Let me make this clear, I am just an average guy who worked all my life just like most of you. This video is about more than abortion. It doesn't matter what side of this issue you stand on; you have been lied to. If you talk to a federal politician about abortion after watching this video, I hope it will be to condemn them for the deceit they have made us endure year after year. There are few things worse than watching someone lie to your face and you can do nothing about it.
It's also clear that it is the Republican Party, and the Democratic Party, to which our leaders owe their allegiance. Not the citizens of the United States. We are the groups they have split us into and play us for fools.
You may have noticed by now that I don't enunciate every word correctly. Let me assure you it drives my wife nuts. I work on it because communication is such an important part of my life. I'm not a Rhodes scholar like Bill Clinton, but I can hold my own in a conversation about most things.
Over the course of many conversations about many very important subjects, the correct understanding of a single word can make the difference between an agreement or disagreement. All too often we think we know what that word means because of the way it was used in a sentence. With the inflection of the voice or the body language, it all gives us a clue to what the person is talking about.
The subjects that I talk to you about are of the upmost importance because ultimately, you will make decisions based on what I'm telling you. This is why I take the time to make sure everyone has the same understanding of the words that I'm using. There's little room for a mistake when you literally have the balance of someone's life in your hands. All too often our leaders lose sight of that. I assure you I never will, you have my word on that.
When deciding on electing someone to office there are three models to consider. I will tell you about them in first person. Let me assure you, this is not how I make decisions.
The first one is a dealbreaker. If that person does not believe exactly what I believe on one issue like abortion, I cannot vote for them no matter how many of the other issues that person stands for that I support. I am so fanatical about this one issue that I cannot support them. Fanatical which is defined as filled with excessive and single-minded zeal, or obsessively concerned with something.
The second thing is what I call the 80.20, a more reasoned approach. This means that you understand what the person is talking about, you've researched it, and you think they are more in line with how you personally think things should be done. You find more things to agree with them on than not.
The third model is the most dangerous. I don’t know anything about this person except their vague ads that create a picture for you, that you mostly had to color in yourself. We talked about this in our first video.
Along with this in the third model is tribe or party recognition. After all, everyone wants to belong somewhere. I personally think all politicians should do exactly what I'm doing. Take a stand for what they believe in, put it out there for public consumption, and be responsible for fulfilling their mission, which hopefully they have clearly stated.
I also think it's very important that your opponent counters what you have said. And just as important, state what they agree with. After all, it is supposed to be about the truth, honesty, and integrity.
If you think it is OK to lie and manipulate to gain an advantage just for the purpose of winning an election and gaining power over others, then you may be part of the 5% I keep talking about. Most everybody agrees our country is heading in the wrong direction, and we need some changes.
Not that this is germane to this conversation, but I feel compelled to mention this. When I hear Senator Lindsey Graham so confidently state that going to war with Iran is the right course of action for our country and justifying it simply by saying we have Intel that they are responsible for terrorism, which I am sure they are. This strategy has worked so well for us in the past, such as Vietnam, Afghanistan, and Iraq. What could possibly go wrong? I must confess my first thought is I wonder what’s in his (Lindsey Graham) stock portfolio. Something must be driving him toward this insanity.
When I hear Senator Lindsey Graham talk about protecting our children on the internet, it makes me want to set my differences aside and work with Lindsey on getting this done. Politics isn't about power and control, it's about compromise to move our country forward. Politicians are about power and control. That's why so little gets done. I better stop rambling and get to my subject for the day, reproductive rights.
Two words are needed to understand this issue. Reality and deceived. Reality is the state of things as they actually exist, as opposed to an idealistic idea of them. Deceived is when a person who has caused someone to believe something that is not true, typically in order to gain some personal advantage.
The grim reality is that the Democratic and Republican Parties have deceived us purposely, and in plain sight for all to see. The concept of wedge issue comes to mind when I hear abortion uttered from the lips of a politician. A wedge issue is “a political or social issue which is controversial and divisive”.
The Democrats and Republicans both use this issue to their advantage. The Democrats make outrageous claims that the Republicans want to force 15-year-old rape victims to carry their rapist baby to full term. The Republicans characterize the Democrats as bloodthirsty murderers who want to kill your baby just before it's born. Regarding abortion, both sides have their own fanatics.
Now for the deceitful betrayal that has been conducted against the American people by both parties. I could speak on this subject for hours, but I will spare you and get to the cliff notes.
January 1973 Roe vs Wade was decided by the Supreme Court as a privacy matter based on the 14th amendment due process clause, go figure. Even Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg scratched her head on this one, a woman I admire greatly for her courage.
Nevertheless, they created by judicial decree a legal precedent for our country. For this to become a law it would have to be codified by Congress and signed into law by the president. With the Supreme Court supporting this with case law, it is easy to see how any abortion law put forth by Congress and signed by the president would not be overturned. If this had happened, it would have become a settled issue.
The easiest way to understand this is the Defense of Marriage Act Bill Clinton signed into law which simply said marriage is between a man and a woman. Many years later the Supreme Court waded in and made case law saying that's discriminatory and you cannot restrict marriage to just a man and woman. That was a signal that any law made supporting homosexual and lesbian marriages would not be overturned by the Supreme Court.
