"Pro-Life" is the best branding in the history of branding. If you've screwed that up there's no where else to go.
Especially since in reality they are pro-birth only, they don't care about providing adequate pre-natal care to all pregnant women, they don't believe that safe birth conditions are a basic right, and they lose all the interest in the kids' well being as soon as they are out.
It's almost like they are only doing it to control women or something. /s
“Boy, these conservatives are really something, aren't they? They're all in favor of the unborn. They will do anything for the unborn. But once you're born, you're on your own. Pro-life conservatives are obsessed with the fetus from conception to nine months. After that, they don't want to know about you. They don't want to hear from you. No nothing. No neonatal care, no day care, no head start, no school lunch, no food stamps, no welfare, no nothing. If you're preborn, you're fine; if you're preschool, you're fucked.”
― George Carlin
Thank you. I've been saying that about pre-natal care for years. Really, they are not even pro-birth because if you want to give birth under safe hospital conditions, that's on you and your insurance company, if you have one.
They're not pro-anything except punishing women.
It reminds me of subways five dollar footlong. They made a slogan so piecing and effective that they can’t escape it. Every time I go to subway I notice how much more a sub costs than the five dollars it used to be and every time I hear “pro-life” I think of a very “particular” kind of person.
"Am I out of touch? No. It's the voters who are wrong."
The first rule of pursuing abhorrent policies for performative reasons is, they need to stay performative. The GOP used to understand this, and carefully pursue anti-abortion policies while carefully not achieving them. But now there's too high a proportion of people who are such nutcases that they genuinely don't understand or don't care that this will lose them elections, and the strategic Republicans are struggling more and more to keep control of their party.
It used to be the same with "anti-immigration" policies that were surgically careful to preserve the vulnerable workforce while making the right type of performative gestures, until DeSantis came in being enough of a true believer that he's willing to damage Florida's economy pretty significantly as long as it lets him be cruel to spanish people.
The safeties are getting disabled, basically.
“Mark my word, if and when these preachers get control of the party, and they're sure trying to do so, it's going to be a terrible damn problem. Frankly, these people frighten me. Politics and governing demand compromise. But these Christians believe they are acting in the name of God, so they can't and won't compromise. I know, I've tried to deal with them.” -Barry Goldwater
How about “anti choice?”…? “Anti -women.” ?
Or maybe “theist zealots”?
“Asshole” seems too generic.
Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever
Remember that scene from The Boys where Stormfront said:
People love what I have to say, they just hate the word Nazi. That's all.
Now why would a party that bans abortion with no exceptions in many states, even to the point of banning abortions after a raped 10-year-old got one in a state because she couldn't get one in hers, not be thought of as "pro-life"?
There's a lot to unpack in this article, I encourage you all to actually read it. It sounds like a fundamental disconnect between Republican Congresspeople (who enact laws at the Federal level) and the State-level Republicans. These Senators supported overturning Roe specifically did it to "send the matter back to the States", and did not propose any law at the Federal level to replace it, only to find that those Republican states enacted extremely strict laws that are now affecting the Republican brand elsewhere. (Because of a simple reason: Republicans in those states really are that extreme!)
But, they're stuck with it now. Their messaging is tied to what actually happened in those states. And these Senators can say all they want that they wanted exceptions all along, but you know they will never make a Federal law that weakens the strict bans in those states. They would never win a primary after that. But the strict bans are not popular outside the statehouses where they were enacted.
As long as there are states like Texas, who aim to criminalize abortion to the point that they will be monitoring the roads going out-of-state for pregnant women to harass, there will be no chance to define the pro-life movement as anything else.
It's really not a lot to unpack. It's disingenuous bullshit from Republicans who are trying to back track after decades of campaigning on banning abortion. It's happened and now it's wildly unpopular and they are about to pay that bill that's come due. So now they are trying to spin it like "that's not what we meant".
They don't have principles. It's about retaining power and control.
For what it's worth, they could pass a law right now that would give access to abortions (aka give women the right to control their own body). So this is all bullshit.
There’s no disconnect. The cruelty is the point.
Were there truly a disconnect, Republicans in Congress would work on a bipartisan bill that would get enough Republicans on board to pass the House. From there, it will almost certainly pass the Senate and Biden will almost certainly sign it.
The Republicans want to say they’re being hamstrung by Texas while doing absolutely nothing about Texas, because in reality they want everywhere to be like Texas.
💀
“Pro forced birth” is much more accurate. If they were truly pro-life they would champion universal healthcare that included at the minimum abortions when the woman’s life is in danger and when the fetus couldn’t possibly survive.
