Saturday, October 22, 2011

Herman 999 Cain Exposes Big Lie of "Small Government" GOP on Abortion

Herman Cain may finally start to be seen as the Antichrist that he is by Republicans, because he exposed the schizophrenic Big Lie that Republicans stand for small government when it comes to the topic of abortion. Now, you may be saying, of course Republicans are for small government.  That's virtually every other word out of their mouth these days.  Aside from abortion, it's almost all they have left of the empty shell that used to be so-called conservative ideology.  Their small minds love to hate on big government precisely because it is too big for them to wrap their tiny minds around.  .

Ah but Herman Cain managed to clusterf**k both issues at the same time when he infamously commented that, "it's not the government's role or anybody else's role to make that decision," when it comes to abortion, despite the fact that he claims to be personally opposed to abortion.  That is, He Cain says, "My position is that I'm 100% pro-life. Period," and yet, when asked about whether a woman should be allowed to terminate a pregnancy then his "Period" turns into an ellipsis (i.e. "...")  and he says, "That's her choice. That is not government's choice."

What's this?  Pro-choice and Pro-life at the same time?  But we've always been told that these positions are completely irreconcilable.  Actually Cain is not the first person to suggest that you can be personally opposed to abortion, but not believe that the government should dictate this to others.  A number of Democrats, such as Mario Cuomo, have made similar arguments.

Of course Cain is the only "small government" Republican out there today who thinks that it's not the governments role to regulate abortion.  For that reason, every other Republican in the race, from "man-on-dog" Santorum, to Perry and Romney is jumping all over Cain about his apparent double standard.

Furthermore, it's not clear that Cain knows what side of his mouth he is talking out of at a given time, because in the same interview he also stated, "No, abortion should not be legal." But I thought it wasn't government's role and how would it be made illegal without the government? Apparently here he is trying to weasel words and suggest that there "should" be a law, hypothetically, but that, in the actual world we live in, government's role is not to dictate that.  That's the only way I can begin to make sense of his otherwise incoherent set of statements.

Consider the example of freedom of speech.  A religious person might claim that blasphemy is "wrong" and that it "should be illegal" but that our current, Constitutional form of government guarantees freedom of speech and freedom of religion, so it is not the government's role to make these kinds of laws and/or choices for people.

Unfortunately for Mr. Cain, Republicans "don't do nuance".  That's why simple-minded things like the 999 plan appealed to  them so much.  To now give them a complicated word game about how you're pro-life, but also pro-choice, and that you think that it "should" be illegal in principle in a perfect world, but that, in the present, imperfect world, government can't actually do it, would be enough to make 99% of Republicans heads explode.

However, that might be exactly what Cain wants as the Antichrist.  With most Republicans neutralized it will be relatively easy for him to beat up on the hippie peacenik liberals and wishy-washy  "independents" who are left.

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