Normally I wouldn’t even bother to respond to arguments such as this, but Sally Kohn truly gives us a glimpse into the alternate reality liberals live in.
Here we’re on the precipice of the worst liberal policy-induced disaster since the financial crisis, if not the worst since the Progressive Movement was hijacked by statists, and Sally Kohn is writing an obituary for the Republican Party. Obviously, Sally Kohn doesn’t get out of the elite, liberal city bubble much these days.
Even if the historic failure that is ObamaCare wasn’t presently threatening to destroy the Democratic Party for a generation or more, her argument relies on supportive material just about as solid as the two false assumptions of liberalism (or, progressivism or whatever they choose to call statism these days), which is 1) that centralized government is efficient enough to be used as a force for good, and 2) those in government who espouse such endeavors honestly give a crap, and aren’t using a myriad of false crusades to achieve their own despotic ends.
Nevertheless, even if we grant that to Sally Kohn and other out-of-touch liberal pundits, rather than offering up wishful arguments that interpret data and anecdotal happenings through the prism of her alternate reality, she would instead still have to back up her argument with actual facts.
Unfortunately, this is something Sally Kohn is incapable of doing, and because the examples are so vast we must discredit them one-by-one. For reference, the thesis of her argument holds “voter rejection of a late-term abortion ban in New Mexico, a reliably purple state, spells trouble for the GOP,” and “the Republican Party cannot avoid its rapid death spiral into political irrelevance.”
Alternative Reality Quote #1: “The latest case in point comes from Albuquerque, New Mexico. There, in a purple city in a reliably purple state, voters struck down a municipal ballot seeking to ban all abortions in the city after 20 weeks.”
Reality: None of the words in this statement are remotely true. First, Albuquerque is not even close to what political scientists would consider a “purple city” and New Mexico is not “a reliably purple state.” Albuquerque is located smack dab in the center of the New Mexico Technology Corridor, a collection of high-tech companies and government institutions along the Rio Grande, most of which are wholly dependent on the federal government.
Even when New Mexico was a red state (like 10 years ago), demographic shifts in New Mexico cities such as Albuquerque ensured the state skipped purple on its way to becoming reliably blue. According to the 2010 Census, 46.7 percent of the city’s population were liberal-voting Hispanics. Voter registration in Albuquerque — as of September, 2013 — shows Democrats outnumber Republicans 179,925 (or, 49.38 percent) to 136,201 (or, 37.38 percent).
As far as the politics of abortion, as Sally Kohn knows full well, “Albuquerque is the late-term abortion capital of the world.” Yet with all of these variables working in their political favor, abortion extremists were only victorious by a vote of 55 percent to 45 percent. Looks like Ms. Sally Kohn neglected the stubborn fact that, in reality, they lost some of their Democratic base, and nationwide the gap between reality and her alternate reality widens further.
I have offered extensive analysis on the politics of abortion on PPD, but to briefly recap, it is Sally Kohn and her friends in the abortion industry that are out-of-touch with mainstream America.
Since 1995, when Gallup measured a 23 percent advantage for the pro-choice designation, support for abortion has steadily ceded ground to the pro-life designation. The reason for the shift is simple and two-fold.
First, most Americans have realized that abortionists like Sally Kohn are full of it, and pro-abortion groups are protecting abortion industry profits, not a women’s right to choose. Americans do not support the killing of babies on demand, with no restrictions tagged to stage of development.
Second, the shift among younger Americans has been the most prominent, with even libertarian-leaning millennials opposing the act of crushing a 5 or 6 month-old baby’s head or throwing it in a jar of solution to drown.
But don’t take it from a right-wing extremist such as myself, as no doubt Sally Kohn would falsely label me, just ask knowledgable folks on the left.
William Saletan, who writes for the liberal publication Salon, honestly asked and answered in his article during the Texas abortion ban debate: “Who has the upper hand? Pro-lifers do.” And Sally Kohn and her fellow abortion industry proponents can thank no demographic group more than women, who are even more likely to favor late-term abortion bans than men.
As Saletan intellectually surrendered, the gender gap favoring women was 4 percent in the latest National Journal poll, 6 percent in the latest Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, and 7 percent in the latest Washington Post/ABC News poll. If and when you average these surveys, late-term abortion ban proposals enjoys a plurality of support among men, but an even greater majority support among women.
Just a quick note before moving on, her reference to the Virginia governor’s race was also inaccurate. In the month of May alone, Cuccinelli received only 4 stories with a positive angle, and 95 stories accentuating the negative, or a 24-to-1 ratio. On the editorial page, the anti-Cuccinelli slant consisted of 7 positive articles to 78 negative ones (if you want to read my May article on this it’s here).
The month of May just so happened to be the month Cuccinelli lost his 10-point lead, but despite the final Washington Post poll showing McAuliffe leading by 12 points, he barely eked out a win. If that Tuesday election took place on Thursday, because of the toxicity of ObamaCare and despite being outspent 10 to 1, Ken Cuccinelli would be governor-elect now.
Furthermore, though he made stupid social comments, Gov. Christie holds no different position on life and marriage, and he won big in deep blue New Jersey the same day.
Alternative Reality Quote #2: “And then there’s immigration. In addition to the fact that polls show a strong majority of *all* Americans support immigration reform, support is particularly high among Latinos—the fastest growing segment of the American population and, as seen in the 2012 election, an equally quickly growing powerhouse in American politics. For the first time ever, in the 2012 election, Latinos comprised 10 percent of voters and supported President Obama at such wide margins that this demographic shift is given credit for the President’s re-election.”
Reality: The idea that a large Hispanic vote who supported him in droves reelected Barack Obama in 2012 was false on Election Night when Sally Kohn and others said it, and it’s still false now.
While Hispanics did increase their raw vote numbers from 9.7 million in 2008 to 11.1 million in 2012, which is a net increase of 1.4 million voters, the real voter turnout rate among Hispanic registered voters actually decreased from 49.9 percent in 2008 to 48.0 percent in 2012. Hispanics increased their share of the electorate due to the 6 plus million white voters who stayed home.
In fact, the number of Hispanic voters who chose not to vote in the presidential election increased by 2.3 million to 12.1 million in 2012, up from 9.8 million in 2008. There is more evidence (turnout by age) to suggest that those missing Hispanic voters supported McCain in 2008 and Bush in 2004, than there is data to show they would have supported Obama.
If Sally Kohn wants to give a demographic credit for reelecting Barack Obama, then she should give it to black women. In 2012, blacks voted at a higher rate (66.2 percent) than non-Hispanic whites, who voted at a historically low 64.1 percent. This is the first time since the Census Bureau started publishing voting rates by the eligible citizenship population in 1996 that black voters have outvoted white voters.
Still, both blacks and whites had voting rates higher than Hispanics and Asians, which voted at a rate of about 48 percent each in 2012 (again, you can read full, correct analysis here).
Bottom Line: Sorry to break the news to Sally Kohn, but in an actual challenge of the minds, and this is even true of the academic world that is constructed to disproportionately benefit her, she’s rather simple. Truthfully, even in the company of non-bought and paid for Ivory Tower intellectuals, she’d be laughed out of the room.
I imagine we will see much more of this as ObamaCare continues to threaten the future of the Democratic Party. It is always difficult to tell whether or not the poser pundit is just being a good little hack for their party or cause, or if they are so far removed from reality that they really believe their own garbage.
As for Sally Kohn and Co., it is probably both. But if I had to pick one or the other, then I would probably say it is just the way she views the state of American politics through the prism of her liberal alternate reality.
