Dunzwatch
Katha Pollitt
In June 16th's Wall Street Journal, right-wing multi-millionaire and Nation contributor Ron Unz expands his field of expertise from education and campaign finance reform to reproductive rights. He calls for overturning Roe v. Wade and returning "the vexing question" of abortion to the states. "The notion that the laws on an issue as emotionally charged as abortion must be rendered identical across all cultural communities from Greenwich Village to rural Mississippi is a recipe for endless conflict." We can't have that, can we? But why stop with abortion? Think of all those other bitterly resented, "emotionally charged" Supreme Court decisions: the ones integrating schools and public accommodations, striking down antimiscegenation laws, regulating firearms, banning school prayer, mandating legal counsel for the poor...The Constitution is full of disturbing material: Mississippi ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, granting women the right to vote, only in 1984. And what about the Bill of Rights? Lots of emotionally charged, unpopular stuff in there. Forget this business of protecting individual rights. Let each cultural community decide which rights it would like its citizens to have, and if the citizens don't like it, they can move to Greenwich Village. |