TBV Feature: An issue Dems would rather not have had

Most Democrats would have wanted this issue to stay settled by the courts, as a matter of good policy. But if they don't pounce on the most unpopular actions of the Christian Republican White People's Party in 2006 and 2008, well, they'll only have themselves to blame. Jack Balkin writes about the abortion issue that South Dakota has put front and center:

But what about the general election [in 2008]? Most Americans may want abortions more difficult to obtain (as they imagine current circumstances) but they don't want almost all abortions criminalized. If Republican presidential candidates announce their support for criminalizing abortions in the primaries in order to win the votes of the pro-life faithful, their Democratic opponents will be more than happy to remind the public of that position when the general election comes round. That, I predict, will help split the Republican coalition that has governed the country for years.

For this we can thank the wonderful folks in the South Dakota legislature, who have put the criminalization of abortion squarely on the table for public discussion. By making it important for Republican politicians to take a stand - not on the relatively popular issues of partial birth abortion bans and parental notification requirements, but on the far less popular question of criminalizing abortion - South Dakota has managed to do what years of Democratic politics could not - create a wedge issue that will destroy the Republican party's winning coalition nationally.

There are a certain number of swing voters who manage to convince themselves that they are voting for the party of tax cuts for the wealthy and blustering rhetoric in foreign policy, but that somehow they aren't voting for the party of Christian fundamentalist legislation. Having abortion rights on their way to the Roberts Supreme Court will make that illusion at least a bit harder to maintain.

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