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Republicans turn abortion into political issue; Thomas M. Finch; Beaver County Times; October 24, 2016.
The BCT has published at least 42 letters from Mr. Finch (TMF) since December 2004. At least 31 of these letters were anti-Bush and/or anti-Republican and they never disappoint. Here is one example. You can find the remaining Finch letters I critiqued in the critique archives. As usual, this letter is little more than a string of leftist talking points. I wish he could get a regular column in the BCT. I also wish he could get at least five minutes per day on a local radio and/or TV station. The most recent letter I reviewed was “Voting for Trump is terrible advice.”
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“Letter writer Roy Whipple’s opinion to influence your vote on a one-issue basis is an attempt to support lying, corporate-lackey, candidates who don’t deserve your vote.”
[RWC] Since HRC is TMF’s candidate, I’m surprised he brought this up.
HRC has experience getting rich from “Wall Street.” HRC rails against “Wall Street” but chooses not to be vocal about how much she collected from “Wall Street” during the two years following her Sec. of State resignation. According to the AP, HRC’s standard fee was $225,000 and she pocketed $21.6 million in speaking fees in total. According to USA Today, “The financial services and investment industry [aka “Wall Street”] accounted for about $4.1 million of Clinton’s earnings.” Among the “Wall Street” companies who paid for HRC speeches are Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Morgan Stanley, and foreign-owned banks such as the Canada Imperial Bank of Commerce and Deutsche Bank AG. Salon (a lefty media outlet) reports, “According to records, Hillary Clinton accepted speaking fees from Goldman Sachs for three engagements between June and October of 2013 totaling $675,000.” Since speech hosts also pay all of HRC’s expenses (travel, hotel, etc.), the $21.6 million from “Wall Street” was pure profit.
As for the “one-issue” comment, I could be wrong, but I think the last time Democrats didn’t claim the Republican candidate was going to pull the Social Security (SS) rug out from under senior citizens was in 1932, three years before SS existed. Using TMF’s comment below, “If it convinces sanctimonious, short-sighted, voters to support [Democrats] -- mission accomplished.”
“Between 2008 and 1973, we’ve suffered through Republican presidents for 23 of those 35 years. Why didn’t they ever take steps to promote overturning Roe v. Wade? The reason is because at every election, they want to throw it in your face that ‘Democrats kill babies’ and ‘Republicans are pro-life’ -- even though abortion is a personal, spiritual, issue that should not be politicized.”
[RWC] For background, there are only two ways to make abortion illegal. First, the states can amend the Constitution. Second, a future Supreme Court (SC) ruling could overturn Roe v. Wade, as the SC did with some rulings that allowed government discrimination. The first approach is more durable because, theoretically, the SC couldn’t overrule an amendment. That said, the SC has a long history of “interpreting” portions of the Constitution to further a political agenda. Neither Congress nor the President can make abortion illegal because the Constitution doesn’t allow either to enact an amendment.
TMF claims here and in at least one previous letter (12/19/04) he’s “against abortion.” I doubt it given the way he writes about it and his long-term issues with the truth. TMF wrote, “abortion is a personal, spiritual, issue.” No, it is not. The issue is when does life start. Does life begin before conception, after conception, between conception and birth, after birth, and so on. For argument’s sake, let’s accept Hillary Clinton’s (HRC) opinion that “The unborn person doesn’t have constitutional rights.” Where is the indignation? Why doesn’t HRC claim it’s a travesty the Constitution doesn’t cover the most vulnerable of us and assert we need an amendment to correct that failing? The National Conference of State Legislatures claims “at least 38 states have fetal homicide laws,” including Pennsylvania (“Unborn child is defined as in § 3203, to mean an individual organism of the species Homo sapiens from fertilization until live birth”). There’s a lot more about this in my review of the letter “Abortion and gay rights steal focus from real issues.”
