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Culture War Roundup for the week of September 9, 2024

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The thing is, Trump's personal opinions on abortion don't matter. Trump isn't proposing any changes to federal law, and in fact the justices he appointed ensured that he can't. His opposition to Florida's actions are all talk, and given he's on the campaign trail there's no reason to believe he'll put any public pressure on future actions if he wins the election.

Trump's effective policy on abortion is ending Roe v. Wade, which opened the floodgates on states banning abortion. But aside from a few extremely principled libertarians, that's not the policy anybody actually wants. Whichever side of the abortion debate people are on, their beliefs are strong enough that they probably want those beliefs to apply nationwide. And given he's running as a Republican, Trump is still on team "wants to stop virtually all abortion."

The thing is, Trump's personal opinions on abortion don't matter.

You're misunderestimating Trump. He has fully captured the Republican party. He forced them to remove anti-abortion language from the platform.

https://www.reuters.com/world/us/trump-backed-republican-platform-tempers-language-abortion-2024-07-08/

Kamala is a product of the machine. Trump is its master. His personal opinions on abortion matter a lot.

Whichever side of the abortion debate people are on, their beliefs are strong enough that they probably want those beliefs to apply nationwide

I actually don't think so.

Probably like 25% of the population are pro-life absolutists. And maybe 5% or 10% are pro-choice absolutists. But most people support abortions in some cases but not others (and miniature American flags for everyone). And lots of people don't care about the issue a lot either way.

He has fully captured the Republican party. He forced them to remove anti-abortion language from the platform.

My personal interpretation of Trump is I don't think he would take any real action in any direction on abortion once he's in office. I think he's more interested in being President because of the prestige of being President more than for any policy reasons. And because of that I don't think he would do much if they returned to that policy after the election.

But to tie it back to the point about Kamala vs. Trump's debates, I think she can simply ignore what you said and concentrate on him being largely responsible for overturning Roe v. Wade. I expect lots of talk about Texas.

Probably like 25% of the population are pro-life absolutists.

Let's clarify some language here. I was trying to do so in my first response but let's confirm if we're on the same page here.

When it comes to marijuana legalization, you might have an opinion one way or another but if the state next to you decided to legalize or criminalize marijuana, you might say it's none of your business. If the state next to you decided to legalize murder you would probably say "What the hell?! Change it back!" It likely will not affect you but it still offends your sense of right and wrong. Most people are not pro-life absolutists in that they might make exceptions under X weeks or in the case of child rape, etc. But I do think whatever criteria they think is right, they generally think is right everywhere and should apply everywhere, rather than being decided on a state by state basis.

My personal interpretation of Trump is I don't think he would take any real action in any direction on abortion once he's in office.

Which, surprisingly, is congruent with what he says he'll do.