Where’s the Debate?

|

By
Mary Lou Greenberg

Sept.
3 – NBC’s Meet the Press advertised it as the first in a series of big debates
between Senatorial candidates from different states: pro-war, anti-choice Rick
Santorum, the notorious incumbent Bush echo from Pennsylvania vs. pro-war,
anti-choice Bob Casey Jr., backed and promoted by Democratic Party leadership
as one of their best hopes for getting more votes in the Senate.

I
went to refill my coffee cup as the debate began with host Tim Russert posing a
question about Iraq.
A voice responded, “I’m not ready to abandon this mission”, and went
on to say that “we don’t need a deadline for troop withdrawal” but
needed “accountability” to determine if we were lied to and that the U.S. needed
double the number of Special Forces. Santorum is keeping to form, I thought.
Will Casey say anything different?

Oops,
that WAS Casey, I discovered, when I came back to the TV screen. So where’s the
debate?

There
were a few qualified differences. But the basic unity came through in an
exchange around pursuit of the “war on terror” and Iran. Santorum
repeated the Rumsfeld-Bush charge that the enemy is “Islamic
fascists” and insisted that Iran is “at the heart of this
war” and “causing most of the problems in…Iraq,….with Israel today” and is “the
one funding these organizations”. Iran “is the country that we
need to focus on in this war against Islamic fascism”.

What
did Casey say to this? He charged Santorum with focusing on
“rhetoric” (is Osama bin Laden “a terrorist or a fascist”)
rather than a plan for “finding and killing” him. Expressing the
bi-partisan agreement to go after Iran,
Casey said that the U.S. “has to do everything possible to make sure that Iran does not
develop a nuclear weapon” and urged “very tough” sanctions. In a
beautiful duet, Santorum agreed – and tried to make the case that he isn’t
always a Bush clone by saying that the present administration “hasn’t been
tough enough on Iran.”

So
it comes to this. The ominous terms of this Senatorial campaign – and the
election season overall – around the looming war on Iran
comes down to how tough sanctions should be before taking military action on Iran
(not ruled out by Casey or Santorum). And whether or not Cheney should be
denounced for opposing sanctions (Casey yes, Santorum no)!

These
terms must be unmistakably rejected by millions in the streets on October 5th, or the
elections, no matter who wins, will only serve to perpetuate the disaster being
inflicted on the world by the Bush regime. And can you imagine what the people
of the world – and especially Iran
– think when they hear this so-called debate! The devastation caused by
sanctions on Iraq (some
500,000 children killed by preventable disease and malnutrition, directly
attributable to the effects of the first Gulf war and the economic sanctions
that followed) – and the devastation many times over, still continuing, from
the 2003 Iraq
invasion and ongoing occupation. All this and more for Iran, if Santorum and Casey have
their way.

We
cannot let the likes of Santorum and Casey be the only voices heard on this!

As
for abortion and reproductive rights, Russert edged into this on Meet the Press
by asking the two “pro-life” candidates their views on Plan B, the
morning-after pill that the FDA recently ruled could be sold over-the-counter
to women 18 years and older. Santorum said he opposed it because “it is an
abortifacient” and that it’s dangerous to take hormones without a doctor’s
supervision. Casey said he supported its sale because it works before
conception (the moment when fertilization of the egg by sperm happens) and that
it will help reduce the number of abortions (that take place after
fertilization, or conception).

Does
it matter if Plan B is available to women without a prescription (even if women
under 18 are unjustly prohibited from getting it)?  Yes, it does.

But
any praise of Casey for what should be a no-brainer position sorely misses the
point. The terms that have been imposed – whether or not conception has
occurred at the time the pill takes effect – are totally wrong and accept the
killing proposition that once the powerful sperm and receptive egg meet, all
else, as they would rule, is history and the woman in whose body this takes
place must start shopping for baby booties and accept her god-given role as
breeder.

Both
Casey and Santorum tried to soften the edges of their essentially hard-line no-choice
position by using the “make abortion rare” argument. Casey said he
was “pro-life” but supported Plan B because it would decrease the
number of abortions. Santorum said that he would allow abortions in case of
rape or incest or to save the woman’s life, even though “it’s the taking
of a life” in order to find “common ground” for abortion
restrictions.

Sorry,
this is unacceptable. We must reject the dangerous pursuit of seeking
“common ground” with Christian fascists and religious fanatics, as
the World Can’t Wait – Drive Out the Bush Regime Call puts it, and uphold an
unashamed and uncompromising stance of defending the right and ability of all
women, no matter what age or economic circumstance, to decide for themselves
whether or not to bear children. Especially on such a fundamental issue, how
can we go along with the Democrats who have decided, in Senator Charles
Schumer’s words, that defending abortion is “a game” that the
Democrats “can’t afford to play” any longer.

As
I said in A
Call to Action for the Women’s Movement, “This movement and all people
who care about the fundamental rights of women are facing a juncture, and which
way we go will decide the future for generations. The pouring of all hopes and
energies into the Democratic Party that has sacrificed the issue of abortion to
‘winning’ in the mid-term elections leaves us with this question: at what point
will we decide to really fight and at what point does it become too late?

“The
only thing that has a chance of beating back the assault on abortion, on
derailing the assertion of patriarchal morality and authority being made into
law, of stopping the dangerous fascist remaking of society that is undergirding
an endless war for empire, is to put all our energies, post haste, into truly
massive mobilization and resistance.”

I
urge everyone to take part in nationwide meetings this Thursday, September. 7th, to plan a
day of mass protest on October 5th to say to
the world that this regime does not represent us and we will not stop until we
drive it out. Find meeting locations at www.worldcantwait.org.

Mary
Lou Greenberg

chainsnomore@hotmail.com

(See
“A Call to Action for the Women’s Movement and Everyone who Cares About
Women’s Lives” at www.worldcantwait.org.)

|