On Monday, Donald Trump announced that his stance on abortion is that the states should decide the intricacies of their abortion laws within their respective territories. I found this to be a very solid move for a few reasons, chief among them is that it is the constitutional view, and it makes the abortion fight for pro-abortion groups that much harder to win.
Not every Republican agreed with this, such as South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham, who believed that the federal government should still craft laws around abortion, such as implementing a 15-week ban. While I would like all abortion banished from the land, my position is that any national laws that are made can be unmade, and new laws helping abortion be put in their place. Better to remove it from the federal government's grasp entirely.
(READ: Trump's Stance on Abortion Is Correct, Lindsey Graham's Is Not)
As I wrote later, the Republican Party could actually use this avenue of handing power to the states to great effect. They could remove a lot of the deciding power about a lot of subjects from the federal government, craft laws for the government that close the doors on these subjects forever, and hand all the deciding power to the states. They could rightfully bill it as giving the power back to the people.
This would have an insane amount of benefits. Not only would the Republican Party become the party of the people, but it would also result in far less chaos around the nation as power becomes more localized. For instance, gun issues should be left well alone by the federal government. Let the states determine the nuances of gun laws while still under the guidance and boundaries of the Constitution.
(READ: The True Purpose of the Republican Party Has Been Forgotten)
I know this is a very solid path to take and that this iron is hot to strike thanks to the people being made well aware of just how bad centralized power can be, compliments of the Biden administration. The Democrats are well aware of the danger of this as well, and they actually reached out to corporate media sources to swiftly have them correct headlines about Trump's stance.
As The Post Millennial pointed out in a post on X, the campaign scolded the media during a press call about headlines that made Trump look good on this abortion issue. Deputy Communications Director Brooke Goren expressed her displeasure that there were headlines coming from outlets like USA Today that read "‘The will of the people’: Trump opposes national abortion ban; says states should decide."
Goren complained, stating:
"Trump kept his word to overturn Roe in his last term and he will not rest until he has banned abortion across the entire country, period. We all know this and the coverage needs to reflect it. Yet today we're still reading headlines that say Trump 'declines to endorse a national abortion ban' that Trump 'rebuffed pressure to the campaign on a national limit' that Trump 'decided to punt the politically fraught issue to the states and not back in national abortion ban.'"
"One particularly egregiously false headline even said Trump, ‘opposes a national abortion ban and will leave it up to the will of the people,’" Goren added. "Trump didn’t decline anything, all he did was take credit again for the nightmare he created. That's the news that's important here. We cannot and we will not give Trump a free pass.”
“One particularly egregiously false headline even said Trump, ‘opposes a national abortion ban and will leave it up to the will of the people.’” Biden campaign staff in call with the press.
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) April 11, 2024
USA Today changed a headline on its Trump abortion statement report after this call. pic.twitter.com/NdIXRwqtDj
This wasn't just a complaint; this was the Biden campaign issuing marching orders. It's interesting that the Biden campaign got worried about it enough to bring it up openly in a press call.
Meaning that the press was inadvertently dropping bombs on a sensitive target.
The Republican Party should really take note here. The Democrats winced in pain, and now the Trump campaign should be striking that sore spot over and over again and in various ways.
Meanwhile, the Republican Party needs to take advantage of this moment and begin pointing out that the Democrat Party is attempting to take power out of the people's hands and put it into theirs. They need to hammer on the message that they are not, in fact, the party of the people. They are trying to rob the people of the agency to decide for themselves, and this doesn't stop at abortion.
If the GOP wants to win, they'll start cooking up various talking points around this message and that Trump is the guy ready and willing to do what's necessary to be the people's president.
