Liberals Ready to Abandon Abortion as an Issue

[Blue Rectangle]

If you look at some of the recent, high-profile rulings by the Supreme Court this term, you'll see several cases (medical mj, eminent domain, etc.) where the liberals on the Court voted against the wishes of the average liberal voter.  I read posts on DU complaining about "what happened to states' rights?" and "what happened to property rights?", where the poster is completely blind to the fact that justices like Thomas support these rights and justices like Ginsberg attack them.

The way the liberal wing of the Court got this way is by the Democrats making abortion the only issue in Court picks.  This obsession with supporting the extreme pro-abortion wing is not just hurting the Dems in elections, but is negatively affecting them in other ways.

[Blue Rectangle]

Well, if the Democratic Party makes a clear shift from being pro-choice to pro-life, I'd very much welcome that. There are quite a few pro-life Democrats on the Forum

Then the >60% of Americans who are pro-choice would have no major party that represents their views. 

Polling Report's list of abortion polls

All the polls I saw with the self-indentified pro-choice/pro-life question show a 50/50 split (within MOE).  Polls that offer the choices of abortion: always/mostly/rarely/never legal routinely show a majority favoring the rarely or never options.  Large majorities in several polls favor greater restrictions or outright bans on abortion.  Specific issues such as parental notification laws or partial-birth bans have support in the 70s and 80s.

[Blue Rectangle]

Well, if the Democratic Party makes a clear shift from being pro-choice to pro-life, I'd very much welcome that. There are quite a few pro-life Democrats on the Forum

Then the >60% of Americans who are pro-choice would have no major party that represents their views. 

Polling Report's list of abortion polls

All the polls I saw with the self-indentified pro-choice/pro-life question show a 50/50 split (within MOE).  Polls that offer the choices of abortion: always/mostly/rarely/never legal routinely show a majority favoring the rarely or never options.  Large majorities in several polls favor greater restrictions or outright bans on abortion.  Specific issues such as parental notification laws or partial-birth bans have support in the 70s and 80s.

Ummm Say what???

There's a lot of polls there, so let's start with the claim you made that >60% of Americans are pro-choice.  There are three sets of polls that ask for self-indentification as pro-chioce or pro-life:

Gallup Poll (19 polls, 1996-2005)
Average self-indentified pro-chioce: 49%
Only 6 of the 19 polls had 50% or greater, and the most recent 6 were <50%

FOX News/Opinion Dynamics Poll (9 polls, 1999-2005)
Average self-indentified pro-chioce: 43%
Only 1 of these polls was over 45% (47%)

Time/CNN Poll (Harris, 4 polls, 1999-2003)
Average self-indentified pro-chioce: 47%
None above 50%

It is clear that people who consider themselves pro-choice has never been >60% and that the number is probably less than 50%.

[Blue Rectangle]

Something that can't live outside the womb is certaintly not a baby

And why not?  Is humanity defined by the ability to breathe on your own?

Oh, come on, Republicans don't really care about people after they're born.

For someone who has screamed "strawman!" more than once in the past couple weeks, you sure have a double standard.

[Blue Rectangle]

The character and worth of a nation is determined by how they treat the most helpless and vulnerable in society.

The Republican party represents the antithesis of that statement.

So Republicans are anti-charity?  Here's a listing of charitable giving per capita by state:

Mississippi (highest charitable giving per capita)
Arkansas
Oklahoma
Louisiana
Alabama
Tennessee
South Dakota
Utah
South Carolina
Idaho
Wyoming
Texas
West Virginia
Nebraska
North Dakota
North Carolina
Kansas
Florida
Georgia
Kentucky
Montana
Missouri
New Mexico
Alaska
Indiana
New York
Iowa
Ohio
California
Maryland
Illinois
Maine
Delaware
Washington
Vermont
Oregon
Hawaii
Virginia
Arizona
Nevada
Pennsylvania
Michigan
Colorado
Connecticut
Minnesota
Wisconsin
New Jersey
Rhode Island
Massachusetts
New Hampshire

The top 25 voted for Bush in 2004.  9 of the bottom 10 voted Kerry.

[Blue Rectangle]

That list is skewed because many southerners give 10% of their income to their church.

OK, but given that regular church attendees in the South vote overwhelmingly Republican, doesn't that proven that at least some Republicans are generous?

I would be interested to see actual absolute numbers instead of a comparative list, given that 3.0000000000001 > 3.

http://www.catalogueforphilanthropy.org
The spread is about 2:1, so we're not talking about small differences here.

You know thats a terrible argument. You know it.

We need a list of individuals...because state citizens and voters aren't the borg.

Scoonie was nice enough to confirm exactly who is doing the most giving, and yeah, they are Republicans.

[Blue Rectangle]

It proves they're generous to their church.

Hey, you know what?  You and jfern are the ones making the unsubstantiated and outrageous claim that Republicans are a bunch of cold-hearted misers.  Why don't you provide some evidence to back it up?

[Blue Rectangle]

So? The Kerry states tend to send a lot more to the federal government than they get back.

What does paying taxes and benefiting from federal spending have to do with charity?

[Blue Rectangle]

how is this known? is it done by tax write-offs or by polls, or some other way?

It's based on itemized deductions on tax returns.  The site I linked has more information.