On Thursday’s episode of “The Andrew Klavan Show,” host Andrew Klavan discusses Democratic Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam’s infamous defense of the recently defeated radical abortion bill and what it means for the culture as the Democratic Party moves further to the left on abortion. Transcript and video below.
Today, the philosophical descendants of the 60’s radical are selling a psychopathic culture of death and pseudo-virtuous dishonesty. And if you think the polls and the majority and the facts are on your side, just remember, majorities don’t win, culture wins.
Let’s look at this week, I mean the way that the Overton Window has changed in terms of abortion, and what you’re allowed to say. I don’t want to beat a dead child, as it were – but yesterday we were talking about the abortion bill that lost in the Virginia House of Delegates. This was a bill, an infanticidal bill, a psychopathic infanticidal bill, that’s what it was, and we showed that delegate – Kathy Tran – she was being questioned about it, and how late you could do it, etc. Basically, you could abort a child on the grounds of mental health, right? What does that mean? It’s kind of depressing to you to have a baby? You could abort it in the moments of birth.
The governor then went on a radio show to explain himself, because he’s a Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, and he was asked about this bill, and he just dug the hole even deeper, essentially supporting infanticide:
Gov. Northam: When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of the physicians – more than one physician by the way. It’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s nonviable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. Then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion. But again, we want the government not to be involved in these types of decisions, we want the decision to be made by the mothers and their providers. This is why legislators, most of whom are men, by the way, shouldn’t be telling a woman what she should and shouldn’t be doing with her body.
Brett Baier on Fox did a whole segment on this with his panel, and covered it in the news, but on the panel – I think it was Marc Thiessen – really smart guy, really bright and very passionate about this. But he was citing the fact that this is unpopular, he was citing a Marist-Knights of Columbus poll, which showed that only 15 percent of Americans support abortions at any time during pregnancy. 74 percent of respondents wanted some kind of restriction on abortions, such as first-trimester, rape, incest and so on. Very few people support third-trimester and probably fewer talking about what he was talking about, which was infanticide. He said the baby could be born! He’s basically saying you can leave it there to die.
What I’m telling you is it doesn’t matter what the polls say. He has moved the Overton Window to where a governor of a state can talk about murder, legalized murder, and people just say “fine.” I know so many liberals, and they all say the same thing. Whenever I talk about the radicalism in the Democratic Party, they all say “most of my friends don’t agree with that!” It doesn’t matter. It’s not how many people, it’s where they are and what they do and how they change culture, and also whether you speak up. If you sit there and say, “I don’t agree with that, but I’m voting for him. That’s radical, so he won’t get away with that.” Then you just made that acceptable. If you vote for a guy like that, in fact if you vote for his party as far as I’m concerned, you have made that statement acceptable. It is alright if all the doctors agree, and the women agree, and men don’t get a say – because what have they got to do with humanity? – it’s alright to leave that baby to die. If you vote for that, if that’s acceptable talk to you, if you’re not outraged, you’re part of the movement of the culture in that direction.
It does not matter whether you agree or disagree, it doesn’t matter what the polls say. It matters that you allow that atmosphere, like poison, like miasma, to seep into the culture.
Video and full transcript below:
Here’s a picture of the presidential election map for 1972: the election between incumbent president Richard Nixon and George McGovern. Nixon won in a tremendous landslide, taking every state except Massachusetts though McGovern also won the District Columbia. Nixon also took more than 60 percent of the popular votes, a whopping 18 million more votes than the challenger.
Who else was populating the country around this time? Hippies. There weren’t really very many of them. Their program of sex, drugs and rock n roll, dropping out and getting high and some garbage about the Age of Aquarius was a childish and irresponsible nonsense, almost a perfect prescription for a useless and unhappy individual life and for forcing a heretofore vibrant country into decline.
There weren’t very many of these clowns, but ask yourself: who won over time? The majority that elected Nixon? Or the tiny majority that believed in promiscuous sex, legalized marijuana, socialism, foul language, and disrespect for our traditions and founding principles. Even we—the conservatives I’m talking to and the conservative who’s talking—are in some ways more children of the hippies than of the people who voted for Nixon.
Polls mean nothing. Majorities mean nothing. Facts and logic the morality—mean very little. Culture means everything, the mysterious intellectual atmosphere we don’t even know we’re breathing.
Today, the philosophical descendants of the 60’s radical are selling a psychopathic culture of death and pseudo-virtuous dishonesty. And if you think the polls and the majority and the facts are on your side, just remember, majorities don’t win, culture wins.
Let’s look at this week, I mean the way that the Overton Window has changed in terms of abortion, and what you’re allowed to say. I don’t want to beat a dead child, as it were – but yesterday we were talking about the abortion bill that lost in the Virginia House of Delegates. This was a bill, an infanticidal bill, a psychopathic infanticidal bill, that’s what it was, and we showed that delegate – Kathy Tran – she was being questioned about it, and how late you could do it, etc. Basically, you could abort a child on the grounds of mental health, right? What does that mean? It’s kind of depressing to you to have a baby? You could abort it in the moments of birth.
The governor then went on a radio show to explain himself, because he’s a Democratic governor, Ralph Northam, and he was asked about this bill, and he just dug the hole even deeper, essentially supporting infanticide:
Gov. Northam: When we talk about third-trimester abortions, these are done with the consent of the mother, with the consent of the physicians – more than one physician by the way. It’s done in cases where there may be severe deformities, there may be a fetus that’s nonviable. So in this particular example, if a mother is in labor, I can tell you exactly what would happen. The infant would be delivered, the infant would be kept comfortable, the infant would be resuscitated if that’s what the mother and the family desired. Then a discussion would ensue between the physicians and the mother. So I think this was really blown out of proportion. But again, we want the government not to be involved in these types of decisions, we want the decision to be made by the mothers and their providers. This is why legislators, most of whom are men, by the way, shouldn’t be telling a woman what she should and shouldn’t be doing with her body.
Brett Baier on Fox did a whole segment on this with his panel, and covered it in the news, but on the panel – I think it was Marc Thiessen – really smart guy, really bright and very passionate about this. But he was citing the fact that this is unpopular, he was citing a Marist-Knights of Columbus poll, which showed that only 15 percent of Americans support abortions at any time during pregnancy. 74 percent of respondents wanted some kind of restriction on abortions, such as first-trimester, rape, incest and so on. Very few people support third-trimester and probably fewer talking about what he was talking about, which was infanticide. He said the baby could be born! He’s basically saying you can leave it there to die.
What I’m telling you is it doesn’t matter what the polls say. He has moved the Overton Window to where a governor of a state can talk about murder, legalized murder, and people just say “fine.” I know so many liberals, and they all say the same thing. Whenever I talk about the radicalism in the Democratic Party, they all say “most of my friends don’t agree with that!” It doesn’t matter. It’s not how many people, it’s where they are and what they do and how they change culture, and also whether you speak up. If you sit there and say, “I don’t agree with that, but I’m voting for him. That’s radical, so he won’t get away with that.” Then you just made that acceptable. If you vote for a guy like that, in fact if you vote for his party as far as I’m concerned, you have made that statement acceptable. It is alright if all the doctors agree, and the women agree, and men don’t get a say – because what have they got to do with humanity? – it’s alright to leave that baby to die. If you vote for that, if that’s acceptable talk to you, if you’re not outraged, you’re part of the movement of the culture in that direction.
It does not matter whether you agree or disagree, it doesn’t matter what the polls say. It matters that you allow that atmosphere, like poison, like miasma, to seep into the culture.