California Governor Jerry Brown says the Democratic Party should be open to pro-life candidates as it seeks to regain control of the House in 2018.
On NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday, Brown, a Democrat, rejected the notion that his party needs to embrace “ideological purity,” and said the Democratic base is “shifting.”
“I’d say, look, even on the abortion issue, it wasn’t very long ago that a number of Catholic Democrats were opposed to abortion,” Brown said. “So the fact that somebody believes today what most people believed 50 years ago should not be the basis for their exclusion.”
“In America, we’re not ideological, we’re not like a Marxist party in 1910,” Brown added. “We are a big tent by the very definition.”
Brown’s remarks come as a firestorm has erupted within the Democrat Party following the recent announcement by the party’s congressional campaign committee chairman, Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), that “there is not a litmus test for Democratic candidates” on abortion rights.
“As we look at candidates across the country, you need to make sure you have candidates that fit the district, that can win in these districts across America,” Luján said, according to the Hill.
Luján’s announcement was condemned by feminists and supporters of the abortion industry in politics, the entertainment field, and the media.
Continuing the popular feminist narrative that abortion is women’s health care, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) tweeted, “We do not have to make compromises on protecting women’s health to win back the House or Senate”:
On Tuesday, former DNC Chairman Howard Dean announced he would not support the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee (DCCC) if it supports pro-life candidates:
Comedian Rosie O’Donnell tweeted, “Women should form our own party” if the Democrats support pro-life candidates.
“Throwing weight behind anti-choice candidates is bad politics that will lead to worse policy,” said Mitchell Stille of NARAL, the Hill reports. “The idea that jettisoning this issue wins elections for Democrats is folly contradicted by all available data.”
Luján’s statement was also in sharp contrast to the Democrat Party’s 2016 platform – its most pro-abortion ever – and to Democratic National Committee (DNC) Chairman Tom Perez’s announcement in April that pro-life individuals are not welcome in his party.
“Every Democrat, like every American, should support a woman’s right to make her own choices about her body and her health,” Perez said, as the Huffington Post reported. “That is not negotiable and should not change city by city or state by state.”
Much of the outpouring of feminist rage over the issue seems directed at establishment Democrat politicians, such as House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, and former Democrat presidential candidate Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT), who have all argued against “litmus tests” for abortion for Democrat candidates.
However, HuffPost reports that Sen. Kamala Harris (D-CA) also said Democrats “can’t afford to have a litmus test in a way that really is a purity test.”
“My focus is going to be supporting all of my colleagues and doing everything we can to at least maintain our numbers as it relates to 2018 election,” she added.
Sen. Bob Casey (D-PA) agreed, saying, “In the last number of years, without that kind of litmus test, our party does much better, and I think it shows that we’ve got a broad and diverse party.”
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