Connect with us

Abortion: Herman Cain Is Not Just A Flip-Flopper But Fatally Flawed

Published

on

Accusing Herman Cain of being a flip-flopper — as Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum all did this past week — is a fair start but only a start. Cain is certainly a flip-flopper on social issues like abortion and gay marriage, but he’s also incredibly ignorant on those same culture war issues, and on how the actual process of government works. Making him fatally flawed as a presidential candidate.

Now the GOP frontrunner — thanks not to his policy prowess but to his marketing magic — Cain said he is pro-life but believes that the decision of whether or not to get an abortion “ultimately gets down to a choice that the family or that mother has to make.” During a CNN/Piers Morgan interview this past week, Cain added, “Not me as president, not some politician, not a bureaucrat. It gets down to that family. And whatever they decide. I shouldn’t have to tell them what decision to make for such a sensitive issue.”

That, dear friends, as any junior high school student knows, is the very essence of the definition of pro-choice.

Unsurprisingly, Michele Bachmann, Rick Perry, and Rick Santorum all pounced on Cain.

“It is a liberal canard to say I am personally pro-life but government should stay out of that decision,” ABC News quoted Texas Governor and former front-runner Rick Perry saying Saturday night at the Iowa Faith and Freedom Coalition Presidential Forum. “If that is your view, you are not pro-life, you are pro having your cake and eating it too.”

“Being pro-life is not a matter of campaign convenience,” Perry added.

ABC News on Sunday added,

“Herman Cain’s out there, and he’s in his first real run for office and a serious campaign and I think he’s still finding his way through,” Santorum said following his speech at the Iowa Faith and Freedom forum.  “This is a pretty big and important race to be finding your way through issues, particularly on issues of this fundamental importance.”

He received further criticism today from Michele Bachmann, who called Cain out as a flip-flopper.

“You can’t have all of these flip-flops in our nominee,” Bachmann said on Fox News Sunday. “I think it’s giving people pause, and they’re asking real questions about, what does he believe, truly, and how would he govern as president of the United States? And I can tell you, here in Iowa, people want to make sure that our nominee is 100 percent pro-life.”

In an interview published Saturday night, Cain was asked by the Christian Broadcasting Network’s David Brody, “Are you for some sort of pro-life amendment to the constitution that in essence would trump Roe v. Wade?”

“Yes. Yes I feel that strongly about it. If we can get the necessary support and it comes to my desk I’ll sign it. That’s all I can do. I will sign it.”

Actually, that’s not only all he “can do.” As president, Cain can’t even do that.

As every junior high school student also knows, constitutional amendments don’t get signed by the president, they are ratified by the states in a two-part process including the legislative — not the executive — branch of government. Cain not knowing this simple yet important fact about how government works doesn’t make him ineligible to run government, it just reinforces the general — and accurate — perception that Cain is woefully, and intentionally, ignorant.

Cain also told Brody he would support (and presumably, “sign,” if the constitution actually worked that way,) a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, adding that, “there are already attempts by some states and some groups to weaken the Defense of Marriage Act.”

“I think marriage should be protected at the federal level also. I used to believe that it could be just handled by the states but there’s a movement going on to basically take the teeth out of the 1996 Defense of Marriage Act and that could cause an unraveling, so we do need some protection at the federal level because of that and so yes I would support legislation that would say that it’s between a man and a woman.”

In addition to being ignorant on how government actually works, and on the subject of abortion — the pro-choice vs. pro-life culture war debate that Roe v. Wade was supposed to have resolved in 1973 — in general, Cain is obviously, painfully ignorant — and yes, bigoted — on the subject of abortion in relation to civil rights.

It certainly is not unfair to highlight who a candidate is in examining what filters and lenses they use to examine issues, and which ones they are willing to utilize to make their points.

That Herman Cain, an African-American, would deign to use the African-American Civil Rights Movement as a tool to remove rights from women, is not only frightening, but offensive.

David Brody told Cain, “The social conservative groups one of the things they’re telling me is that they want a President that’s going to use the bully pulpit on the life issue. It doesn’t mean you have to get bogged down on all of this, but they want to see a president if not advance the legislation at least use the bully pulpit to talk to America about this issue. What’s your sense on that?”

Cain’s response?

“Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the greatest leaders this country has ever seen. How did he bring about the movement that resulted in the Civil Rights Act of 1964? He touched the hearts of people. That’s what a President needs to have the ability to do, in order to change peoples’ minds.”

Yes, because what America needs is a man who was an adult — an African-American who as an adult, lived through segregation — using the African-American community’s greatest hero, and one of the most important fruits of that hero’s labors, as an opportunity to deny women their basic civil rights.

Herman Cain doesn’t have policy stances, he doesn’t have real ideas or answers, he has marketing slogans, like 9-9-9, which don’t even address the real issues Americans want fixed. Americans aren’t as concerned about the taxes they might have to pay when they don’t have salaries to tax because they don’t have jobs.

