Dobson’s unique spin on the youth vote

June 29, 2007

James Dobson’s Focus on the Family issued an alert to its membership yesterday bragging about the latest New York Times poll, which, the group said, showed that “America’s young people continue to track conservative” on social issues. It took some breathtaking spin to reach this conclusion.

The survey collected opinions of 17- to 29-year-olds. Sixty-two percent said abortion should be outlawed or restricted. Danielle Huntley, a student at Boston College Law School and president of Students for Life of America, said she’s proud her peers are not buying into liberal rhetoric.

“It illustrates that my generation realizes that they are survivors of Roe,” she said. “Each of us born after 1973 could have been legally aborted by our parents.”

Tom Robins of the College Republican National Committee told Family News in Focus the opposition to abortion can be attributed to young people’s level of understanding. “Our generation has seen the effects of that,” he said. “They understand that abortion on demand is not a healthy choice for America.”

Fifty-four percent of young adults expressed opposition to same-sex marriage. Ron Luce with Teen Mania said the challenge is to make sure their opinions are founded in biblical truth.

OK, now let’s look at what the poll actually said:

* On abortion: A combined 75% of voters under 30 want abortion rights to be legal.

* On gay rights: 44% said they believed that same-sex couples should be permitted to get married, and an additional 24% support civil unions, for a combined 68% who support some legal recognition for gay relationships.

* On ideology: 28% of young voters described themselves as liberal (compared with 20% of the nation at large), while 27% called themselves conservative (compared with 32% of the general public).

Dobson’s group wants its members to believe these results show a young generation that “tracks conservative”? Seriously?

Isn’t there some kind of commandment against bearing false witness?

Don’t you think that some restrictions on abortion are reasonable?

Or is it always the right of the woman and her doctor?

  • I clicked the link, because I thought surely the folks at Focus on Family must have at least tried to spin the poll results. Nope. They flat out misrepresent them.

  • It always amazes me that people like neil would rather turn this difficult decision over to some nameless bureaucrat who has no real interest in or knowledge of the situation.

  • Since there already are restrictions on abortions, I don’t see what Neil is talking about.

    The pro-life crowd wants no choice allowed at all, while the pro-choice has always acknowledged gray zone.

  • What do women and doctors know about anything? This is clearly the sort of decision that should be left to wise people, educated at our finest bible thumping academies, who think Jesus sends you to hell for playing with your naughty bits.

  • Dobson probably thinks that he can lie about a poll like this, just like he mis-represents what the Christian Bible says (choose any version).
    What’s the saying? Oh, yeah, “Who you going to believe, me, or your lying eyes?

  • Regarding the poll—
    It is entirely possible that “Sixty-two percent said abortion should be outlawed or restricted.”
    AND
    “A combined 75% of voters under 30 want abortion rights to be legal.”

    Some states have extreme restrictions on abortions. Some states have none at all.

    South Dakota makes it almost impossible to have an abortion since their is only a doctor there once a week to perform abortions.

    Some pro-life people think there should be a rape and incest exception; others think there should be an exception for the life of the mother.

    Some pro choice people think that parental notification is reasonable; other people don’t.

    My view is that the Democratic Party will be hurting themselves if an absolute right to an abortion becomes a litmus test.

  • Dobson’s group wants its members to believe these results show a young generation that “tracks conservative”? Seriously?

    Let them continue to wallow in their pit of ignorance. I think it would be great if everyone were rational but I’m willing to settle for everyone leaving everyone else the hell alone. Although I’m surprised that Blobson didn’t just call the results fraudlent and move on to the next fit of Outrage! (TM).

    If lying about poll results means Dobsonites who think everything is going their way and being content, rather than Dobsonites marching through the streets bugging the crap out of people, that’s just fine by me. So are Dobsonites who think they’re exempt from the rules of gravity, provided I’m not walking past the high-rise when they decide to prove they can fly.

  • Some pro-life people think there should be a rape and incest exception; others think there should be an exception for the life of the mother.

    And these people are mostly haunted by the hobgoblins that attend their internal inconsistencies. In fact, the only truly consistent pro-life position on the morality of abortion is that there are no exemptions for rape and incest. (Its not the fetus’ fault that it was concieved in those manners.)
    They just are cynical enough to know that legislating based on that position is politically unteneable.

  • Like many Libberrullz, I’m conflicted about abortion.

    Do I think abortion should be permitted under any and all circumstances? No, because I think SOME restrictions can be justified. Do I think it’s OK to abort because the child is not of the preferred gender? No, that makes me queasy too. Do I think the taxpayers should pay for all abortions, regardless of case? No again. Do I think parents of minor children should have NO role in this matter? No.

    I’m equally opposed to making abortion the decision of some Republican graduate of Liberty University who sits on a bench. I’m opposed to forcing a rape victim to bear her rapists child. I’m opposed to forcing a scared teenage girl to face abuse from a parent who’s deemed her a “sinner” for her poor choices, when no “out” is allowed such as appeal to a judge. I’m opposed to forcing women to die because they HAVE to give birth, with no exceptions allowed.

    I believe abortion should be safe, legal with appropriate restrictions, and rare.

    But according to Dodson’s fuzzy math, that makes me Pro Life and Anti Abortion.

    Barney Frank was right: the Winguts’ concern with life begins at conception and ends at birth.

  • “Each of us born after 1973 could have been legally aborted by our parents.” — Danielle Huntley, a student at Boston College Law School and president of Students for Life of America

    For all you know they may wish they could reconsider.