Congress codified this by creating the Respect for Marriage Act signed into the law by President Biden December 13, 2022. Problem solved, that's why no one talks about homosexual marriage anymore. It is a law that is supported by the Supreme Court. Now that you understand how that works, let's get back to deceit and betrayal.
Keep this in the back of your mind for the purposes of this discussion. From January 1973 to June 2022 the Supreme Court limited the states from making laws regarding abortion based on the 14th amendment as stated. Prior to 1973 it was a state issue, and after 2022 it was a state issue once again. The Supreme Court did not make it illegal, or legal, in 2022. They turned it back to the states to decide what is best for their citizens.
Now for deceit and betrayal. All through the 1980s the Republicans held the White House, but we Democrats held the House and the Senate. At one point we had 61 senators, and more than a two to one advantage in the House of Representatives. That was more than needed to overturn any veto offered by President Reagan. Did they make abortion legal? No! This is the one time in the history of Roe vs Wade that they would not have even had to compromise.
Bill Clinton in 1992 to 1994 had a solid Democrat House and was only four votes away from a supermajority in the Senate. Did they come up with a compromise bill to legalize abortion? No! It would have taken only four Republicans to agree, compromises are the key issues.
In 2000 George W. Bush held both Houses. He campaigned on abortion. When he took office he forgot about it, he could not have made abortion illegal, but he could have returned many rights to restrict it back to the states by making some parts legal.
Once again, it's about compromise. 2008 to 2010 Barack Obama, this may be the worst case. He had a solid House of Representatives and one vote away from being a super majority in the Senate. Had they crafted a bill with any compromise at all, I'm sure they could've found one person on the Republican side to vote for it. We wouldn't have to talk about this issue ever again. Let me remind you that Jon Tester was a senator during this period. I didn't see him put any legislation out there for anybody to vote on. Jon let us down again.
On to Trump. He also had the House and the Senate, although it was not as close as Barack. I think knowing that the Supreme Court could change the Democrats would've made a deal, but he wasted his opportunity also. It seems everybody wants to talk about it, but nobody actually wants to fix it. That's what the wedge issue is.
On May 3, 2022, it was leaked that the Supreme Court was going to overturn Roe vs Wade. I find it very suspicious that the Senate introduced legislation on May 3 to make abortion legal less than two months before the Supreme Court was to turn it back to the states. Once again did they put something together that would encourage a few Republicans to say yes? No, they did not.
There are two provisions in this bill (“Women’s Health Protection Act of 2022”) that the Democrats put in as a poison pill to make sure it couldn’t pass with the help of the Republicans. “Sec. 3. Permitted Services, (a) General Rule, Para (8) A prohibition on abortion at any point or points in time prior to fetal viability, including a prohibition or restriction on a particular abortion procedure.
Para (9) A prohibition on abortion after fetal viability when, in the good-faith medical judgment of the treating health care provider, continuation of the pregnancy would pose a risk to the pregnant patient’s life or health.” (https://www.congress.gov/bill/117th-congress/senate-bill/4132/text)
Think about what a waste of time putting that legislation on the floor was to the people that were depending on some honesty and integrity from Congress. After all these opportunities wasted, do you think they could've gotten any Republicans to sign onto their legislation? Obviously, it was an effort just to say, ‘We voted for it, not our fault it didn't pass, we need more Democrats in Congress.’
Now, because both parties wanted to preserve this as a wedge issue, we are now forced to deal with extremism on the far right, just as the far right had to deal with the years of extremism on the far left. Whether it be in the state’s legislature or activist courts as currently in Alabama which recently proclaimed frozen embryos are people and wanting to indict someone for dropping them.
At this point, let's be realistic about a change. Regardless of what any politician tells you, whether it be on the right or the left, this issue will never be solved at a federal level with that type of cooperation. It may end up in the supreme court once again. If it does, our leaders will continue to use it to their advantage. After all it is not them that will need an abortion.
For now, it is a state’s rights issue. If you want to change abortion in your state, you will have to do it through your state legislature and your governor. Don't shoot the messenger here, I am running for the United States Senate, and you have a responsibility to know how I think, and I have a responsibility to tell you what the facts are that I think about.
Over 60% of our population supports abortion within the first three months, and most everybody can agree on a rape and incest carve out. Let me tell you what I would support as a United States senator.
-A reasonable law that would restrict any state from making a law stopping a woman from getting an abortion in the first three months.
-Birth control should be safe and legal.
-If DNA testing proves the child is not viable up to the second trimester and two doctors are willing to sign off on that, a woman should have a right to terminate that pregnancy.
This is what I can say to you, that I will support.
For all the reasons I have stated, I do not think it will matter what any federal politician thinks about abortion. Even when they had the opportunity to change things, both sides ignored it. If they are talking about abortion, it is only to divide us or raise money.
Start taking note of who your state politicians are, that's the only place change can happen at this point in our history. I think a right to choose involves a condom, and this is a male female decision. Have you ever considered this?
160 years ago, in this country, people used to enslave other people merely because of the color of their skin. Can we all agree that that practice was barbaric and inhumane? What will people say about us 100 years from now when they discuss abortion?
Thank You
- Michael Hummert