Neoliberalism
Democratic (neoliberal) Party
Joe Biden
Hunter Biden
Marshall Cohen and Holmes Lybrand, “Hunter Biden convicted on all 3 charges at federal gun trial,” Cable News Network, June 11, 2024, https://www.cnn.com/2024/06/11/politics/hunter-biden-gun-trial-verdict
Erin Doherty, “White House doesn’t rule out commuting Hunter Biden’s sentence,” Axios, June 12, 2024, https://www.axios.com/2024/06/12/white-house-hunter-biden-commutation-conviction
Illiberalism
Gilead
Abortion, reproductive freedom and health
Fig. 1. Sign at demonstration in front of the U.S. Supreme Court, May 3, 2022. Janni Rye, via Wikimedia Commons, Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Read the following quotation at your own risk:
Even though the court’s decision was unanimous, it is unlikely to be the end of efforts to restrict access to the pill. The ruling leaves an opening for three states — Missouri, Kansas and Idaho — to quickly try to revive the challenge before a federal judge in Texas who is well-known for his antiabortion views.
After the ruling, antiabortion advocates quickly pledged to continue their efforts to limit access to mifepristone — promising that this case is not over.
“While we’re disappointed with the court’s decision, we will continue to advocate for women and work to restore common-sense safeguards for abortion drugs,” said Alliance Defending Freedom’s senior counsel, Erin Hawley, who represented the antiabortion doctors. “And we are grateful that three states stand ready to hold the FDA accountable for jeopardizing the health and safety of women and girls across this country.[1]
It’s worth remembering that none of this would be necessary had Democrats taken the ample opportunity they had to codify Roe v. Wade.[2] But guess what? Their failure to protect reproductive rights appears yet again today as even a bill to protect access to in vitro fertilization failed to advance and failed even to get some Democratic votes. It was a bill meant to fail: “Democrats introduced the bill, in part, to put Republicans on the record on reproductive rights ahead of November’s elections.”[3] Which is to say they want a campaign issue much more than they want reproductive rights.
Republicans? They want lots of things more than they want reproductive rights. Which is different from the Democrats mainly in that it’s just barely beginning to dawn on them that overturning Roe[4] was a pyrrhic victory.[5]
Szu Yu Chen and Adrián Blanco, “How every senator voted on the Right to IVF Act,” Washington Post, June 13, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/06/13/senate-vote-right-to-ivf-bill/
Ann E. Marimow, “Supreme Court upholds broad access to key abortion pill mifepristone,” Washington Post, June 13, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/13/supreme-court-abortion-pill-ruling-mifepristone/
- [1]Ann E. Marimow, “Supreme Court upholds broad access to key abortion pill mifepristone,” Washington Post, June 13, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/06/13/supreme-court-abortion-pill-ruling-mifepristone/↩
- [2]Anna North, “Abortion has been treated as a fringe issue by Democrats for decades. This is the result,” Vox, May 5, 2022, https://www.vox.com/the-goods/2022/5/5/23057317/abortion-supreme-court-roe-v-wade; William Rivers Pitt, “Democrats Had 50 Years to Save and Protect ‘Roe.’ They Failed,” Truthout, May 6, 2022, https://truthout.org/articles/democrats-had-50-years-to-save-and-protect-roe-they-failed/↩
- [3]Szu Yu Chen and Adrián Blanco, “How every senator voted on the Right to IVF Act,” Washington Post, June 13, 2024, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/interactive/2024/06/13/senate-vote-right-to-ivf-bill/↩
- [4]Brent Kendall and Jess Bravin, “Supreme Court Overturns Roe v. Wade, Eliminates Constitutional Right to Abortion,” Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/supreme-court-overturns-roe-v-wade-eliminates-constitutional-right-to-abortion-11656080124↩
- [5]Natalie Andrews, Siobhan Hughes, and Lindsay Wise, “Frustrated Republicans Try to Explain Lack of Midterm ‘Red Wave,’” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/articles/frustrated-republicans-try-to-explain-lack-of-midterm-red-wave-11668036382; Dan Balz, “The vaunted red wave never hit the shore in midterm elections,” Washington Post, November 9, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/08/midterms-dissatisfied-voters-render-judgments-biden-republicans/; Kris Maher, “Democrat Josh Shapiro Wins Pennsylvania Governor Race Over Doug Mastriano,” Wall Street Journal, November 9, 2022, https://www.wsj.com/livecoverage/election-midterms-2022/card/democrat-josh-shapiro-wins-pennsylvania-governor-race-over-doug-mastriano-rdDSLqwHlckU7Q5yZYF2; Greg Sargent, “Republicans want Trump to take the blame. Good luck with that,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2022/11/11/trump-midterm-elections-gop-abortion-rights-2024/; Marianna Sotomayor et al., “Congressional Republicans panic as they watch their lead dwindle,” Washington Post, November 11, 2022, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/11/11/senate-republicans-mcconnell-midterms/; Brian Slodysko, “Election takeaways: No sweep for the Republicans after all,” Associated Press, November 9, 2022, https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm-elections-takeaways-9381d3aaff26d19da95506e045fcd6e1↩