Via
Ed Whelan of The National Review (who, profound ideological differences aside, I have come to respect as someone who deals with facts for the most part (though to call Stuart Taylor liberal is patently absurd), none of us are perfect on that score), this distortion from
Stuart Taylor:
Here's what Alito wrote 20 years ago, in applying to then-Attorney General Edwin Meese for a promotion from his civil service job as an assistant solicitor general to a politically appointed position:
. . . I disagree strenuously with the usurpation by the judiciary of decision-making authority that should be exercised by the branches of government responsible to the electorate.... In college, I [strongly disagreed] with Warren Court decisions, particularly in the areas of criminal procedure, the establishment clause, and reapportionment.... I am particularly proud of my contributions in recent cases in which the government has argued in the Supreme Court that racial and ethnic quotas should not be allowed and that the Constitution does not protect a right to an abortion.
These are certainly the words of a Reagan conservative. But are they outside the mainstream? Somebody should tell The New York Times that Reagan won 49 states in 1984. And that in exit polls, many more Americans identify themselves as conservatives (34 percent in 2004) than as liberals (21 percent).
Of course this is sophistry of the cheapest sort. Did Americans vote for the legal views of Ronald Reagan and Ed Meese? Of course not. And Taylor admits as much:
To be sure, most Americans disagree with Alito's 1985 view that Roe should be overruled. But this is partly because many do not understand that the Roe abortion right is virtually absolute, and many are under the false impression that overruling Roe would make abortion illegal.
Oh, I see. It is because Americans do NOT understand the issues. How very condescending of Taylor. I submit that Taylor is either being disingenuous or it is he that does not understand. Because if Roe is overturned, then abortion can be outlawed, by federal and state law. And, I submit, the American People understand perfectly what the Party of Dobson is about.
Stuart Taylor either does not, or is trying to obfuscate the issue.