Let's be clear who they're trying to reach out to

The blogosphere is alive with commentary about how the Democratic party is supposedly trying to reach out to "moderates" or "prolifers".

Democrats Reach For Moderates On Abortion: "Democrats say their new platform plank on abortion takes a step toward “establishing common ground” with abortion opponents and reaches out to evangelcals, Catholics and others who oppose abortion."

Dems' New Abortion Language Courts Pro-Life Moderates: "As CBN's David Brody notes, the new language is an effort to make the Democrats' position on abortion more palateable to moderate Evangelical and Catholic voters who agree with the Dems on other issues."

Uh, huh. Let's get some slightly clearer thinking here:

Dems Reach Middle Ground on Abortion?: "Some Catholics and evangelicals are touting efforts by the Democratic Party to write into their platform specific support for women to carry babies to term."

And here we've nailed it. Finally, the Democratic party isn't all about abortion, abortion, abortion, abortion, nothing but abortion, it's an absolute fundamental right that ought to be paid for by the taxpayers, it's all we ever wanted, it's all we've ever needed! Now they're finally conceding that yeah, now that you hold our feet to the fire, having the baby is okay, too.

They're not seeking middle ground with prolifers. They're seeking middle ground with PROCHOICERS. We're seeing a shift from shameless and braezen abortion advocacy to making concessions, albeit small, to those who think women might occasionally want to make another choice.

Again: This shift in the proposed wording of the platform isn't a move toward a middle ground between prochoice and prolife. It's a move toward a middle ground between proabortion and prochoice.

Which is a shift toward moderation the way moving from Berkeley to San Francisco is a shift toward Middle America.

But it's progress all the same.

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