Category Archives: Rob Meyne

Harris and Company Lie About Florida and DeSantis

By Rob Meyne

  • July 29, 2023
  • 2-min read

If you watch what they do rather than what they say, the leaders on the left will tell you who they fear most. Recent events suggest that person is Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.

You don’t hear anyone attacking Asa Hutchison or Nicki Haley, although they would both be improvements over the guy in the White House. (But then again, so would my Cocker Spaniel, Buddy.)

They attack Trump 24/7, of course, and they fear him as well. But there is more in play regarding Trump than just their dislike of him. More on that later.

For now, consider the latest major attack on DeSantis. He is accused of implementing education reforms in Florida that revise history and downplay the severity of the sin of slavery. It is a lie, pure and simple. It is, however, entirely predictable.

When attacks are based on truth, of course, they are fair game. However, when a political cohort must lie about their opponents, repeatedly and boldly, it is an indication of their intellectual and political impotence. If they had a winning message that had the support of clear majorities, they wouldn’t have to lie about the other side.

In Florida, Gov. DeSantis won passage of legislation to minimize the politically correct “woke” aspects of state institutions, primary educational. As part of this effort, a group of scholars and experts on African American history – many of these educators are black, by the way – developed a new set of standards for use in Florida schools. It replaced the curriculum developed by the AP College Board, called “Official course framework, project, and exam overview for AP African American studies.” This is the national document describing what ought to be taught to high-achieving students across the country.

The criticism of the Florida curriculum is based on lies and intended simply to hurt DeSantis and, by extension, other GOPs, and conservatives.

Both the AP College Board and the new Florida guidelines discuss the difficulty that faced former slaves as they adapted to freedom. As many historians have pointed out, some had skills that were useful and helped them find jobs. Some of these skills were developed here, others before they were brought here. That point is undeniable and, again, is in both documents. It does not mean slavery was “good” for anyone.

Yet, DeSantis is attacked and accused of saying slavery was good, even though the same thing is said on page 72 of the College Board AP document. Both curricula made the point about some slaves having useful skills. But they claim Florida is racist when they say it.

If anyone is interested, below is a link to the curriculum Harris, et al, supported. Hypocrisy does not get clearer or more offensive than this.

AP African American Studies Official Course Framework, Project, and Exam Overview – Effective 2023-2024: CollegeBoard.org

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If You Hate Sound of Freedom, You Have A Problem

By Rob Meyne

  • July 14 2023
  • 2-min read

Sound of Freedom is a fantastic film that celebrates people who devote their lives to rescuing children who are part of the slave trade. Many experts estimate there are more slaves in the world today than at the time when it was legal. Yet you don’t hear a word from our president or his minions on this.

Slaves are widely held in many nations today, even though it is illegal.

BTW, America appears to be the leading consumer of child sex media and slavery. There is much we can do here to prevent it.

Astonishingly, the Biden Department of Justice has recently removed from its web site information about child trafficking and sex slavery. It isn’t even on the site anymore. At the same time, the Biden Administration admits it has totally lost track of at least 85,000 children who came into the country over our open southern border. They have no idea where they are, who controls them, and whether they have been sold into slavery. Does this sound like a government whose priorities are in the right place?

Sound of Freedom is excellent. It tells the story of Tim Ballard, a former Homeland Security agent, who has devoted his life to saving children. Unsurprisingly, because it celebrates courage, decency, and faith, many on the left and in the Democratic Party have attacked it.

Remember: When your political opponents focus on a person, group, or organization with this much vehemence, it tells you they are afraid, and you must be doing something right. When we irritate and anger our opponents, we are making progress.

Sometimes you can learn exactly what people are like just by watching and listening to them. Tons of commentators, news outlets, and social media sites are trashing Sound of Freedom. It focuses on the scandalous and horrific trafficking of children, primarily for sexual slavery.

Many on the left have excoriated this film and its creators. Think about it. This is a great film about a man who is dedicated to saving children, and the left hates it. There is nothing remotely controversial about the movie unless you are against saving children. The backlash against this film is disgusting, as are the people who oppose it. No extreme views are promoted in it, no conspiracies, no lies. Just the truth. And the left hates it. What more proof do you need about who these people are?

