I wrote my introduction while I was sitting at a taco shop waiting to pick my sister up from the dentist. I got bored and wrote this too. I may have trouble transcribing it, my handwriting is far from perfect and I used a sort of smudgy pen.
Anyway, I know I said that this would be more music than politics. I promise the music will come! but for now, this is on my mind. Actually, it's been on my mind since last night when I was watching the political debates. I'm not a big fan of Obama or Clinton, they seem far more alike than different politically, even if Obama has a much better personality (or at least portrays one, these are politicians after all). Not a huge fan, but I think McCain seems a bit too hawkish and, even if he has some liberal ideas that keep him from being an out-and-out conservative, I don't really want to have another four years of Republican policies. I'm not blaming everything on them, certainly a lot of things happened in the past 8 years that were completely out of the government's control, but things aren't looking too good right now and a different set of ideas couldn't hurt. Anyway, my point here isn't really to argue democrat vs. republican, it's the lesser of two evils as far as I'm concerned and that wasn't really what I wanted to get at.
What is important is that it seems like our politics are based on polarizing moral issues and middle-of-the-road and compromising political issues. Look back at presidents, they're remembered by what they did, not their moral strengths and weaknesses, but people like to vote on the moral positions of candidates rather than what their results will actually be, and these things can run contrary to one another.
Take abortion. Big issue, probably the one that's lost the fewest supporters on each side. Completely polarized opinions (legal vs. illegal) based on ideas that aren't ultimately that different. Neither side actually wants abortions to occur. Some of the most avid pro-choicers I've met considered abortion wrong and would never do it themselves. The idea of abortion as a lazy contraceptive and a nonchalant decision is mostly myth, embodied by a few ignorant people but not at all representative Pro-choicers don't want to kill babies, pro-lifers don't want to enslave women. But people vote on this issue, I'd venture to guess that a lot of people vote republican or democrat based solely on it because, let's face it, it's a lot easier to take a stance on than most complicated economic issues.
The things is, it doesn't really matter who wins. Bush has been in office for 8 years and Roe vs. Wade hasn't been overturned, it would take a lot of such a major court case to be reviewed and reversed, and it isn't like a pro-choice person in the white house can somehow make it more legal than it already is. People vote on the morality of the politicians (supposed morality I should say, these are politicians, it's easy to claim a stance to get votes) but it isn't like there's going to be any major change either way.
And really, and I'm not trying to argue against pro-life necessarily, I think abortion is absolutely terrible and would be happy if it never happened again, it isn't like even if abortion were illegal, it would go away. In Venezuela, for example, where abortion is illegal in all but the most extraneous circumstances, among teenage girls botched abortions make up nearly a third of all deaths, by some estimates, and making abortion illegal doesn't have much of an effect on the abortion rate (per the same link, and plenty of other sources agree). So by making abortion illegal, A) the same number of abortions happen and B) they are much more dangerous. You can make it illegal and feel good about making a moral decision, but if it still happens just as frequently and many more women die because of it, you haven't really solved anything, you've just hidden the problem.
And the problem is, people are going to get unwanted pregnancies, and a lot of people disagree on the value of the life of an unborn child. It is very hard to convince people to make moral decisions when they don't follow your moral code, and legislating that morality won't make them suddenly agree. It would be great if everyone agreed that abortion was wrong, but that isn't going to happen. What can be changed, however, is the percentage of unwanted pregnancies. With no unwanted pregnancies, there will be no abortions. Even better, since nobody wants an unwanted pregnancy, you don't even need to stir up controversy against them!
And the best way to avoid unwanted pregnancies, practically, is through better sex education. Yeah, the most foolproof method of avoiding pregnancy (excluding rape) is abstinence, but abstinence-only sex education doesn't work. Kids do stupid things, see: drunk driving, it doesn't matter how big you play up the risks to be (and it doesn't help that most programs exaggerate them), as long as someone doesn't morally agree with you to begin with (in which case they'll abstain), they probably won't listen to you, especially if they're a teenager. And if all a kid knows is "don't," what are the odds that they'll take the initiative to learn how to have safe sex?
You may see more comprehensive sex-ed as "training" them, but
A) safe sex isn't only for extra-marital couples
B) you can know how to do something and also know it's wrong
C) if you don't want your kid to have sex, talk to them.
Let the schools give them the knowledge they need to safely have sex if they choose to, so if they do rebel (as kids do) at least they won't also get pregnant, resulting in an undesirable teen pregnancy and possible undesirable abortion.
