In my last post, I asked " why Democratic elites haven't made more effort to appeal to moderate voters on the issue [of abortion]"? I should have said something like "why Democratic elites haven't made more effort to appeal to moderate voters by adopting more moderate positions"? As I suggested in a post a few years ago, another way to appeal to moderate voters is by focusing on the negative--fears of what the extremists on the other side might do. That's what the Democrats have done, and it's worked pretty well because many prominent Republicans have taken extreme positions. Also, there is an asymmetry on the abortion issue--it's easier to find shocking examples of women who were denied abortions that most people will agree should have been allowed (e. g., the case that came up shortly after the Dobbs decision, a 10-year-old rape victim who had to travel out of Ohio to get an abortion) than shocking examples of women who had abortions that most people agree shouldn't have been allowed. So if it comes down to a contest of extreme positions, the side favoring legal abortion is likely to win.
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