Here is a brief story with a video clip from CBS News embedded in it about Ballard and his successful rescue of children: CBS, nearly a decade ago, did a segment on Tim Ballard, now film on child trafficking ‘is QAnon’

What is there about that message that decent human beings should oppose?

Watch what people say, what they do, who they criticize, and you will see them for what they really are.

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Looking at Dobbs A Year Later, Part 2

By Rob Meyne

  • July 4, 2023
  • 5-min read

Many critics of the Dobbs decision observe that life is now harder and more emotionally challenging for people who want abortions. Well, yes, it is. See again the article from Vice, here.

The question is this: how much do stories of the unfortunate aspects of this, or any, Supreme Court decision matter, and based on what values structure? If the issues discussed in Vice are all that matters, of course you would oppose Dobbs. If, however, you cared as much or more about ALL human life, at all stages of its development, you would have to support Dobbs.

And, BTW, it IS that simple.

Is ANY sad or painful result of a law a negative? Strictly speaking, sure. Every law has plusses and minuses. No exceptions. But telling only one aspect of a story, or looking only at one perspective, is comparable to a jury only hearing from the prosecution. It is interesting but hardly conclusive.

How persuasive such arguments are depends entirely on the standards, the foundational values against which you evaluate them. IF the happiness and emotional health of women who have already been born is the only thing that matters of course you would oppose Dobbs. IF, however, you value life in all forms, and at all stages of development, you could easily feel empathy for the women described in Vice but STILL support Dobbs, because you value the lives of 60-plus million dead babies more. The arguments of the pro-abortion crowd are persuasive if, and only if, you value the lives of these women more than those of the more than one million innocent lives murdered in the womb every year in America.

In a Constitutional Republic, it is seldom, if ever true, that only the opinions of a select group matter, and it certainly makes no sense now.

Nevertheless, some people believe the dispositive issue is what effect abortion law has on pro-abortion women (those who have been born). That value structure quite literally requires you to believe that the lives of those who “won the lottery,” so to speak, meaning they weren’t killed in the womb, are more valuable than the lives of those not allowed to be born.

And, let’s be clear about this. Babies/pre-born people/whatever you want to call them are living humans. Period. There is no serious debate about that. The argument that they are not human would be, well, what? Unborn humans are humans just like unborn dogs are still dogs. It is so clear, and logical, that people are embarrassed to even defend an alternative viewpoint.

To make the point even clearer: Democratic leadership in Washington DC, including the president, favors unlimited abortion, at any point. (Biden was asked in 2022 if there should be any restrictions on abortion, and said no.) They support policies like in Minnesota, where you can walk in during the ninth month of pregnancy and say, “get rid of it,” kill it.

What possible argument could be made that a baby in the 9th month isn’t a human? If you just remove it, the child will likely grow up to live a normal life. It is inarguably human, yet the leadership of the political party in power thinks killing them is ok. The key issue for our time on this subject is NOT rather the baby is human and alive – indisputably, it is – but why abortion supporters would think killing them is fine.

There is no logical argument that babies aren’t people. None. What would it be? How would you prove a baby isn’t human? Of course, you can’t. To be fair, we generally can’t prove a negative. (You can’t prove you’ve never been to Australia.) But the question remains: If they aren’t human, what are they? Iguanas? Sloths? Hummingbirds? Lesser pandas?

A human life is human from conception, just as a bald eagle is an eagle from conception. Of course, destroying an eagle’s egg is a federal crime. Eagles are loved and protected. Humans are not. Horrifically, destroying a person at an early point is legal and celebrated by about half our population. An eagle in the early stages of its life gets protection your children do not.

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State Abortion Laws Vary, But the Trend is in Support of Life

By Rob Meyne

  • June 30, 2023
  • 5-min read

Abortion – Part 1

Much has been written about the consequences of the Dobbs decision. As you know, SCOTUS ruled that there was no constitutional right to abortion. It did not make it illegal. It recognizes abortion law is up to each state.

That, of course, is exactly what our founding fathers had in mind. They saw states as essential laboratories for considering and debating public policy. Our founders knew that law may be different from state to state. They were fine with that, even happy about it.

