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Five Lessons From Last Night's
Elections Part One of Four By Dave Andrusko Good evening, and thanks for taking time to read Today's News & Views. Needless to say, we have lots to say about last night's elections. Part Two gives you a breakdown of how the abortion issue influenced people's votes. Parts Three and Four analysis the impact of ObamaCare on voters and what lies ahead. Over at National Right to Life News Today (www.nationalrighttolifenews.org), Dr. Randy O'Bannon explores the mounting use of abortifacients in Ireland while Wesley Smith brings us a very encouraging story of pluck and perseverance. Please send your comments on Today's News & Views and National Right to Life News Today to daveandrusko@gmail.com. If you like, join those who are following me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/daveha. Last night's results cannot be minimized, trivialized, or explained away by pro-abortionists. Pro-lifers made gains of over 50 in the House, an incredible comeback from the devastation of 2008. We also increased our numbers in the Senate. (For a breakdown of the most competitive races, go to http://www.nrlc.org/ElectionResults.html) There are at least five major lessons to take away from Tuesday night.
1. People cared about the abortion issue, and pro-life candidates benefited enormously among single-issue voters. I talk about that in detail in Part Two. Your work made a huge difference in increasing our numbers in the House by over 50 members. 2. ObamaCare was the 5,000 Ib. weight around the shoulders of a raft of Democrats. As explained in Part Three, the public massively rejects ObamaCare and that rejection played a key role in how they voted. We are all adults. We know it will not be easy to repeal and replace ObamaCare, but the Republican House leadership is committed to just that. "Top House Republicans, triumphant from their sweeping Election Night victory, returned to Capitol Hill on Wednesday morning to declare that they would begin laying the groundwork for spending cuts and repeal of President Obama's landmark health care bill," wrote the New York Times' Sheryl Gay Stolberg this morning. 'The American people have concerns about government takeover of health care,'' Representative John A. Boehner, the presumptive speaker, told reporters in his Capitol suite. 'I think it's important for us to lay the groundwork before we begin to repeal this monstrosity.'" 3. It was wonderfully symbolic when we learned last night that Dr. Dan Benishek (R) had won in Michigan's first congressional district. That is the seat held for many years by Rep. Bart Stupak (D), the leader of the House Democrats who had previously voted pro-life but who bailed out to vote for ObamaCare. (Stupak announced his retirement shortly after the vote.) For a year, there has been a massive disinformation campaign by those politicians and their supporters to hide what they did. Thanks to National Right to Life, the public grasped that these men and women had failed the babies at the single most critical juncture since Roe v. Wade was handed down in 1973. Nobody gloated--we would much have preferred that they had stayed true to the cause--but we refused to be quietly sold down the river. 4. While it was very unfortunate that some pro-life women running for the Senate lost, we should not lose sight of how new pro-life champions were elected last night. Two pro-life women are now governors. Republican Nikki Haley becomes the first Indian-American governor of South Carolina while Susana Martinez becomes the first female Latino to be elected governor of New Mexico. Pro-life Republican Marco Rubio, the son of Cuban immigrants, won convincingly to become Florida's new senator. And two articulate pro-life African-Americans won House seats. Retired Lt. Colonel Allen West prevailed in Florida's 22nd District while South Carolina State Rep. Tim Scott's carried that state's 1st Congressional District. 5. We couldn't have done any of this with you! Thank you, thank you, and thank you. Need I even say it? We have just begun to fight. |
