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- cross-posted to:
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Kennedy identified as “pro-choice” during his presidential campaign as a Democrat, but said repeatedly in Wednesday’s hearing for secretary of health and human services (HHS) that he agreed with Trump that “every abortion is a tragedy”.
“I agree with him that we cannot be a moral nation if we have 1.2 million abortions a year. I agree with him that the states should control abortion,” Kennedy said in response to questions from Senator James Lankford, a Republican from Oklahoma, where abortion is banned.
“I serve at the pleasure of the president. I’m going to implement his policies,” he continued.
Sounds like the typical politician/lawyer threading the needle. Basically to say abortion should be legal, but it sucks when it has to happen, and I want someone else to make the choices (and take the heat) on restricting them.
In my country, even as recently as a decade ago, flip-flopping on an issue was a death knell to the candidacy. Candidates needed to remain firm to their stated allegiances, or face an election loss. It was as simple as that.
We have a new crop of conservatives, though, who flip and flop without consequence. We haven’t been as good at holding them to their own word and showing the flatlanders what ‘trustworthy’ means. We can do better.
Yeah, the nuisance here is we’ve gotten so accustomed to these weasel phrasings so people get away with ‘well I never expressly said X but…’ so people write it off as just being mushy on a topic. Particularly when it comes to something with such a polarized public opinion.