Our legal landscape in the aftermath of Dobbs is inconsistent and confusing from state to state. That is ok. It does not mean Dobbs was a bad decision or that we somehow have a crisis at hand. When we have different policies in different states, it is not a bug in the system; it is a feature of it. That is not in itself a problem.

The effect this ruling has had on some women is explored in an article from Vice, here. It is an interesting read. Even if you don’t agree that the “problems” created by Dobbs should make us question the decision, it is still important to understand how people with opinions different from your own came to their conclusions. That is why we read pieces every day written by people with whom we are likely to disagree.

Remember what the great Hugh Hewitt likes to say. He prefers clarity to agreement. Or as Stephen Covey says, paraphrasing, seek first to understand, then to be understood.

If the Vice piece isn’t persuasive, it is at least interesting, tugs at heartstrings, and shows how a lot of pro-abortion people view the SCOTUS ruling.

No doubt, there are troubling aspects of post-Roe America. It causes, for some people, stress, pain, and heartache, and makes getting an abortion more difficult. Well, as they say… “Duh!” Of course, it does.

States that have passed laws prohibiting or regulating abortion make it harder to get one. That. .. Is… The… Point…

Laws that regulate the purchase of pharmaceuticals, the practice of medicine, carrying firearms, or driving at high speeds are also designed to make those things more difficult.

As is the case with new laws, it isn’t a perfect situation. We often don’t understand all the ramifications of laws until they are implemented. This is a lesson we learned years ago when working in the Indiana House of Representatives. Most of the legislation, in any given session, involves attempts to correct, improve, and revise existing law. Most bills don’t propose new laws. The new state laws on abortion will likely be modified and improved over time. That is a good thing.

Having fewer abortions is a huge improvement in the minds of millions. Whatever troubles exist in the meantime should be addressed and, where needed, the laws revised and clarified.

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How Much More Evidence of Biden’s Corruption Do We Need?

By Rob Meyne

  • June 21, 2023
  • 3 min-read

You are probably aware of the corruption that has infested the DOJ in general and especially the FBI. No reasonable person can deny America’s law enforcement infrastructure operates with a double standard. If you are leftist, rich, in elite professions and well-connected families, you generally get lenient treatment.

Hunter Biden got a slap on the wrist for serious tax and gun crimes. Anyone with thirty seconds and access to a search engine knows people are routinely sentenced to prison for the exact offenses to which Hunter pleaded guilty.

The DOJ has said their investigation of Hunter Biden is ongoing. While one is tempted to be reassured by this, hoping he will eventually be held accountable for more extreme crimes, there is a better explanation. If they claim it is an ongoing investigation, they have yet another reason not to cooperate with Congressional investigators.

Even the two charges they filed were based on evidence in their possession since 2016. If it takes them seven years to decide to charge someone when the evidence is undisputed and overwhelming, it doesn’t bode well for effective enforcement of the law to return any time in the future.

Information that has come out from an IRS whistleblower, meanwhile, shows the FBI had possession of Hunter’s laptop and confirmed it was authentic in 2019. That is more information (as if we needed it) that the leadership of the FBI is corrupt, hypocritical, and completely in the tank for America’s leftist elites. Is there another conclusion one can reasonably draw?

The FBI, CIA, DOJ, and even at times the Democratic National Committee (often working through the White House) took great pains throughout the 2020 cycle to push news media and social platforms not to cover stories that were damaging to the Biden campaign. About 80% of the American people get most of their news from social media, so this is important. The DOJ and FBI told Twitter, for example, the Hunter laptop story was unconfirmed, possibly stolen or hacked. They knew at the time that wasn’t true.

In addition, 51 intelligence agency leaders said the story appeared to be “Russian disinformation” so the media would not cover it. Yet they had no personal knowledge of the situation, had not reviewed the information, and had no evidence of Russian involvement. It didn’t stop them from pushing for censorship. Meanwhile, post-election surveys show that about 1 in 6 Biden voters would not have voted for him if they had known about the corruption revealed on the laptop. (For the record, at no time has the Biden family even denied the laptop belonged to Hunter. The media and deep state reflexively went farther to defend the Bidens than they did themselves.)

