)

I thought that all polls show a majority of Americans supporting choice. What does all this mean? Personally, as a feminist, I don’t get it.

Beautiful. May the day soon come when an unborn child's life is at least as respected as a dog or a seal.

> Ron Johnson, the pastor of Living Stones Church ... urged his congregation to support the “no brainer” choice of Mike Braun for Senate ...  Thank the heavens the Johnson amendment - which prevents churches and religious orgs from politicking while not paying taxes - is being ignored by this "pastor". welcome to the theocracy! now all of you be good little soldiers and go verbally abuse anyone who doesn't share our beliefs.

The good news for conservatives is that the Senate can no longer be held hostage to two moderate female Republican senators who must have a guarantee from a judicial candidate on abortion before they will approve that candidate. The GOP will have enough votes without them to confirm a judge or justice. Let us hope that we will not have to experience another "Kavanaugh Hearing" just to get a qualified conservative on the courts. The abortion-on-demand people, who call themselves "pro-choice" have contributed mightily to the extreme positions & tactics on abortion taken by the parties since the Roe decision was issued. The majority of Americans really have no personal stake in the legality of abortion. Yet this issue dominates the political process and especially, the confirmation process when a Republican president nominates someone who is not fervently pro-choice. The attitude of the pro-abortion contingent in our politics toward all Republicans, pro-life or pro-choice was expressed in the article: "The Republican Party has next to no rank and file left except for the extreme anti-choice movement and the white nationalist movement, who don't knock doors much." This is just another effort to defame & demonize all of the millions who belong to the GOP. Is a pro-life individual welcomed in the Democratic Party? Abortion, perhaps even more than Trump, has inflamed our politics.

Last I heard the Senate cannot unilaterally pass laws nor set budgets. They can confirm Executive Branch officials and Supreme Court nominees but I expect them to turn into the majority tea party Republicans under Obama. Yappers not legislators.

Not sure how you can believe in good and support Trump or any republicans for that matter. Maybe it’s just me but avoiding our own extinction seems a bit more important than fighting over abortion. Also, last time I checked the Bible seemed a lot more concerned with taking care of the poor and downtrodden irrespective of where they are from. I mean is illegal immigration, abortion or gay rights even mentioned in the New Testament?

When a minority is out of power they love our liberal democracy because it protects them but when they are in power they want to destroy it so that they can crush everyone who does not agree with their preferences. Power corrupts and it makes conservatives into would be autocrats.

"evangelicals made up more than a quarter of the midterm electorate". So when with the Times stop treating them as a bunch of fringe crazy aunts and uncles with no relevance to the "mainstream"?

Susan Collins is not a moderate. She's also out next voting cycle. Good riddance.

The senate is a disgraceful undemocratic body that needs serious reform. The fact that a minority extremist religious group can weild so much influence because of it is very troubling and will certainly be a factor in energizing turnout for democrats in 2020. What this amounts to today is nothing short of tyranny.

“We believe in good and evil, in God, in his agenda,” he said. “I honestly believe that everything the pro-choice movement was founded on is running out of gas.” I honestly believe you need to open your eyes to the huge population of energized, furious women who will not let you take away their rights using your beliefs as a justification. Enjoy your belief in god and may it make your life better. Then leave the rest of us alone.

Maybe its time for Democrats to throw in the towel on abortion protection? I know we can find a way to provide safe abortions in this country even while making it illegal in many states (if not all) Perhaps Step 1 is to really focus on super easy access to birth control, women's empowerment etc to help get women from getting pregnant unintentionally. Step 2 would be to cobble together foreign/offshore non profit that provides a combination of 'the abortion pill' sent by mail and/or help to get women to places where it is legal - a state, another country, on the continent or off - Perhaps a cruise ship where a woman can receive the care she needs away from this country? You could spend your millions and billions there, and let the religious conservatives have the one single issue that in MY MIND, is destroying this country. Republicans sold their collective soul to get anti-abortion judges and they will continue to do so until we stop the madness. Plus, if they ban abortion, it will make their states less desire-able than they already are, let the population dwindle -- or explode! with all of those unintended pregnancies.

