The beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade arrived on election night in November 2010.

[Nevilledog]

Link to tweet

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2022/06/25/us/how-roe-ended.html

No paywall
https://archive.ph/WNuvU

The beginning of the end of Roe v. Wade arrived on election night in November 2010.

That night, control of state houses across the country flipped from Democrat to Republican, almost to the number: Democrats had controlled 27 state legislatures going in and ended up with 16; Republicans started with 14 and ended up controlling 25. Republicans swept not only the South but Democratic strongholds in the Midwest, picking up more seats nationwide than either party had in four decades. By the time the votes had been counted, they held their biggest margin since the Great Depression.

There had been a time, in the 15 years after Roe, when Republicans were as likely as Democrats to support an absolute right to legal abortion, and sometimes even more so. But 2010 swept in a different breed of Republican, powered by Tea Party supporters, that locked in a new conservatism. While Tea Party-backed candidates had campaigned on fiscal discipline and promised indifference to social issues, once in office they found it difficult to cut state budgets. And a well-established network was waiting with model anti-abortion laws.

In legislative sessions starting the following January, Republican-led states passed a record number of restrictions: 92, or nearly three times as many as the previous high, set in 2005.
The three years following the 2010 elections would result in 205 anti-abortion laws across the country, more than in the entire previous decade.

“A watershed year in the defense of life,” Charmaine Yoest, at the time president of the anti-abortion group Americans United for Life, proclaimed when the sessions were over, noting that 70 of the laws — restrictions on abortion pills and hurdles for women getting abortions and clinics providing them — had adopted the group’s model legislation. “And that is just the beginning.”

*snip*

[nightwing1240]

1. Excellent article, thank you for posting

Just really proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, that no matter the office, never ever vote for anyone with an R next to their name!

Elections have consequences, period.

F the GOP!

[JoeOtterbein]

2. K n R ! Thanks for posting!

Another good post!

[Nevilledog]

3. I try.

[JoeOtterbein]

6. I know you have a great "nose for the news"!

DU should hire you!

[Nevilledog]

11. Heck no.... I'm retired. I wouldn't enjoy this if it was a job.....lol

[msongs]

4. amazing what party wide coordination and messaging can accomplish nt

[MustLoveBeagles]

5. Alec is correct

Too many Dems sat on their asses and stayed home. The same happened in 2014. There was so much video of a shellshocked Obama and smirking Repub's. We never entirely recovered from those losses. Don't get me started on 2016. This whole situation makes me sick.

[JohnSJ]

7. It was actually 2016. There was no ambiguity that the Supreme Court was at stake then

[Lithos]

9. Have to ask why we failed in 2016

We had the better candidate - but we failed. The failure started much earlier.

[JohnSJ]

12. Yeah, with Nader and the Green Party in 2000. Telling people there was no difference between

republicans and Democrats, and continuing that propaganda to today

[Lithos]

13. Exactly...

Always go back to the 5 whys

Why did certain messaging resonate so well in 2016, 2010, etc. Sometimes this goes back to things which were allowed to grow/fester from much earlier.

L-

[Raine]

14. Yes exactly

the beginning of the end was when Gore was cheated out of the Presidency IMO. 🤔☹️

[Evolve Dammit]

16. Agreed.

[StevieM]

17. We were about to win, decisively, when Comey intervened on Trump's behalf. (eom)

[Lithos]

18. That is one thing

But - again - why did this happen - and why did this impact things?

For those in the IT field -asking the 5 whys for the blameless post mortem

[LisaM]

10. The Supreme Court was lost in 2000.

What happened in 2010 floored me. How could people be so enthusiastic about voting for Obama and then not give him the tools he needed to work with to govern?

[Lithos]

8. It is more than that

So, so many things failed.

I think 2010 was when a rotten core was revealed - the rot started earlier. Always ask the 5 why's - why did we lose in 2010.

My main belief is we were on the downward slope for Roe when we failed to pass the ERA. But there were others:

We lost messaging - we became strident. I think this started in the mid 80's. The GOP gradually chipped away at middle America through Fox and through AM talk radio. Democrats became wishy-washy and complicated to the 20 second elevators the GOP was delivering. If you can't say what you are for/against in 20 seconds you will fail. But we were also contemptuous - when 40% of the electoral votes are viewed contemptuously as "fly over states" - you get the drift.

We took constituents for granted - this started with Blue collar in the rust belt and this continues today in South Texas in the LatinX community. Hell - the 2016 campaign did this famously in the Rust Belt. (Yes, Stein was partially to blame - but she took advantage of a situation of our own making.)

[Justice matters.]

15. Healthcare for all, yes we can, became healthcare for those who can...

pay insurance...

Billionaires involved in 'commercial papers' worth nothing got bailed out with no bad consequences to them. Ask Goldman Sachs...

[niyad]

19. KNR and bookmarking. For later.

[Hortensis]

20. Like 2016, this was absolutely devastating, but even more so

overall as it strengthened the authoritarian right enormously and weakened our nation's and party's ability to withstand the right's continued attacks.