Who's the Radical?

The abortion lobby (NARAL, Planned Parenthood, NOW) and other fellow travelers often accuse pro-lifers of being "outside the mainstream", extreme and radical. We know that we aren't the ones sacrificing unborn children -- 3,000+ per day -- upon the altar of "choice". We are not the ones promoting any abortion, any time, for any reason. Nor are we the ones who believe that a "right to privacy" translates into a right to kill as long as the killing is done behind closed doors by a person with a medical degree. Judge Samuel Alito understands this even if the Seattle PI, Seattle Times, and the political/cultural establishment of the state of Washington don't, and his testimony of today proves it. Jim Anderson of Life News Radio made this brilliant observation:

It came and went with such subtlety that many observers missed it. But I’m sure Judge Samuel A. Alito’s opponents noticed it. And I can tell by the fact that they are silent. Remember Dan Quayle, the almost overly intelligent Vice President who, whenever he talked about home-town values, was derided mercilessly. I heard the same talk from Judge Alito as he even mentioned childhood baseball games with friends. I thought to myself that he is going to get creamed in the press unless he is going somewhere with this. Then, just as I thought he was turning into a grown Beaver Cleaver (a little resemblance, don’t you think?), the Judge came forth and skewered his critics with a refinement worthy of the Scarlet Pimpernel.

He used his home town background to contrast his views with those who take a different view of American culture. He mentioned being admitted to Princeton as someone who just twenty years earlier, might not have felt comfortable there. And then he discretely derided those on the other side of the culture wars, many of whom were on college campuses with him in the 70’s. As he drew a line in the sand between antagonists in this war, he said, “It was a time of turmoil and I saw some very smart people and some very privileged people behaving irresponsibly and I couldn’t help making a contrast between some of the worst of what I saw on campus and the good sense and the decency of the people back in my own community.”

And he did this by referring not to a “red” state town like Columbus, Nebraska or Ames, Iowa, but with “blue” state Trenton, New Jersey. Look for Judge Alito to create greater distinctions as he goes through the confirmation process. While I begin likening him to the Scarlet Pimpernel, he may make for himself a reputation more like Zorro. I think there is going to be much to like about this man—for those who see a distinction between a culture of life and a culture of death.