I really wish these folks were not labelled "conservatives". They are actually trying to uproot a concept of a child as the responsibility of both parents, a concept from English law, and make the child only the mother's responsibility. Kavanaugh's and Gorsuch's (and Roberts', Alito's and Thomas') "faux originalism" is a post-bellum Catholic immigrant agenda to uproot the US Constitution, its text and legal origins. There were no Catholic or Jewish framers or principal ratifiers of the Constitution (except some quasi-Catholics in the Deep South); they weren't even Christian. The US has a secular sovereign constitution, arguably the first in the world. It's fundamental unit of right and responsibility is "Person" and "Citizen" (the word "Man" (or "Woman") isn't even in the document, except nonoperative language in the 14th Amendment used to measure compliance). Now that paternity is as readily established as maternity, providing physical evidence that provides legal certainty to this framing concept in all Anglophone constitutions, it ought to be time to give every child the right to both parents holding baseline equal responsibility for him/her.

Packing all the Federal courts and Prosecutor's Offices will accelerate. How many Brett Kavanaugh clones are in the pipelines?

Most Americans want and support a women’s right to choose what happens with her body. If the Right to Lifers don’t like abortions, don’t get one... it appears that their beliefs are religion based which is the crux of the problem. Interestingly enough, once the RTL people force women to continue unwanted pregnancies they refuse programs designed to support the resulting children that many of these women cannot afford. Make abortions illegal and America will have many unwanted children and back-alley abortions. Perhaps the RTL folks will take them in ? Right !

Christian Sharia Law here we come! I think it’s time to start seriously contemplating the breakup of America into two (or three) separate countries, or independent provinces. If the conservative minority in the U.S. wish to continue living in the past and imposing their evangelical will on the populace, then they can go right ahead as their own sovereign theocracy and leave normal, sane people out of it.

Senate bills must go to House to proceed, right? Well, well the new House will stop any right-wing, religious, hypocritical action, so... no worries mate.

Stop calling Republican supporting bigots Social Conservatives. These are haters; they hate - oh, stop using initials to describe groups - Queers or people with different sexuality of all kinds, Women who must control their birth control processes so that they can work, Women who want and deserve sexual freedom, People whose religions do not prohibit abortion, anyone trying to have real freedom, and the rights of all people to due process of law and the enforcement of their Constitutional rights. And they would allow no rights at all to people of color, non Christians of their type of Christian, Muslims, whether Sunni or Shiite, Hindu's or any of the East Asian religions. Social Conservatives are the true enemies of the American People; fortunately their Reign of Terror will soon end because of demographic change.

Why is the Senate not investigating the serious allegations against trafficking in body parts that Planned Parenthood is accused of engaging in? Regardless of where one stands, such accusations merit investigation.

Before you can tighten your grip, you must first GET a grip. Seriously.

If anyone thinks that it’s purely by coincidence that the self-proclaimed “pro-life” crowd tends to overlap with the same people who deny the prevalence of sexual assault and rape, they are high on something. And it’s not Jesus.

Here in Indiana we lost a moderate democratic Senator to a Trump-ster republican because our voter turnout rate is one of the lowest in the country...but the county and country folk always vote for God, guns and tax cuts. What we are seeing is that the only true religion, mostly old testament, lost the battle of the pulpit years ago. The majority of Americans no longer associate with any religion or follow a moderate or even liberal (new testament) faith. So the conservatives have sought the only solution they can, which is to turn the governments which they so avidly claim is corrupt, to impose their beliefs on America. They don't see most of us on Sunday, so they load the courts and Congress with rules that their dwindling flocks believe are the one true way to heaven. God in schools, doctors offices and courthouses...the new baptist pulpits.

So basically we have so called Christians turning Christianity into being two things, anti abortion and anti gay, and selling their souls for this in return for supporting a man who isn't a 'fledgling Christian' as the bible thumpers like to say, but rather supporting a full blown bully, a sexual predator, because he is giving them the power to force their beliefs on others. In another op ed piece the writer talks about 'building bridges' to voters with different beliefs, he talks about how Democrats need to 'bridge the divide', but how do you do that with people who are only focused on forcing their beliefs on others? What is next,the Supreme Court ruling banning teaching evolution in schools, or even worse, teaching Creationism in schools as a matter of 'religious liberty?" Saying that anti discrimination laws and company anti discrimination policies take a back seat to 'religious liberty', so if some born again jerkwad fires people or refuses to hire or promote people because 'his faith says so', that is okay? Sorry, but the answer isn't building bridges, it is fighting back. If the courts broaden the scope of 'religious objectionism' as expected, then others should use that to hurt the evangelicals, discriminate against them, arguing that their beliefs go against your religious beliefs. More importantly, as crazy as it sounds, the Democrats should do as much as possible to let Trump nation feel the pain of what Trump and the GOP want to do.

