The Democracy of the Dead
(with homage to G.K. Chesterton)
Dr. Joseph Graham
President, Texas Right to Life
In the year 2000, the Presidency of the United States was decided by a
total of 537 votes. That was the number of votes that yielded Florida’s 25
electoral votes to George W. Bush, accompanied by the 271 total electoral votes
required to make him President of the United States. The rage and frustration
of the Democrats that continues to this day is fueled by the knowledge that
despite all their efforts to mobilize the Democratic vote, nearly half of all
eligible Democratic voters did not cast a ballot. If they had been able to
persuade only 538 more eligible Democrats to vote in Florida, Al Gore would be
President. Unfortunately for Gore, only ballots actually cast are counted in the
final election results. Nevertheless, those who could have voted and for
whatever reason did not, also affect the result. Those additional 538 Democrats who
could have voted but did not, delivered the Bush presidency.
Endless studies aimed at discovering why the 2000 Presidential election
produced such results have been commissioned. In a very recent study, Larry
Eastland drew conclusions as to what effect the legalization of abortion has
had on recent election results (“The Roe Effect.” Wall Street Journal, Monday,
June 24, 2004). Eastland discovered some facts of interest to all prolifers.
Since the Roe v. Wade decision in 1973, approximately 1,600,000 annually babies
have died as the result of abortion in the United States. In very recent
years, those numbers have declined somewhat but still remain well over 1,300,000.
There have been over 45,000,000 abortions in America since 1973.
By the year 2000, according to these numbers, 12,786,000 would have
been aborted who, if allowed to live, would have reached their 18th birthday and
hence would be eligible to vote. Since only 51% of all eligible voters in 2000
actually voted, this percentage would apply to the missing aborted as well.
Therefore, in the year 2000, an additional 6,000,000 people would have voted
except for one crucial and tragic fact: They were all killed by abortion before
they could see the light of day.
The next important question considered by Eastland is how these missing
aborted would have actually voted. Extensive studies of youth behavior
patterns show them to be strongly influenced (and often solely influenced) by
parental behavior. As an example, parents who smoke tend to have children who smoke.
Similarly, children of Democratic voters tend strongly to vote Democratic
when they come of age. Likewise, the children of Republican parents tend to vote
Republican. There is no reason to doubt that the missing aborted would have
also followed a similar voting pattern. Most likely then, the aborted, if they
had lived to vote, would reflect the political commitment of their parent(s).
Eastland’s research concluded that Democrats have on average 30% more
abortions than Republicans. This statistical imbalance towards Democrats is not
surprising since the Democratic Party supports legal abortion and insists
that abortion solves any pressing medical, financial, or social problem.
(African-Americans, who vote 90% Democratic, abort their unborn at a rate three times
the national average.) The Republican Party has historically and correctly
opposed abortion as the immoral taking of an innocent human life. The actual
percentages of those having abortions are 15% Independent, 35% Republican, and 50%
Democrat. Eastland assumes that the missing aborted would have would have
voted according to the same ratios.
When these percentages are applied to the total of the 6,000,000
aborted potential voters, the results are startling indeed. 2,000,000 of the missing
would have been Republican voters while 3,000,000 would have voted Democratic
in the 2000 election. The net result of 27 years of legal abortion in the
United States is that Democrats lost 1,000,000 more voters than did the
Republicans. This disparity will continue to grow with each passing year because the
damage was done years ago and cannot be immediately remedied. A woman who
aborted her child eighteen years ago cannot give birth to an eighteen-year-old child
today to compensate—or to vote. This disparity has already profoundly
impacted the presidential election of 2000. If all the Florida missing aborted voters
in the year 2000 had actually lived to vote, the Democrats would have had a
net increase of 45,000 votes. Gore would have won Florida’s 25 electoral votes
easily and consequently, the Presidency. The great war of the famous hanging
chads would never have occurred because the margin of victory would have been
indisputable.
What portent do these figures have for the upcoming 2004 elections?
While predictions in any particular race are impossible, some variables are
certain. Since the year 2000 an additional 6,000,000 people would have reached the
age of 18 and would be eligible to vote except for the tragic fact that
abortionists killed them in the womb. According to Eastland, of this number,
approximately 50%, i.e., 3,000,000, would actually vote in the 2004 elections. With
Democrats undergoing 30% more abortions than Republicans, Republicans will lose
an additional 1,000,000 voters because of their additional aborted would-be
constituents, but Democrats have lost another 1,500,000 voters by way of
abortion since the year 2000. The net loss for the Democrats in that four-year
period is an additional 500,000 missing over and above the Republican losses plus a
total of 1,500,000 overall since 2000. Democrats must somehow overcome this
handicap if they are ever to win.