Now, given how polarized our system is, abstinence-only education almost always is coupled with pro-life policies, and more comprehensive sexual education is almost always coupled with pro-choice. The most effective means of preventing teen pregnancy, and thus the most effective way of preventing abortion, is coupled with pro-abortion policies! And since legal or illegal abortion has almost no impact on the rate of abortions, it is the pro-choice candidates that push for the policies that reduce abortions the most.
My point isn't "vote democrat," I'm divided on the issue myself. My point is, because of how polarized our system is, reasonable policies don't always go with one another. You aren't likely to find a pro-life candidate who supports detailed sex ed because they don't meet either end of the spectrum. Big issues just don't exist in a vacuum, there are a lot of factors to consider beyond the major stance of the candidate.
But that's just the utilitarian in me talking. I care more about what gets done than a politician's personal views. I understand wanting a strong moral leader, but these are politicians, politicians lie about their values to get votes. do you honestly think every president we've ever had was a Christian? If a politician is your moral representative, you're out of luck.
If you disagree, tell me. Would you vote against a policy you agreed with if doing so would actually further your own goals? I'm pretty sure I would.
Music next time. I promise.
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4 comments:
A friend and I had to research the policies of both Obama and Clinton for an honors presidential debate thing, and they really are basically the same person in their views. If you go to their websites and look at what is said, it would be hard to tell the difference between the two candidates. I think I would be happy if either one of them gets elected. I can't even decide which one I like better.
All this talk of abortion is reminding me of a debate we had to do in my Communication class last semester. I actually used to be pro-choice, but after reading and researching so much about it, my opinion was actually swayed. I think abortion should be illegal. Contrary to popular belief, most abortions are performed to maintain a certain "lifestyle" or out of convenience - not because of rape or incest. And abortion doesn't have to be the only option in these cases. What about Plan B (the morning after pill)? It's now available over the counter, too. And there are plenty of people waiting to adopt children as well. I just think people need to be educated on their options, and then they won't get themselves into bad situations. Studies show that women who have abortions have the same symptoms as rape victims. It's a very invasive procedure.
Okay, I don't know why I said all that. You probably already know it. I just felt like talking.
I realize abortion is a bad thing and that most people do it out of convenience, and I think people should be educated on their options. Most pro-choice people are strongly in favor of this. I believe the official stance of the democratic party on abortion is "safe, legal, rare." Nobody wants abortions to happen. It's all part of a stronger sexual education.
But as far as convenience goes - yeah, it's out of convenience, but also for fear of social ostracism. From what I've heard, it's very difficult to be a teen mother, both for the missed school and the scarlet A you're carrying around for 9 months. Not enough, in my opinion, to justify abortion, but the social stigma is enough to make a lot of girls drop out of school, which screws them up for life. And if you already aren't strongly morally opposed to it, I'm sure it can be pretty tempting to make it all go away.
I didn't mean to imply most people who have abortions do it from rape or incest - to the contrary, I think people who justify it solely for the extraneous circumstances are missing the big picture. However, there is a high correlation between poverty and abortion. It's twofold - if you're poor you're more likely to be uneducated about safe sex, and if you're a single woman who is already struggling to make ends meet, the disability of pregnancy can be far more inconvenient than just a lifestyle change, it can cost you your job (it's illegal but it happens) and valuable working time. That doesn't necessarily justify it, but most of the people who have abortions aren't doing it solely because they're lazy. From everything I've read, the decision is by no means an easy one.
The morning after pill is actually considered tantamount to abortion by a lot of people (the official position of the Catholic Church, at least). If you know enough to know about the morning after pill it means you're already educated about safe sex, because you're immediately taking action to prevent pregnancy.
The response of women to abortions varies widely, it's far worse for some than others, and I think it would be great for women to be as informed about it as possible. I still think that, if making it illegal doesn't make it happen less, and makes more women die because of it, that isn't helping. I think we both agree that the most important thing is education, it just happens that the pro-choice crowd is the one that most strongly supports better sex education.
I didn't think you mentioned anything about why people got abortions, so don't worry, I didn't think you were "implying" anything.
I agree that people need to be educated about their options. And that means in school, too. Some parents just won't talk to their kids about that sort of thing, and it's important to learn!
Yay for sex ed! :)
SEX ED SUX DEATH TO BABIES ON EVERY PLANET 666 HORNS SATAN ETC.
Yeah abortion should be legal.
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