As every junior high school student also knows, using a proposed change to the tax plan does not strengthen employment, just as using a proposed change to abortion rights does not strengthen the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

Cain is not only a flip-flopper on these and other issues, his ignorance about them makes him fatally flawed as a candidate.

Related Topics:
Continue Reading
Click to comment
 
 

Enjoy this piece?

… then let us make a small request. The New Civil Rights Movement depends on readers like you to meet our ongoing expenses and continue producing quality progressive journalism. Three Silicon Valley giants consume 70 percent of all online advertising dollars, so we need your help to continue doing what we do.

NCRM is independent. You won’t find mainstream media bias here. From unflinching coverage of religious extremism, to spotlighting efforts to roll back our rights, NCRM continues to speak truth to power. America needs independent voices like NCRM to be sure no one is forgotten.

Every reader contribution, whatever the amount, makes a tremendous difference. Help ensure NCRM remains independent long into the future. Support progressive journalism with a one-time contribution to NCRM, or click here to become a subscriber. Thank you. Click here to donate by check.

News

‘Ignorant’ Noem’s ‘Incoherent’ Habeas Corpus Claim Blasted

Published

43 minutes ago

on

May 20, 2025

By

U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem is facing sharp backlash after falsely defining the core constitutional principle of habeas corpus during sworn testimony before Congress—and defiantly, yet inaccurately, insisting that presidents have unilateral authority to suspend it.

Asked what habeas corpus is, Noem, a former governor and U.S. Congresswoman, delivered this incorrect response: “Habeas corpus is a constitutional right that the President has to be able to remove people from this country.”

“That’s incorrect,” U.S. Senator Maggie Hasan (D-NH) interjected, before serving up the correct response and a bit of a legal lesson—and a warning.

READ MORE: Vulgar Trump Boast Claims Credit for Olympics—and Blames ‘Rigged’ Race for Comeback

“Habeas corpus is the legal principle that requires that the government provide a public reason for detaining and imprisoning people. If not for that protection, the government could simply arrest people, including American citizens, and hold them indefinitely for no reason. Habeas corpus is the foundational right that separates free societies like America from police states like North Korea.”

“As a senator from the ‘Live Free Or Die’ state, this matters a lot to me and my constituents, and to all Americans,” Hassan explained. “So Secretary Noem, do you support the core protection that habeas corpus provides, that the government must provide a public reason in order to detain and imprison someone?”

“Yeah, I support habeas corpus,” Noem replied, before again promoting a false narrative.

“I also recognize that the President of the United States has the authority under the Constitution to decide if it should be suspended or not,” she insisted.

“It has never been done without approval of Congress,” Senator Hassan responded. “Even Abraham Lincoln got retroactive approval from Congress.”

White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller recently suggested the administration was looking into suspending habeas corpus.

READ MORE: Leavitt’s Deficit Denial and the First Ever Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Built on It

Critics blasted Secretary Noem.

“The Secretary of DHS does not know (1) what the writ of habeas corpus is or (2) which branch of gov’t has the constitutional power to suspend the great writ. Given her expected role in detaining millions of people, that’s not great,” warned civil rights attorney Patrick Jaicomo.

“This is extraordinary,” exclaimed immigration attorney Aaron Reichlin-Melnick. “The Secretary of Homeland Security doesn’t know what the right of habeas corpus is (the ancient right to go to court to challenge government detention) and offers an incoherent definition which suggests she thinks it’s a presidential power to deport people?”

“Kristi Noem says that habeas corpus is the president’s right to remove people from this country. Really great that someone this ignorant of people’s constitutional rights is in charge of removing people from this country,” lamented The Atlantic’s James Surowiecki, author of “The Wisdom of Crowds.”

“Noem just turned a centuries-old safeguard against tyranny into a talking point for authoritarianism,” wrote investment banker Evaristus Odinikaeze. “Founding Fathers just face-palmed in unison.”

Watch the video below or at this link.

READ MORE: No Trump, No FEMA? Tornado Ravaged City’s Mayor Pleads for Federal Assistance

Continue Reading

News

Vulgar Trump Boast Claims Credit for Olympics—and Blames ‘Rigged’ Race for Comeback

Published

2 hours ago

on

May 20, 2025

By

President Donald Trump’s remarks at the Kennedy Center board dinner Monday night included a vulgar expression, a conspiracy theory about the 2020 election, pointed criticism, unfounded self-congratulatory claims, and a suggestion of political retribution.

“What a group of good friends,” Trump told the Kennedy Center’s leadership at the White House event, The Daily Beast reported. “We’re gonna bring this place back. It’s not so good. I thought it was gonna be beautiful.”

Trump also “accused Kennedy Center’s previous leadership of wasting millions of dollars on ‘rampant political propaganda, DEI, and inappropriate shows.'”