I wish the Senate would focus less on culture wars and more on important issues like healthcare and gun control. I don't care if you have an (R) or a (D) after your name, (most of) the American people elected their senators to create laws that represent the will of the people, not undo existing laws and rubber stamp Federalist Society judges.

"Social Issues". Meaning private matters mostly happening in peoples' bedrooms, matters that have no business being a main driver in the affairs of our government. Government, or "We The People", is supposed to deal with boring things that need to be done to keep essential things like infrastructure sound, or protection against harmful outside influences. This travesty of the American dream is especially galling when all reputable polls indicate the nation's people are up to 70 - 90% in favor of keeping Roe in place, getting rid of easy access to deadly weaponry, gay civil rights, etc. So much for democracy.

Here's a strange thought experiment. What if no reporters showed up to the news room, the press conference, the briefings of 'that woman'? It would be a monumental snub, a deastating show of force, a statement of solidarity for the free press. Just like Google's recent internal walk-out. Only the power of insiders, a report stated, can force monoliths to change direction. It would only take once and things would change. 45 would have no one to talk to! What a conundrum for him.

"Push divisive cultural issues". Really? President Obama's 8 years in office was one continuous push of divisive cultural issues. He made no effort hat so ever to try to bridge the even increasing divide in this country. The really sad part is President Trump is just following in his foot steps, albeit on the other side of the aisle.

I understand and largely agree with concerns that SCOTUS interpretations of the Constitution are shaping the law of the land to compensate for inaction by elected lawmakers, but I am more concerned that an overcorrection will simply invite religious interpretation of the Constitution. If I wanted to live under religious rule, I would move to Iran or Saudi Arabia.

It's ironic that the party that wants to shrink big government because it's so untrustworthy and supports individual responsibility because we all know what's best for us is the same party that wants that government to manage and control every woman's health care decisions and every couple's marriage contract.

On the Times' front page, it says that Ruth Bader Ginsberg fell and broke three ribs. If she dies or resigns before we can flip the senate or the president in 2020, the Supreme Court will be solidly conservative for 30+ years. If that happens, the argument (for the Senate) that a majority (urban America) should not be able to railroad a minority (rural America) will be flipped on its ear, and a minority will be railroading the majority. Meanwhile, I'd like to see abortion stay legal but become irrelevant because of widespread access to birth control. I know that the trend is in that direction, but I'm surprised it hasn't happened already. I expected it sooner.

As long as Democrats make the mistake of believing that the entire country is with them, and it's a Republican trick that makes the map bleed red, they will continue to push policies of their own that do what they claim the Republicans do: divide the country. Democrats have to realize that it is their own agenda that is the problem. Every state is the same: cities go Democrat, all other precincts go Republican. Yes, even in California. The Republicans win states with few large cities. Democrats win in the heavily populated states and pat themselves on the back for being so progressive. They are fooling themselves.

It's incredible how many people are still motivated to vote by the prospect of imposing their own beliefs about abortion on everyone else. But that is political reality, and Democrats have to realize that the only way to overcome this in these "social conservative" areas is with issues like health care and jobs. If people realize that they're choosing between a statement of personal belief and their own economic interests, maybe they will reconsider.

So, a more deeply conservative court will deliver decisions that will remove or reduce health care, make possible more guns, reduce protection to women who seek an abortion, tolerate more vote suppression, give the Executive more power, allow corporations to pollute, and all that conservative desires. It must be wonderful to be so idealistically concerned for people and country.

Democrats: If you feel like you've been run over by a bus it's because you have been. 10 million more people voted for Democratic senators than voted for Republican senators on Tuesday but Republicans picked up seats and Democrats lost seats in the senate. Red state votes count more than Blue state votes. It's the same reason that Kavanaugh could be confirmed by senators representing less than 45% of the population, while senators representing 55% of the population could not stop it. Most elected bodies faced with this type of inequity in the U.S. are court-ordered to adopt a weighted voting system to restore fairness to the electorate. But not the senate. And with the senate in charge of the country's federal courts - well, brace yourself for more buses.

Republican gains in the Senate are only going to make them bigger targets for the next election cycle. They're going to displease the public, no doubt, in ways that will get them fired.

And in Arizona, the GOP has now sued to stop the ongoing vote count in several races and declare those currently in the lead as the winners. In addition to the Senate race, the race for Secretary of State, who oversees elections, is also undecided.