Moral Consistency Is For Losers And Liberals

The only thing that matters for Conservatives is winning- by any means necessary

What, exactly, does being “Pro-Life” mean? I find myself thinking about that a great deal in this time when the Supreme Court is about to overturn Roe v. Wade and Russia continues waging war against Ukraine. Can one claim to be “pro-life” when you oppose abortion but support (or are ambivalent about) Russia’s “right” to wage war indiscriminately against civilians?

And what about the death penalty? How can one square their “pro-life” bona fides with states executing murderers? Not to excuse murderers for their crimes, but do two wrongs make a right?

What DOES “pro-life” mean? Is it a set of iron-clad values…or is it a more fungible and convenient set of values to be trotted out when one believes their morality has been violated?

I ask these questions because when I examine the idea of being “pro-life,” I see no consistency, no central moral core that defines a belief supporting life as being superior to advocating for the delivery of death in its myriad forms.

How does one call themselves “pro-life” when they spend hours protesting outside an abortion clinic but see nothing wrong with state-sanctioned execution of murderers? Do they believe the execution of a murderer balances the wrong of a murder? Do two “wrongs” really balance out the moral ledger and make a “right?

From my perspective, it too often seems that Conservatives employ situational ethics whenever it’s convenient. How can they reconcile opposing abortion despite enthusiastically supporting the death penalty? If they represent a “culture of life,” as they so often claim, how do they differentiate one life from another? Is one life more worthy? What criteria do they use to make that decision? And who gets to be empowered to make that decision?

Being “pro-life,” at least insofar as represented by today’s GOP, is a jumble of contradictions. For example, Conservative White men claim to be tough on crime and advocate in no uncertain terms for the death penalty as a specific means of deterring crime (though the data doesn’t support it). Yet, these same Conservative White men will also go to the mat to protect the life of the unborn. They proclaim to anyone who will listen that they stand for “a culture of life”…even as they stand up for the rights of Americans to own weapons of war.

How does that blatant contradiction represent a “culture of life?”

It seems that the Conservative refusal to recognize the inherent hypocrisy of their morality lies in their unwillingness to acknowledge its contradiction. If they don’t own up to the hypocrisy and rejection of morality regarding their “culture of life,” they don’t have to address it. And thus far, they’ve continued to pretend that their hypocrisy isn’t an issue for them.

If they don’t acknowledge it, they don’t have to address it. If they don’t address it, then it doesn’t exist. See how easy that is? Don’t you wish all moral quandaries were so easy to resolve?

This is what happens when you believe not just in winning but in achieving supremacy by any means necessary. Situational ethics allows you to rationalize overturning Roe v. Wade when roughly 70% of Americans support a woman’s right to choose. When you refuse to accept that women deserve to have agency over their own bodies, it’s not hard to wonder what other rights you might go after next.

I don’t know that the future will be a “fucking nightmare,” but when Conservatives advocate for a future in which the State has an increasing role in women's reproductive functions, it looks as if we’re staring down a slippery slope. What’s next? LGBTQ rights? Same-sex marriage? Interracial marriage? The list is long, and it’s easy to wonder if the direction we’re heading might involve turning back the clock in many respects.

If the Supreme Court is willing to reverse settled law, it’s sending the message that anything is fair game and that they’re eager to revisit and possibly reverse any precedent they don’t like. It’s what happens when Republicans like Donald Trump are allowed to politicize the Supreme Court thoroughly.

The same people who cried “My Body, My Choice” when it came to COVID-19 vaccine mandates now say that women have NO choice regarding their pregnant bodies. If Conservatives can’t see the hypocrisy in that, what hope do we have for starting (or engaging in) a rational conversation?

“Pro-Life?” I’m not sure it has (or ever had) any meaning other than a convenient set of situational ethics intended to allow Conservatives to carry the day and dominate American government. To those on the Radical Right, it doesn’t matter how you win, only that you DO win.

(It turns out that elections matter. Go figure.)

“Pro-Life?” It’s a slogan devoid of meaning, though it sounds good to those who oppose abortion. They can claim that they stand on the side of morality, life, and protecting the unborn. But that morality is where it ends for them. When it comes to the death penalty, they have no qualms about standing on the side of the State as it executes a murderer. Hell, they’ll proudly pull the lever that sends the criminal to his death.

“Pro-Life?” If the anti-abortion crowd were honest about where they stand, it would be “Pro-Hypocrisy.” But, of course, honesty in the anti-abortion movement has never been a cherished value. The one and ONLY value has been winning by any means necessary.

No, I don’t know if the future will be a fucking nightmare, but it’s beginning to look more like Gilead with each passing day. Before long we will live in an America in which women will have less bodily autonomy than corpses. Roll that absurdity around your brainpan for a while. And then ask yourself how we got here.

It’s because a minority of the population happens to believe that women, and by extension, their reproductive functions are the property of the State. That radical minority has managed to seize control of the highest court in the land, in part because justices who promised to respect settled law lied shamelessly during their confirmation hearings. Now they occupy a lifetime sinecure and are committed to imposing their Christian Conservative worldview upon ALL of us.

Yes, elections matter…and those of you who voted third party or couldn’t be bothered to vote in 2016 laid the groundwork for this travesty.

Nice work, eh? When you ask “HOW DARE THEY?,” remember how this moment came to be.

And people wonder why I’m an atheist and a Democrat….