“If it convinces sanctimonious, short-sighted, voters to support Republicans -- mission accomplished. My personal beliefs are pro-life, but I won’t delude myself into thinking that corporate shills like Sen. Pat Toomey and U.S. Rep. Keith Rothfus -- or any Republican -- deserves my vote until they can present an agenda that supports the common good, instead of just advocating Tea-party obstructionism. Yet in spite of their efforts to criminalize and de-fund groups like Planned Parenthood, they won’t admit to how many women are talked out of having abortions by those very same groups.”
[RWC] TMF appears to claim, in addition to killing unborn children for convenience, Planned Parenthood (PP) also talks women out of abortions. TMF then complains Messrs. Rothfus and Toomey “won’t admit to how many women are talked out of having abortions by those very same groups.” If TMF had the data to support his claim, why didn’t he tell us how many women PP talked out of an abortion? That said, does it matter? Does talking x women out of an abortion somehow offset the abortions-for-convenience performed?
If you’re looking for a “corporate shill,” you need look no further than HRC. HRC rails against “Wall Street” but chooses not to be vocal about how much she collected from “Wall Street” during the two years following her Sec. of State resignation. According to the AP, HRC’s standard fee was $225,000 and she pocketed $21.6 million in speaking fees in total. According to USA Today, “The financial services and investment industry [aka “Wall Street”] accounted for about $4.1 million of Clinton’s earnings.” Among the “Wall Street” companies who paid for HRC speeches are Bank of America, Goldman Sachs, Kohlberg Kravis Roberts, Morgan Stanley, and foreign-owned banks such as the Canada Imperial Bank of Commerce and Deutsche Bank AG. Salon (a lefty media outlet) reports, “According to records, Hillary Clinton accepted speaking fees from Goldman Sachs for three engagements between June and October of 2013 totaling $675,000.” Since speech hosts also pay all of HRC’s expenses (travel, hotel, etc.), the $21.6 million from “Wall Street” was pure profit.
“Let’s say the religious zealots do succeed in making abortions illegal again. With ‘pro-life’ off the table, no reason exists to ever vote for a Republican. Any party that says ‘trickle-down economics works, corporations don’t need to pay taxes, and only Christian, non-minority, heterosexual men deserve to be government/corporate leaders’ -- how can anyone support that?”
[RWC] TMF seems to think only “religious zealots” believe it’s wrong to kill an unborn baby for convenience. According to Gallup for 2016, 29% of us think abortion should be “legal under any circumstances,” 50% of us think abortion should be “legal only under certain circumstances,” and 19% of us think abortion should be “illegal in all circumstances.” The poll doesn’t define “certain circumstances,” leaving the definition to the respondent. Apparently, 71% of us are TMF’s “religious zealots.”
“Trickle-down” is a political term, not an economics term, meant to denigrate a group of economic positions. You’ll note TMF doesn’t provide his definition. If you don’t support confiscatory tax rates on businesses and “the rich,” that’s “trickle-down.”
Since proprietorships and partnerships don’t pay income tax, why should corporations? Taxing a business’ income results in double taxation, once by the business and once by the business’ owners. If your retirement plan includes stocks, the feds and some states tax the company’s income. Then, assuming you received dividend payments, you get to pay again on your personal income tax forms.
“Only Christian, non-minority, heterosexual men deserve to be government/corporate leaders?” How does TMF explain former U.S. Rep. Allen West (R-FL), former U.S. Rep. and Governor Bobby Jindal (R-LA), Governor Nikki Haley (R-SC), U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), Lynn Swann, Michael Steele, Ken Blackwell, Condoleezza Rice, U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, U.S. Rep. Mia Love (R-UT), Gov. Susana Martinez (R-NM), Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC, the first black senator elected in the South since Reconstruction), and on and on?
In his 10/18/16 letter, TMF wrote, “Government’s job should be to help everyone -- by doing all the jobs that need doing.” If you believe in TMF’s all-powerful nanny state, he’s correct to claim “no reason exists to ever vote for a [conservative] Republican.”
“When the back alleys get filled with your teenaged daughters from botched abortions, maybe you can find a way to blame Democrats for that as well.”
[RWC] TMF apparently has a low opinion of “your teenaged daughters.”
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