So now the drumbeat from the right is going to be “Hey! This Scott Roeder character is not “Pro-Life”, he’s “A rightwing extremist!”. Hah. Good luck with that political alchemy! It seems unlikely that you can separate the two. The anti-abortion crowd has been pretty firmly affixed to the right-wing for some time now. You don’t use the issue as a political club in your bag of tricks and then just quietly exorcise yourself from it. Nice try, though!
It does beg the question though whether there is a “pro-life’ movement that is distinct from the “anti-abortion” movement. I’m sure those on the right really want to be able to claim there is. To win this argument, though, you’d have to actually BE “pro-life” consistently. You’d oppose the death penalty. You’d oppose war. I doubt such a movement exists in the right. Highly doubt it.
The question of whether or not Scott Roeder is “part of the pro-life” movement is probably one of semantics. Anti-abortionists surely are freaking out and trying to create distance between the killer and themselves. Our boy Bizzy is certainly pushing this angle. The problem here, of course, is that this just won’t wash. Roeder clearly was part of the movement against abortion, whether you label it “pro-life” or “anti-abortion”.
Those who know Roeder told The Kansas City Star that he believed killing abortion doctors was an act of justifiable homicide.
?I know that he believed in justifiable homicide,? said Regina Dinwiddie, a Kansas City abortion opponent who made headlines in 1995 when a federal judge ordered her to stop using a bullhorn within 500 feet of any abortion clinic. ?I know he very strongly believed that abortion was murder and that you ought to defend the little ones, both born and unborn.?
Is Regina a part of the “pro-life” crowd or “anti-abortion” crowd. It’s a distinction without a difference. The scary thing is that Roeder sounds like a real homegrown terrorist and his ties to the “anti-abortion pro-life” movement is a very bad thing for them politically. You know it. They know it. Hence the quick “hey this dude is not one of us!” statements.
Of course, this also begs the other long asked question, “What IS The Matter with Kansas?”
PS – Joe C’s comment over at Bizzy’s place is probably precisely where most of the right is privately, if not publicly said or blogged, on the issue:
Tiller?s murder, regardless of who did it, means nothing to me ? sort of like when terrorists or drug dealers get killed. I?m not going to feign remorse just to make my views more palatable to the leftists who are responsible more for more innocent deaths than any abortionist.
Comment by Joe C. ? June 1, 2009 @ 6:29 am
Budget Watch