“Who thinks of these ideas?” he asked. “We’re bringing our country back so fast.”

READ MORE: Leavitt’s Deficit Denial and the First Ever Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Built on It

In remarks promoted by the White House Director of Communications, Steven Cheung (video below), an unleashed Trump did not hold back.

The President told the captive audience, “we got the Olympics, and then we got through Johnny, the boss, we got — he’s a friend of mine — we got the World Cup. I got ’em both. And I said, ‘Man, I won’t be president. I won’t be — I got the Olympics and the World Cup, and I won’t be president. And they’re gonna forget that I got them. Nobody’s gonna mention it, because, you know, a little bit, that’s the way life is.'”

Trump’s lament continued: “And then they rig the election.”

“And then I said, ‘You know what I’ll do? I’ll run again, and I’ll shove it up their a–,'” Trump said, to applause. “And that’s what I did, and all of a sudden, I then realized, I said, ‘You know what? I got the Olympics, I got the World Cup, and I got the 250th [anniversary].”

READ MORE: No Trump, No FEMA? Tornado Ravaged City’s Mayor Pleads for Federal Assistance

“So if they would have left us alone and wouldn’t have cheated on the election and wouldn’t have rigged it, I would have been retired right now. I would have been happily doing something else, and instead they have me for four more years. Can you believe it?”

HuffPost noted that Trump “appointed himself chair of the Kennedy Center earlier this year amid a pro-MAGA purge of the historically bipartisan organization.”

The video, posted to Cheung’s official account on X, has been viewed over 300,000 times in just 12 hours.

Watch below or at this link.

READ MORE: White House Scrambles to Clean Up Trump’s Walmart ‘Rage Tweeting’ Amid Upcoming ‘Standoff’

 

Image via Reuters

 

Continue Reading

News

Leavitt’s Deficit Denial and the First Ever Trillion-Dollar Defense Budget Built on It

Published

19 hours ago

on

May 19, 2025

By

Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth is bragging that President Donald Trump has submitted the largest budget ever for the Pentagon: one trillion dollars, about $150 billion more than President Joe Biden’s final budget request. Critics are blasting the White House for insisting that the Republicans’ new budget—which guts Medicaid, reduces taxes (primarily for the wealthy), and eliminates the Department of Education, does not increase the deficit.

“He’s gonna be the first president to introduce a trillion-dollar budget,” Secretary Hegseth told Fox News’ Will Cain on Monday (video below). “That’s not just spending more. It’s also being serious about an audit. It’s also finding cuts where we pull out the Biden garbage and put in President Trump’s priorities. So we’re going to invest a generational investment in those capabilities.”

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt was asked on Monday if President Trump is “okay with this bill adding to the deficit?”

READ MORE: No Trump, No FEMA? Tornado Ravaged City’s Mayor Pleads for Federal Assistance

“This bill does not add to the deficit,” Leavitt insisted, before claiming that it “will save $1.6 trillion.”

Economist Justin Wolfers appeared to disagree, posting a chart that shows that the GOP/Trump budget legislation increases the deficit by more than one-third.

The Hill reported that the “tax portion of Republicans’ wide-ranging bill full of President Trump’s domestic priorities would cost $3.7 trillion over the next decade, the Joint Committee on Taxation (JCT) found.”

“Tables from the JCT, which is the official revenue scoring body of Congress, show that extensions of the 2017 tax cuts and other measures will add about $5.6 trillion to the deficit, while cuts to renewable energy incentives and amped international tax enforcement will reduce the deficit by about $1.9 trillion.”

READ MORE: White House Scrambles to Clean Up Trump’s Walmart ‘Rage Tweeting’ Amid Upcoming ‘Standoff’

U.S. Rep. Veronica Escobar (D-TX) commented, “It doesn’t ‘save’ a $1 trillion, it slashes it from programs like Medicaid and SNAP, kicking millions of Americans off their healthcare and nutrition programs You also forgot to mention the other $3-4 trillion being spent on tax cuts for the wealthy that’ll explode our deficit.”

The Wall Street Journal delivered more math, saying that the GOP “plan won’t reduce federal budget deficits and would make America’s fiscal hole deeper.”

“The current proposal would increase projected budget deficits by nearly $3 trillion through 2034, locking in tax cuts and spending increases that outweigh reductions in spending on Medicaid and nutrition assistance. While Republicans, who have vowed to reduce red ink, say higher economic growth will fill the gap, budget analysts across the political spectrum have panned the Republican plan, warning that it worsens the U.S. fiscal picture.”

Watch the videos above or at this link.

RELATED: ‘Bonanza for Billionaires’: Johnson Celebrates ‘Victory’ of Medicaid-Gutting Tax Cuts Bill

Image via Reuters 

 

Continue Reading

Trending

Copyright © 2020 AlterNet Media.