REQUIRED INCOHERENCE :

Regressive Progressive? (KATHA POLLITT, May 27, 2002, The Nation)

As chairman of the fifty-nine-member Congressional Progressive Caucus and potential candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich has been quite visible lately. At a time when few Democrats are daring to question the war aims of the Bush Administration--or even to ask what they are--Kucinich has spoken eloquently against the Patriot Act, the ongoing military buildup and the vague and apparently horizonless "war on terrorism." From tax cuts for the rich and the death penalty (against) to national health insurance and the environment (for), Kucinich has the right liberal positions. Michael Moore, who likes to rib progressives for favoring white wine and brie over hot dogs and beer, would surely approve of Kucinich's man-of-the-people persona--he's actually a New Age-ish vegan, but his website has a page devoted to "Polka, Bowling and Kielbasa."

One thing you won't find on Kucinich's website, though, is any mention of his opposition to abortion rights. In his two terms in Congress, he has quietly amassed an anti-choice voting record of Henry Hyde-like proportions. He supported Bush's reinstatement of the gag rule for recipients of US family planning funds abroad. He supported the Child Custody Protection Act, which prohibits anyone but a parent from taking a teenage girl across state lines for an abortion. He voted for the Unborn Victims of Violence Act, which makes it a crime, distinct from assault on a pregnant woman, to cause the injury or death of a fetus. He voted against funding research on RU-486. He voted for a ban on dilation and extraction (so-called partial-birth) abortions without a maternal health exception. He even voted against contraception coverage in health insurance plans for federal workers--a huge work force of some 2.6 million people (and yes, for many of them, Viagra is covered). Where reasonable constitutional objections could be raised--the lack of a health exception in partial-birth bans clearly violates Roe v. Wade, as the Supreme Court ruled in Stenberg v. Carhart--Kucinich did not raise them; where competing principles could be invoked--freedom of speech for foreign health organizations--he did not bring them up. He was a co-sponsor of the House bill outlawing all forms of human cloning, even for research purposes, and he opposes embryonic stem cell research. His anti-choice dedication has earned him a 95 percent position rating from the National Right to Life Committee, versus 10 percent from Planned Parenthood and 0 percent from NARAL.

That a solidly anti-choice politician could become a standard- bearer for progressivism, the subject of hagiographic profiles in The Nation and elsewhere, speaks volumes about the low priority of women's rights to the self-described economic left, forever chasing the white male working-class vote. Supporting an anti-choice Congressman may have seemed pragmatic; trying to make him President would be political suicide. Pregnant prisoners may not vote, but millions of pro-choice women do.

Because Democrats are the party of women and because abortion is the central way in which women express their recent empowerment, it is obviously necessary for the Democrat nominee to favor abortion. But, because American public opinion also demands that candidates favor the death penalty, it seems that Democrats require moral incoherence of their nominee.

There are four possible combinations on these two issues ;

(1) Anti-death penalty and anti-abortion

This--what we'll call the Pope's position--is a fairly purist stance and requires little justification. Often accompanied by a more or less pacifist posture and an opposition to euthanasia, it reflects the highest regard for human life in all its forms.

(2) Pro-death penalty and pro-abortion

This--we'll call it the George Carlin position--too is purist. Often accompanied by a hearty endorsement of euthanasia and a spectator sport attitude towards war, it too has the advantage of purity.

(3) Pro-death penalty and anti-abortion

This--we'll call it the Reagan position--is a more nuanced stance. It requires one to believe in a hierarchy of human life, where we can differentiate the guilty (who forfeit their right to life) from the innocent (who should be protected). It is most often accompanied by a reluctance to allow euthanasia and a reluctance to pursue warfare, though a total war mindset once the battle begins. It is admittedly somewhat inconsistent, though I believe coherent.

(4) Anti-death penalty and pro-abortion

This--we'll call it the Mario Cuomo position--has always been the hardest to defend and even Cuomo, the Hamlet of the Hudson, did so poorly. Frequently accompanied by pacifist tendencies but a favoring of euthanasia--a combination which only renders it even more ludicrous--this position seems to have almost nothing to do with human life, but is instead about power politics.

The criminal, the woman, the patient, and the enemy is to be defended from the imposition of Western values. It is their status in opposition to society that conveys special status on them, rather than any concern for human dignity. What makes this position particularly difficult to explain is that it requires that we preserve the life of a Ted Bundy or an Adolph Hitler once they've committed their heinous crimes, but allow them to be disposed of when they are in utero or unconscious for medical reasons.

I disagree with Dennis Kucinich on almost everything (except abortion), but his opposition to nearly all manner of human life-taking is at least intellectually coherent. It seems almost lunatic to believe that he could be a serious candidate for President, but even with his "progressive" politics, I'd prefer him, and his consistency, to a Bill Clinton (George Carlin) or a Mario Cuomo.

Posted by Orrin Judd at May 24, 2002 9:12 AM