Chuck Chalberg
By linking it to the great moral issue of slavery, perhaps more people will find their way to the position that abortion too should be put on the road to ultimate extinction. If so, it’s possible that subsequent generations of Americans will come to regard our Stephen Douglas-popular sovereignty Republicans as having been on the right side of history after all.
Our political differences aside, everyone can agree that the only Trump-Harris debate of 2024 was not exactly a repeat of any Lincoln-Douglas debate of 1858. Let’s begin by dispensing with the obvious: Our modern presidential “debates” are less debates than mini-press conferences. Lincoln and Douglas went one-on-one, while asking each other questions and then directly answering those questions.
There are no doubt many other differences between political debates then and now, but let’s focus on one difference in particular, if only because it leads to some similarities that are both interesting and thought-provoking, similarities that might ultimately prove to be quite compelling as well. Each has been concerned with its own great moral issue, slavery then and abortion now.
To be sure, slavery was not the only issue in 1858, but it was the great issue. Of course, there were also issues of expansion, immigration, railroads, tariffs and potential wars. Just as today there are issues of immigration, inflation, energy, tariffs and potential wars. But today there is also the perennial issue of abortion, a great issue that has now been returned to electoral politics.
Slavery and abortion. Are they equally great issues? Perhaps so to a good number of people. Perhaps not to many others. What can be agreed upon is that slavery alone tore the country apart in the middle of the 19th century, while abortion is one of a package of issues that are tearing at the fabric of the country today. » Read More
https://theimaginativeconservative.org/2024/10/slavery-abortion-chuck-chalberg.html