As the focus turns to how Joe Biden is preparing for his debate tonight or what we as voters should look for, I'd just like everyone to take a moment to reflect on how far we've come politically.
This reflection period has nothing to do with us having an African-American running as the Democratic nominee for President or a woman running as the Republican nominee for Vice-President. No, it's more about language, delivery, responses and interpretation.
Twenty years ago, a question was asked and it's answer (or rather, the response) sealed the fate of a once-promising politician:
TRANSCRIPT OF CLIP
SHAW: For the next 90 minutes we will be questioning the candidates following a format designed and agreed to by representatives of the two campaigns. However, there are no restrictions on the questions that my colleagues and I can ask this evening, and the candidates have no prior knowledge of our questions. By agreement between the candidates, the first question goes to Gov. Dukakis. You have two minutes to respond. Governor, if Kitty Dukakis were raped and murdered, would you favor an irrevocable death penalty for the killer?
DUKAKIS: No, I don't, Bernard. And I think you know that I've opposed the death penalty during all of my life. I don't see any evidence that it's a deterrent, and I think there are better and more effective ways to deal with violent crime. We've done so in my own state. And it's one of the reasons why we have had the biggest drop in crime of any industrial state in America; why we have the lowest murder rate of any industrial state in America. But we have work to do in this nation. We have work to do to fight a real war, not a phony war, against drugs. And that's something I want to lead, something we haven't had over the course of the past many years, even though the Vice President has been at least allegedly in charge of that war. We have much to do to step up that war, to double the number of drug enforcement agents, to fight both here and abroad, to work with our neighbors in this hemisphere. And I want to call a hemispheric summit just as soon after the 20th of January as possible to fight that war. But we also have to deal with drug education prevention here at home. And that's one of the things that I hope I can lead personally as the President of the United States. We've had great success in my own state. And we've reached out to young people and their families and been able to help them by beginning drug education and prevention in the early elementary grades. So we can fight this war, and we can win this war. And we can do so in a way that marshals our forces, that provides real support for state and local law enforcement officers who have not been getting that support, and do it in a way which will bring down violence in this nation, will help our youngsters to stay away from drugs, will stop this avalanche of drugs that's pouring into the country, and will make it possible for our kids and our families to grow up in safe and secure and decent neighborhoods.
Now, I'm sure people would disagree on my terminology here, but that a very "pro-life" stance Gov. Dukakis took. And he was crucified for it.
Fast forward to 2008, when another candidate was asked about "life and death" when the variable of rape was inserted into the equation:
TRANSCRIPT OF CLIP
Couric: If a 15-year-old is raped by her father, do you believe it should be illegal for her to get an abortion, and why?
Palin: I am pro-life. And I'm unapologetic in my position that I am pro-life. And I understand there are good people on both sides of the abortion debate. In fact, good people in my own family have differing views on abortion, and when it should be allowed. Do I respect people's opinions on this. Now, I would counsel to choose life. I would also like to see a culture of life in this country. But I would also like to take it one step further. Not just saying I am pro-life and I want fewer and fewer abortions in this country, but I want them, those women who find themselves in circumstances that are absolutely less than ideal, for them to be supported, and adoptions made easier.
Couric: But ideally, you think it should be illegal for a girl who was raped or the victim of incest to get an abortion?
Palin: I'm saying that, personally, I would counsel the person to choose life, despite horrific, horrific circumstances that this person would find themselves in. And, um, if you're asking, though, kind of foundationally here, should anyone end up in jail for having an ... abortion, absolutely not. That's nothing I would ever support.
The differences? Dukakis answered the question directly, but instead of using an explanation or personal story to connect his answer with his viewing audience, he used it to talk about violent crimes. Palin affirmed her political stance ("I am pro-life") unfront but didn't give a straight answer to the question (it was not about sentencing someone to jail for having an abortion, but whether a woman who was raped is justified in her view for having an abortion).
And yes: capital punishment and abortion are typically considered to be two separate issues. But ever since Roe v. Wade was decided, our country has been saturated with social conservatives screaming about how "pro-life" they are while simultaneously cheering that a convict got fried or received a lethal injection. You cannot apply the phrase "pro-life" just to abortion; it's an insult to every other politicized "life or death" issue we face.
Bottom Line: twenty years ago Dukakis was attacked for being honest and direct with the america people, and now Palin is being hyped as being folksy and "down-home" for being evasive and deceptive. And they basically gave similar answers to the similar scenarios that were presented to them.
Oh, by the way, a the Supreme Court seems to agree with Dukakis:
WASHINGTON -- The Supreme Court reaffirmed its June ruling that capital punishment is unconstitutional for crimes short of murder, rejecting pleas from the Bush administration and the state of Louisiana to reconsider in light of new information.
In June, the court ruled, 5 to 4, that a Louisiana statute providing the death penalty for raping a child under age 12 violated the Eighth Amendment, which bans "cruel and unusual punishments." The case dealt with the March 1998 rape by Patrick Kennedy of his 8-year-old stepdaughter. The aggravated-rape conviction, combined with the victim's age, resulted in a sentence of death under Louisiana's rape laws.
In finding "a national consensus against capital punishment for the crime of child rape," the majority opinion by Justice Anthony Kennedy observed that neither the federal government nor 44 states authorized the death penalty for such crimes. (The other six states authorize the death penalty in child-rape cases under some circumstances.)
I think it's way past time that we take "pro-life" out of the political dictionary.