Leon Panetta, the former Secretary of Defense and Director of the CIA, signed the letter to help the Biden campaign. I’ve met Panetta and found him to be engaging and friendly. A fine guy with whom to share a cocktail. But a friend, who knows Panetta well, goes further. He says he is a great guy, a patriot, honest, and a straight shooter. BS. Panetta is a partisan hack, not to put too fine a point on it. You can be both charming and dishonest.

But the latest news is the new evidence of the attempt by Hunter to extort China to pay him $5 million for. The Federalist has the story, and it is linked here.

Hunter sent a message demanding payment and threatening to use his father, and his many friends, to hurt them, if they did not pay. Hunter’s associate in the Chinese Communist Party, Mr. Zhau, then forwarded $5 million to Hunter. If that isn’t clear evidence of corruption at its highest level, nothing is.

Another revelation confirmed what was already obvious: the DOJ moves at a glacial pace to investigate the criminal activity of Dem leaders, if they look at it at all, and many investigations are simply halted. An IRS whistleblower has testified to this before Congress.

Biden needs to go, stat. Even if we are doomed to have some months under a Kamala Harris presidency, Biden is a threat who needs to be neutralized. There is too much at stake to have a president in office who is bought and paid for by hostile foreign powers.

Stay tuned.

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A Tragic Event in American History

By Rob Meyne

  • June 10, 2023
  • 5-min read

One of the most important, and tragic, events in American history occurred this week: the indictment of a former president on federal charges. This is unprecedented. Whatever you may think of former President Donald Trump, it says as much about the forces determined to stop him as it does about Trump himself. In no sense is this a good thing for the country.

It is easier to make decisions on most issues based on emotion and your own biases (factually based or not) than to make them based on facts and objectivity. This is such a case.

While we like to say we are a nation of laws, most decisions regarding who to prosecute involve an overwhelming amount of subjectivity. If you believe most prosecutions are based on facts alone then, with respect, you don’t know much about our system. Nearly all prosecutorial choices involve opinion, bias, and preferences. It is called “prosecutorial discretion.” The DA who indicted Trump in New York, for example, immediately upon taking office, reduced the charges against thousands of people accused of violent crimes from felonies to misdemeanors. The facts had not changed, only the opinion of the DA.

I’ll go further and say that any lawyer who doesn’t recognize the decision to charge Trump is unjustifiable based on past actions in similar cases – and doesn’t say so – is at this point a hypocrite not deserving of membership in the bar. Any political observer who doesn’t admit this is an entirely unjustified prosecution is also either uninformed, corrupt, or lying. If that is too pointed or confrontational for you, my apologies, and maybe this piece isn’t your cup of tea. The stakes are high and the time for timidity is gone.

How is that for direct? 😊 You know who you are! With love and apologies all around, the time for being afraid to express your opinion is gone. We are in many ways losing our country, and if you don’t work to preserve it, you are part of the problem.

The decision to charge Trump is politically driven. Period.

From the political side, it is very likely, in my view, that leading Democrats are pushing for prosecution of Trump because they know it will inflame his base and make his nomination more likely. They WANT Trump to be the nominee because they think they can beat him. At the same time, they know moderates and non-partisans will be hesitant to vote for someone under indictment or convicted.

The political ramifications will be interesting, but the legal outline is clear.

Every executive in Washington must follow a complex system of requirements and procedures for record-keeping. It is rare for Washington’s denizens NOT to violate a procedure, either intentionally or inadvertently. In almost all such cases there is either no punishment or only minor fines. That is what makes the Trump indictment indefensible. None of his predecessors has been subject to the same level of investigation, scrutiny, or potential sanctions.

Be clear: the DOJ works for the president and is taking actions to affect his leading opponent and to impact the election. Anyone who doesn’t recognize that should just, candidly, go home and stay there on Election Day, because they are hopelessly naïve.

Memos and emails have already shown the White House was involved in the decision to search Mar-A-Lago, even though President Joe Biden claimed he didn’t even know it was going to happen. This White House spews more lies in a week than Pinocchio did in a lifetime, and they aren’t even particularly clever about it.

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You’re Living in a Different World Than Everyone Else

By Rob Meyne

  • May 20, 2023
  • 4-min read

If you ever feel like you are living in a different world than your friends, neighbors, or work mates, it is because you are. We may reside on the same planet, but the specifics that make up our “worlds” are distinct in infinite ways.

