With as much visible nobility as he could muster, Pennsylvania Gov. Robert P. Casey sat in stony silence at the Democratic National Convention while one speaker after another spoke about the right of women to do what they want to do with their own bodies.
Casey could have babbled just as passionately about limits he thinks the state should put on what women do with their own bodies. He wanted to, but he never got a chance. His views were politically incorrect at that political convention. Bill Clinton, chief conductor of the tightly orchestrated convention, has been criticized for it, but what do his detractors expect? If anyone can be politically correct without embarrassment, it is a political party.
The party`s platform passionately defends abortion rights, and neither Casey nor his fellow abortion rights opponents could muster enough votes in the platform committee to force a debate.
If Casey doesn`t like it, he can bolt the party, but he says he won`t. Although the Republicans express a lot of concern for the ”unborn,” says Casey, they don`t show enough similar concern for the born. So Casey nobly stepped aside. He`s not alone. There is a lot of stepping aside going on in this year`s Democratic Party.
Organized labor stepped aside to support a candidate from a right-to-work state. African-Americans stepped aside to support a candidate who publicly embarrassed Jesse Jackson for his association with fiery rapper Sister Souljah.
They had their day. Labor`s last big day came and went in 1984 when most major union leaders supported Walter Mondale and most of their rank-and-file members supported Ronald Reagan. African-Americans, the Democratic Party`s most loyal major ethnic bloc, had their day in 1988 when Jesse Jackson`s candidacy boosted the black delegate count at the party`s Atlanta convention to a record 962.
This convention had almost 200 fewer black delegates than the Atlanta convention four years earlier. Not surprisingly, this year`s convention included much less talk about black-oriented, urban-agenda issues. It also included much less prominence for Jackson.
Remarkably, with the exception of the never-say-die campaign of former California Gov. Jerry Brown, most of the delegates played along. In the interest of victory, they stepped aside. Even Brown eventually shut up. If anyone walked out angry, you didn`t see it on camera.
This year`s Democrats sho-`nuff want to win and, with victory against a battered President Bush appearing to be a real possibility, they`re ready to win with another important constituent group: women.
This is ”the year of the woman” and, if you think that sounds patronizing, you don`t know the party`s history. Geraldine Ferraro`s 1984 vice presidential candidacy was tokenism compared to the clout women wielded this year. In a party that gives all constituencies a chance sooner or later, it was their turn. It was also about time.
The feminized Democratic Party has gained strength from the mother`s milk of politics-money and votes, both of which have come flowing in, particularly to female candidates, in the wake of the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings and the court decision bearing Gov. Casey`s name that allows states to put new restrictions on abortion.
One of the biggest energizers is seven-year-old EMILY`s List (whose name comes from the wisdom ”Early Money Is Like Yeast-it makes the dough rise”)
which this year is funding 42 Democratic women candidates, including seven in Senate races.
Boosted by the publicity of a ”60 Minutes” profile earlier this year, EMILY`s List has raised $3 million so far this year and hopes to raise $6 million by November, which could make it the year`s biggest funder of political campaigns. Presence equals power in a democracy, and with new power comes new respect.
As a result, Gov. Casey won at the Supreme Court but lost at the Democratic Convention.
”The boys (who traditionally control party politics) respect two things: money and power,” said Grace Kaminkowitz, a political consultant who writes a column for Today`s Chicago Woman. ”Winning elections gives you power, and we`re raising money.”
Ironically, no issue has been more important as a mobilizing and fundraising tool than abortion, the same hot-button issue that fueled the New Right and the rise of Ronald Reagan.
So, it`s hilarious to hear that GOP leaders plan to tweak the Dems by giving ”prominent” (I can`t wait to see how prominent) speaking roles at their Houston convention to pro-choicers Labor Secretary Lynn Martin, Govs. William Weld of Massachusetts and Pete Wilson of California and Rep. Nancy Johnson of Connecticut.
Big deal. Republican-style free speech sounds like an agreement to give a suspect a fair trial before hanging her. GOP leaders have no plans to budge on demands from its own pro-choice delegates that the party drop opposition to legal abortion from its platform.
But effective as abortion has been as an organizing tool, it has taken attention away from other issues like pay equity, family leave, day care and infant mortality that are important to the women`s movement but don`t cut across class lines in the same way as the party tries to reach suburban swing voters.
But the refighting of old battles certainly is something other groups, like blacks and organized labor, know well. Like them, the women`s movement finds itself putting other issues aside, ironically for the sake of victory in the year of the women.
