Republican strategists are exploring a shift away from āpro-lifeā messaging on abortion after consistent Election Day losses for the GOP when reproductive rights were on the ballot.
At a closed-door meeting of Senate Republicans this week, the head of a super PAC closely aligned with Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., presented poll results that suggested voters are reacting differently to commonly used terms like āpro-lifeā and āpro-choiceā in the wake of last yearās Supreme Court decision that overturned Roe v. Wade, said several senators who were in the room.
The polling, which NBC News has not independently reviewed, was made available to senators Wednesday by former McConnell aide Steven Law and showed that āpro-lifeā no longer resonated with voters.
āWhat intrigued me the most about the results was that āpro-choiceā and āpro-lifeā means something different now, that people see being pro-life as being against all abortions ā¦ at all levels,ā Sen. Kevin Cramer, R-N.D., said in an interview Thursday.
Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo., said the polling made it clear to him that more specificity is needed in talking about abortion.
āMany voters think [āpro-lifeā] means youāre for no exceptions in favor of abortion ever, ever, and āpro-choiceā now can mean any number of things. So the conversation was mostly oriented around how voters think of those labels, that theyāve shifted. So if youāre going to talk about the issue, you need to be specific,ā Hawley said Thursday.
Is this like the āfemaleā thing?
So this is honestly the first time Iāve heard that using āspanishā for Hispanic people (as opposed to āSpanishā i.e. people from Spain) is in any way offensive. I canāt remember hearing Hispanic people use it themselves, so maybe youāre right on this and I am the wrong one.
By way of comparison, whatās your stance on the offensiveness level of āLatinxā?
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Well, but you do know that thereās a slang term āspanishā with the little s, which means Hispanic, right? Itās the same as āblackā people arenāt colored #000000, āyou up?ā doesnāt mean anything about your verticality, etc. The decision that certain slang terms are incorrect because youāve frozen what the language means at a certain point and no oneās permitted to apply something in a way thatās different than that to accomplish the purpose of communication, is not to me a sensible endeavor.
Urban Dictionary seems to take issue with using āspanishā in this way, and like I say in my experience people of this ethnicity tend to identify with their particular country of origin, so maybe I am the wrong one. It honestly just never crossed my mind. I donāt agree in general with āyouāre not allowed to use word X because weāve decided that itās not allowed,ā and I definitely donāt agree with avoiding slang simply because itās slang and slangās not allowed.
Last thoughts on the offensiveness front; I think āLatinxā is a perfect example of people coming up with weird rules and trying to get other people to follow them even though thereās no productive purpose to it and all it does is irritate people (including the ethnic grouping thatās supposedly being protected). I do think this happens, hence why I also bring up āfemale.ā I honestly donāt know whether āspanishā falls into that category, or is not at all offensive and Iām just creating this whole issue from nothing, or is genuinely mildly offensive.
Spanish-speaking is better. Just āSpanishā is weird. Many folks from Mexico and South America donāt have any Spanish ancestry, and some people or entire countries donāt even speak Spanish as their main language. To reduce everyone who lives on one giant continent to the name of a conquering nation that tried to take them over is, yeah, a little offensive.
Yeah, I get that. Point taken.
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