Our opinions on political issues are often in conflict because they are based on a completely different understanding of the facts. It is hard to overstate how much this contributes to national division.

Constructive policy can be developed through collaboration and compromise. But it is difficult to do that when you don’t even agree on the facts. Since we’re not making decisions based on a common, agreed upon set of data, it is inevitable there will be huge disagreements.

A variety of dynamic factors have led to this.

For one, the way we get information has changed more dramatically in the past two decades than at any time since a guy named Guttenberg was doing his thing. Newspapers, broadcast TV, and radio are still around, but their influence is waning. Cable and streaming services exert tremendous influence, as do podcasts, social media, and various subscription services.

Mainstream “corporate” media is still powerful, but its role has been largely usurped by digital communications that are accessible wirelessly. This diversification in communications – the way information is conveyed – is unprecedented and getting more complex.

Two, governmental agencies, mainstream media, tech companies, political organizations, and NGOs are very good at coordinating their activities, suppressing speech, and promoting only those messages that meet their preferred narratives. If you don’t believe this, spend ten minutes looking at the “Twitter Files.” It is no longer deniable that the CIA, FBI, and even the Democratic National Committee are able to censor stories on Twitter and other platforms on an ongoing basis.

As artificial intelligence gets more pervasive, it will become the source of editorial direction that impacts everything we see. It will make it easier to censor even accurate information long before it has a chance to enter your newsfeed or inbox.

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If You Think the Parties Are the Same, Look Again

By Rob Meyne

  • May 9, 2023
  • 4-min read

Whose side are they on?

It is often argued there is little or no difference between America’s two major political parties. In all honesty, if you say there is NO difference between two options you are uninformed or lying. There most certainly are differences. The issue is how important are they?

The bottom line is this: the differences between the two parties are both few and essential. Yes, in many ways, each party is depressing and like the other. However, it is the few areas of distinction that make one party worthy of tentative support and the other deserving of unending derision.

As we’ve observed previously, the biggest factor that makes both party organizations distasteful is that they are composed of … wait for it … people. Many people are lovely and admirable, but far too many are corrupt, undependable, and narcissistic. And those are their GOOD qualities! 😊

All humans are to some extent dishonest. That’s like saying water is wet, the sun is bright, and Al Gore is boring. So how much sense does it make to clutch our pearls and whine about how our institutions have failed us when we know organizations are fundamentally flawed, from the start, because flawed humans are in charge of them?

Those who perennially throw up their hands in desperation and say “there is no one to vote for” are lamentably honest IF they are looking for perfect people to support. And if you’re looking for them, just stop it, please. You’re going to be disappointed.

People who are disappointed in political choices strike me as folks who don’t know much about life in general. What area of life offers you perfect choices? Do you have the perfect job, spouse, kids, house, car, or church? (I have a perfect wife, of course, but most don’t.) Most of life’s choices present us with alternatives between imperfect options. So what? They can still be marvelous. Perfection isn’t a necessary predicate for most of life. It makes no sense to expect it ONLY from government.

That doesn’t mean we don’t get to be disappointed. Of course we do. Anyone who wishes we had “better choices” has a lot in common with most of us. Who doesn’t? But focusing on primarily the negative aspect of candidates and parties isn’t likely to lead us to a better place.

Neither party is perfect. That is not the same thing as saying they are equal. They are not. The way our system is supposed to work is that people vote for a candidate that pledges to do things we want them to. We were never expected to vote for someone who we enjoy hanging out with, who we would like to see date our sister, or who you would hire to mow your lawn. We’re supposed to care about the policies that determine our quality of life and the future of our nation. And we’re supposed to vote for the people or party that support the policies that we do. It isn’t that complicated. Yet we act like we either can’t figure that out or care more about a person’s looks, personality, or tweeting habits than we do the well-being of the country.

But back to this: yes, the Republicans suck, but the Democrats suck even more. If that seems like a weak campaign slogan, it is. There are differences, even if neither party has earned your support. The parties are not the same, but the world looks different under Democratic leadership in 2023 than it did under Republican leadership in 2020. If you don’t see that, again, you just aren’t living on the same planet as we are.

