Supreme Court Ruling And The 2022 Midterm Election

The time has come to take a good, hard look at the impact the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling will have on the 2022 midterm election.

Politics :
For the past several days, conservative Republicans and evangelical Christians have been dancing in the streets, openly weeping with joy, and taunting pro-choice Americans over the Supreme Court ruling to end a woman’s 50+ year right to make her own choices regarding her own reproductive system. Oh, the taunts and parties have been epic — until political reality set in — and then, they weren’t.

Today, Republicans are putting away the confetti and dampening their celebrations due to the realization that winning their goal of ending abortion rights in America comes with a huge political price tag. Or, in other words, the GOP is now feeling like the metaphorical dog that’s been chasing cars for years — until the moment the dog discovers just how unpleasant things can become the day he actually catches the car.

For most of this year, Republicans have been basking in the realization that the 2022 midterm election was going to be a veritable field day for them. Political pundits have spent months predicting that the GOP will almost assuredly regain control of the US House of Representatives, likely take back the majority of the US Senate, and be in prime position to send Donald Trump (or some Republican presidential-wannabe) to the Oval Office in 2024.

Things were going swell for the Republican Party. And then, the Supreme Court handed them the prize they’ve been bucking for for decades. Then, as if that wasn’t enough, Justice Clarence Thomas got a bit too excited in victory and blabbed that after successfully canceling a woman’s right to choose, the next target will be to end contraception, same-sex marriage, and consensual gay sex between 2 adults. (Shhh, Clarence. You weren’t supposed to say that part out loud).

Too bad the timing of the Supreme Court ruling and Clarence’s big mouth couldn’t have been any worse.

According to POLITICO, Republican operatives and party strategists are now having a conniption fit over the timing of their victory and the reality that the end of Roe v. Wade less than 6 months before Americans head to the polls could also be the end of their political hopes and dreams.

Or, to put it more bluntly, the Roe v. Wade ruling has now handed Democrats a soapbox on which to stand on and rally voters to the polls. It also creates a divisive political issue that Republicans will now be forced to defend and liberals can effectively use to fire up Democrats, Independents, and women to have their voices heard at the ballot box.

“This is not a conversation we want to have,” said Republican strategist John Thomas. “We want to have a conversation about the economy. We want to have a conversation about Joe Biden, about pretty much anything else besides Roe … This is a losing issue for Republicans.”

He’s not alone in his fears.

Before Roe came down, said a former Republican congressman familiar with the party’s campaign operation, “Everything was going our way. Gas is above $5. Inflation is a giant problem.” Now, all bets are off.

“The only thing [Democrats] have got going for them is the Roe thing, which is what, 40 years of settled law that will be changed that will cause some societal consternation,” the former congressman said candidly. “And can they turn that into some turnout? I think the answer is probably ‘Yes.’”

Sadly (for them), Republicans are putting away their party hats and beginning to realize that maybe ending Roe v. Wade during a critical election year was not necessarily a smart move by their political hack-friends on the high bench. The days-long celebration of knowing they could legislate morality has now awakened the realization that this issue has the power to invigorate young Democrats, as well as other unexpected voters to turn out in November and blunt the GOP’s appeal to independent and swing voters.

“It takes a sizeable bloc of voters who were leaning [Republican], and it gives them reason to vote Democrat. And they haven’t had any reason to vote Democrat in quite a while,” a Republican operative said.

The Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling may have fixed one GOP problem, but it handed Republicans a dozen more they weren’t expecting and will undoubtedly soon feel at the ballot box.  

“This is the Democrats’ Hail Mary pass,” said Republican strategist Bob Heckman, who is a veteran of 9 presidential campaigns. “They can’t win on the economy, they can’t win on foreign policy, they can’t win on cultural issues, and they are going to want to have this discussion, and I don’t think we can deflect.”

Truer words have never been spoken.

OK WASSUP! discusses Politics:
Reality sets in over the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court ruling.