They don't care about women at all, only controlling them.
You're not pro-baby unless you're for universal post-natal care.
Which they are not.
I'd allow the term pro-fetus but that's about it.
To be pro-baby they should also be for parental leave at birth, and investment in making early childhood care easier and affordable for everyone.
"How can we trick the voters into thinking we're less shitty than we know we really are?"
“Many voters think [‘pro-life’] means you’re for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever”
But, that’s true… Every GOP state legislature has passed bills without exceptions.
So their argument is what exactly?
They argument is "We are evil, but we don't want to sound evil - it limits recruitments"
Forced Birth is more accurate
Pro Gestational Slavery. Let’s not pretend it’s less grotesque than it is.
Yeah, they never were really into pro life, were they? It’s more about neo-slavery:
- Ensure less fortunate people end up so overburdened with financial trouble that they desperately take a pittance from “job creators” with a smile.
- Cult-of-personality the shit out of idiot billionaires so that people overlook their evils for moment-to-moment trivialities and hot takes.
- Make up culture war bullshit to ensure the fighters end up just expending their angst on the other less fortunate people rather of those who actually manufacture their hardships.
I've seen "Anti-Choice" thrown around, I think it fits them pretty good
Anti-freedom will go down well with hillbillys
Yes the specific marketing term for it is what people aren't resonating with. That must be what is wrong.
Yes. In Republican eyes what you said is literally correct.
The long-term goal of Republican leadership is to ban all abortion from the moment of conception, ban all hormonal birth control (because it can prevent implantation of a fertilized embryo and therefore cause abortion), and return the question of whether to ban condoms and other barrier methods to the states.
Republican leadership realizes the American people don't support a complete abortion ban.
Republican leadership believes the American people are wrong and it's their responsibility, as Christian leaders, to protect the innocent children of America and impose a complete abortion ban anyway.
And Republican leaders know if they go hood off and call for a complete abortion ban they'll lose power in the backlash and abortion will become even more normalized.
So they're gradually restricting abortion rights while heavily pushing right-wing propaganda to children and teenagers - fucking PragerU is partnering with the Florida and Oklahoma Departments of Education to produce videos for school children, did you know that? - in order to shift the cultural consensus away from abortion is a right and towards abortion is a sin so that future generations of Republican leaders can complete their work and impose a total abortion ban.
So, yes, the Republican leadership is very much aware that what they need is marketing. They know abortion bans are unpopular. They're walking a fine line, trying to work towards a highly unpopular policy goal while still protecting their legislative control of Congress and the states, knowing their control of government would be at risk if the American people realized their actual policy goal.
And so you have Republicans talking about "pro-baby policies" now. Because who doesn't love babies? That sounds like WIC and infant nutrition programs and daycare and better neonatal care and all those good things that Democrats support. Hard to tell that the Republican is actually talking about forcing women to give birth to babies dead in the womb and babies with fetal defects incompatible with life, but that's the state of the national dialogue in the year of our Lord 2023.
The problem is, if they legit want to go "Pro-Baby" then they have to explain this:
But I guess nobody ever forced them to explain how they could be Pro-Life but also Pro-Death Penalty...
This feels like 10 years ago when people said gops have a presentation or communication problem. Fox was all like "people just aren't understanding what the republicans have to say" but the whole time is obvious that their message was clear, just fucking awful.
They have a marketing problem that they're trying to fix. They're not trying to fix their stance on abortion. It's the same shit, just trying to make it sound not as extreme.
They're not pro-life; they're rape-prolongers.
They want to make sure that every rape can last at least nine months.
Clearly it's the messaging that's the problem /s
Getting a win in the abortion case is probably the worst thing to happen to the GOP. They chased the car fruitlessly to get the crazies on board and the rest quietly tolerated it because they knew they would never actually catch the car.
Well. They have their jaws around the bumper now and no plan on how to let go without getting hit by the car behind them.
"Anti-Women"? Because that's what Republicans are...
Call it what it is, Anti-choice
Proof once again that Republicans don't stand for anything.
Anti-choice/women/freedom is a good option
"Freedom Fries!"
Oh wait. That ones already taken.
How about pro-birth, anti-woman, anti-choice, anti-healthcare?
How does pro-fascism sound? For once in the history of modern republican party, it is also accurate.
"Facist"
It's got great brand penetration.
Maybe they shouldn't have rebranded from "anti-abortion" to "pro-life" in the first place.
Anti-Women? Yeah, let's go with that.
Comcast becoming Xfinity didn't help their image as a shitty cable company, and I don't think changing from pro-life to something like pro-baby is going to help mask their abortion policies.
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