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There Are Two Sexes, not 498,304,840

By Rob Meyne

  • Feb. 9, 2023
  • 3-min read

If twenty-five years ago you had been able to peer into the future and see what we would be debating in 2023, you probably would not have believed it. Today we are divided on questions for which there are clear, logical, scientific, and common-sense answers. Yet for reasons of woke ideology and political correctness, we pretend there are not.

Anyone who says we have lost our collective minds can make a decent case for it.

A concomitant problem is that we do ourselves, and our progeny, a disservice by spending so much time talking about things that are manifestly less important to our collective future than many other issues that go unattended. No wonder so many younger people think they are justified in focusing on their personal problems — is someone using the wrong pronoun? — rather than concentrating on building knowledge and skills that will help them become happy and successful.

We spend scarce time and resources quibbling about what is the right pronoun to use for a specific individual, but surprisingly little collective attention is devoted to an open southern border, skyrocketing fentanyl deaths, or crippling inflation.

One of the issues that seems to be a top priority for the federal leviathan, media, and the politically correct crowd is gender identification. If there were ever questions that have obvious answers, but millions bend over backwards to ignore them, it is them. Let us offer a few points.

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The GOP is the “Reasonable” Party on Abortion

By Rob Meyne

  • Oct. 13, 2022
  • 3-min read

The decisions issued in June by the Supreme Court are, collectively, about as important a collection as we have seen in decades. The most notable, and most relevant to conservative Constitutionalists, is of course the reversal of Roe v. Wade.

When a major decision is issued, especially one that impacts the laws of the fifty states and DC, it can take time for the effects of it to work their way through the system. Many state laws will remain unchanged while some will fine-tune them as a result of the decision. In fact, in several states, it happened automatically, as they had trigger laws that went into effect because of the ruling.

It is important to recognize, up front, that abortion is among the most contentious issues in America. Yet a look at the opinions of Americans shows there is actual common ground. In addition, the people overwhelmingly reject the position of Democratic leaders.

The Democratic position on abortion today is that there should be no restrictions on it. None. Women (if you can define the term) should be able to kill their babies through the ninth month, for any reason or no reason. Biden says so, apparatchiks like Stacey Abrams say so, and so do 49 out of 50 Democratic senators who voted for a bill that would eliminate all restrictions on abortion. About ninety percent of Americans oppose that view.

Yet, the prevailing narrative is that the GOP is the extreme party. Nonsense. Republicans have an opportunity to demonstrate they are the party closest to the American mainstream.

Those of us who believe life is sacred, begins at conception, and should be defended are often not satisfied with partial victories. The reversal of Roe was a huge “win” for those who value life. It is also true that there is still work to be done as we manage state laws moving forward. It is worth asking what, if any, concessions ought to be made to build consensus with those who believe abortion should be legal but not available through nine months.

As outlined here, third-trimester abortions do happen, and often for the same kind of reasons people get abortions earlier, and relatively rarely to save the life of the mother. There is a lot of survey data on abortion, but one summary, here, is typical. A majority think abortion should be legal in some situations while also opposing it in the final trimester. Another survey shows 75% of us favor limiting abortion to the first trimester. Again, most of America does not support the Democratic position.

There is a good piece, here, that fairly summarizes a position that has a lot of merit. It spells out a strategy would do a lot of help position the GOP as reasonable and compassionate on this issue.

As is so often the case with difficult issues, the most extreme positions on abortion don’t help us to find common ground. Polls show huge majorities of Americans believe abortion should be legal in the first trimester but not the third. They also believe incidents like rape and incest should be considered separately, as should cases where the health of the mother is endangered.

Putting aside for a moment the question of whether conservatives should EVER compromise on issues of life, there is a strong argument to be made that the pro-life movement benefits when we don’t let the perfect, in this case, be the enemy of the good.

It is fair to say most of us probably never actually thought Roe would be reversed, in our lifetimes. Now that is has happened, it provides conservatives a once in a generation opportunity to reach out the persuadable, middle of the road, however small or mythical it may be.

No political battle is ever final, as the reversal of Roe shows us. Today, those who value life can celebrate tremendous progress. At some point, all elective abortion may be illegal. Today, conservatives can “take the win” and demonstrate compassion and reasonableness as we look to the future and adjust to life without Roe.

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