Because of the variables involved one cannot predict the future, but
one point can be made. In the seven closest states in the 2000 presidential
election, Democrats won four of them by margins ranging from 366 in New Mexico to
6,765 in Oregon. They won 30 electoral votes in these states, but all are now
within range of being captured by the Republicans because of Democratic
abortion losses experienced since 2000. A further indisputable fact is that the
massive erosion will continue. The 1,600,000 humans missing from the voter
registration rolls this year all died eighteen years ago. Each year into the
indefinite future, these losses will continue at a similar rate. Democratic annual
losses continue to exceed those of the Republicans by 30 percentage points, as
Eastland’s article makes clear. This huge disparity will not change and will
have unfathomable repercussions. The accumulation over time becomes exponential.
There are some indications that the shift is indeed taking place.
Investors Business Daily (Friday, August 20, 2004) reported the results of a recent
survey of new voters registered since the year 2000. The poll produced
results surprising even to the pollsters. Sponsored by Pace University and MTV’s “
Rock the Vote” (no friend of the Republican party), the survey revealed that
more new voters identified themselves as conservative rather than liberal. This
was considered particularly significant because young voters traditionally
tend to be more liberal than their elders.
Most significantly for us, 54% of these new voters identify themselves
as opposed to abortion. A large percentage of the 18-25 group, 37%, identified
themselves as conservative Christians. In the population as a whole, only 26%
so identified themselves. Churchgoers historically engage in civic
responsibilities more seriously and are thus more likely to vote. Two important points
can be made based on these figures. The first is that those conducting the poll
were surprised by the results: The youth polled defied the expectations of
the pollsters’ preconceived expectations about young peoples’ voting habits.
Secondly and more important: The results of this poll buttress Larry Eastland’s
thesis. Moreover, the more voters MTV registers, the worse the effect for the
Democratic party. These are strange, wondrous days…
The state of Texas is a classic case in point. Thirty years ago,
Democrats held every statewide office and controlled the legislature and the
judiciary. Bill Clements was the first Republican governor since Reconstruction, and
his election was regarded as a fluke—soon to be forgotten. The move towards
today’s Republican majority came slowly, but with each successive election, the
pace quickened. Today, all statewide elective offices are in Republican hands.
Both United States Senators are Republican, and Republicans now control both
houses of the Texas Legislature.
As confirmed by Eastland, not surprisingly, liberal Democrats seek by
far the highest rate of abortions, and Republicans, whose values are most
conservative and traditional, seek the fewest. Those espousing these conservative
values consequently grow in numbers and influence while radical liberal and
secularist politics decline for lack of support. The conclusion: By killing their
young, the Democrats are not replenishing their stock. Pro-lifers will
continue to widen the chasm as they have large families while the same is obviously
not true of those who abort their children.
The Texas Legislature has become increasingly conservative, reflecting
a broad range of Christian values held by a growing majority of Pro-life
Texans. In the last session of the legislature, Texas Right to Life worked with a
dedicated majority of Pro-lifers to secure passage of the most solid body of
Pro-life legislation that has been enacted since the infamous Roe v. Wade
decision. In 2003, Texas was rated by Americans United for Life as the most improved
state in the nation as the result of the spate of Pro-life measures signed
into law.
American voters have become increasingly polarized, which is to be
expected given this “missing aborted” disparity. Democrats initially regarded the
loss of control of the United States House of Representatives and then of the
Senate as anomalous (Remember Peter Jennings throwing his own temper tantrum
by stating, “The voters had thrown a temper tantrum” on election night in
1994?), but with each succeeding election, the possibility of recapturing control
seems increasingly elusive for Democrats. Modern Democrats have viewed
themselves as agents of social change as well as the chosen custodians of the
future; that role is possible only so long as they control the institutions and the
levers of change.
From the beginning, legalized abortion was seen as an essential stage
in the long-term goal of creating a new man in accord with the vision of modern
science. Thus, the issues that divide Republicans and Democrats are matters
of fundamental morality with little room for compromise. If the unborn child is
a human being from the moment of fertilization, then the law must protect
that human life. Each human being is a unique creation of God, made in the image
and likeness of Him.
Above all, there is one message to derive from Eastland’s remarkable
work. As defenders of innocent human life through all stages, we must never lose
heart! The future does indeed belong to the living, but the dead will also
have their say. Legal abortion through nine months continues in America because
Democrats have aggressively resisted every effort to eliminate the vile
practice. Ironically, their arguments in favor of abortion have proven most
successful only with their fellow Democrats. In fatal consequence, as Eastland so
forcefully points out, as a direct result of abortion Democrats lose 120,000 more
voters at the polls each year than do the Republicans.
The figures are inescapable, and the long-term results are already
being proven as earthshaking and the trend unchangeable.
I have fought in the trenches with you for over 35 years. I can finally
say with confidence that the future belongs, as it should, to the Pro-life
movement.
Texas Right to Life
6776 Southwest Freeway, Suite 430 | Houston, TX 77074
TexasRightToLife.com | ProLife@TexasRightToLife.com
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