  • I’m not here to defend the Dobson’s of the world on the youth “tracking conservative” claim. But I do have a bone to pick on the abortion issue.

    #5, above, writes: “What do women and doctors know about anything?”

    I am pro-choice, but I find many arguments in favor of that position, including this one, to be rather silly. The abortion debate isn’t about superior objective knowledge, which doctors, or even pregnant mothers, may have. The issue is when does life begin? Or more accurately, when has a life sufficiently developed to entitle it to legal protections. There are no answers to be found to those questions in a medical textbook.

    I am also in favor of physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill persons. And if somebody told me that 60% of doctors opposed that position, it would not change my mind because, like abortion, it is not a question that requires medical expertise.

  • Neil Wilson # 1 and # 7, seems to believe that the choice should be between abortion or not…But the choice should be actual knowledge and the availability of contraceptives or not! Many fewer abortions would take place….if young people knew about and could obtain and use contraceptives…One of the problems there is that nice girls don’t want to seem to to be expecting sex or even seem to want it. Now we all know everybody from maybe 12 on wants it…so how to we fix it so that there are many fewer abortions? Education and Contraceptives! Which we’ll never get with the religious right in charge.

  • And let’s not forget that many of the pro-coathanger crowd (sorry to be graphic, but you know it’s the truth) are also anti-contraception.
    And a lot of these people who claim to be “pro-life” just love war and the death penalty.
    I don’t know where the hell neil is getting some absolutist attitude that we (pro-choice folks) want some type of freedom to kill a fetus at any point up to the moment of birth. That’s just fucking stupid, and neil, that’s aimed right at you, buddy.
    No one, I repeat NO ONE like abortions. It’s a desperate act, and there’s nothing more personal. It’s up to the woman (neil, that’s a guys name, right?), and her doctor.

  • The only people who have a litmus test concerning abortion are the conservatives, neil. For them the ‘moral high ground’ is really just subterfuge.

    Their opposition is not to abortion but to not having an everlasting army of poor people to drive wages down and fight in unnecessary wars.

    For the rich, criminalizing abortion just means a vacation to an exotic location as needed. For the poor, it’s the removal of the last safety net.

    Like BuzzMon said, no one likes abortion and in a perfect world it would be unnecessary, but to oppose abortion and oppose contraception education, like the Bush administration, only confirms my above assumption about their motives.

  • Isn’t there some kind of commandment against bearing false witness?

    Only against other Republicans, I guess. Party and ideology first, then country.

  • Buzzmon, hon, they aren’t pro-life, let’s abort that meme now, long after it’s conception. They are pro-birth. Anything and everything after that, hell, you’re on your own, kid. (snark)

    Catholic church used to think that life didn’t begin until sometime after the 1st trimester, since most fetused are miscarried then.

    Education, contraception and more medical assistance for pregnant women, and even more and better adoption programs would all go a long way to making abortion rare.

    But the Dobsonites of this world think all sex is bad, especially an empowered female enjoying it out of marriage. And therefore, all contraceptions are bad. RU486 fight anyone?

  • re: neil wilson @ #1:

    “Don’t you think that some restrictions on abortion are reasonable?

    “Or is it always the right of the woman and her doctor?”

    No.

    And yes.

    Thank you.

  • I also think half of these ass-holes are only pro-life until its their daughter who needs an abortion. Then they are open to the exception because they are important people unlike the rest of us!

  • Dobson’s group twists the facts to support their agenda. They exaggerate or just make it up. They think because that’s the way they want it to be then that;s the way it must be.
    Their hypocrisy, lies, and hate speech have real consequences….people just aren’t buying it anymore. Watching the progressive youths grow beyond Dobson’s propaganda group is heartwarming. and brings with it great optimism.

    Is there anyone telling his group the truth because they probably don’t realize they are being lied to and I know for a fact that some of them only listen, watch, and read “Christian” news and like Robertson’s group they all think Jesus was a lawyer rather than a healer. (Regent law school rather than Med school)

  • Some pro-life people think […] there should be an exception for the life of the mother. — neil wilson, @7

    And what about those who *don’t* think that “there should be an exception for the life of the mother” (and there are quite a few)? What right do they have to still call themselves “pro-life”? Who made them God and let them decide that the “life” of a cluster of cells is more important than the life of a teenage girl or an adult woman? The latter might even leave behind a few orphaned kids, if forced to carry to term; does it matter to those hypocrites?

  • Let them continue to wallow in their pit of ignorance. — The answer is orange
    Yup, Dobson seems to think that pretending that we’re becoming more conservative will magically make it so. It’s great because they’re the ones who will be hurt by this.

    In fact, the only truly consistent pro-life position on the morality of abortion is that there are no exemptions for rape and incest. — Edo
    Pro-life, consistent, sane: pick two!

    Do I think it’s OK to abort because the child is not of the preferred gender? No, that makes me queasy too. — Eeyore
    What’s stopping that from happening now? Although there is a chance of gender imbalance from this, we’re not China. We don’t have a society where having a boy over a girl is either encouraged or discouraged.

  • Dobson’s position on Abortion:
    Only in rare instances when the life of the mother is literally at stake do I feel we have the moral authority to destroy a developing fetus.
    The poll results.

    46. Which of these comes closest to your view? Abortion should be generally available to those who want it, abortion should be available but under stricter limits then it is now, abortion should not be permitted?
    Available Available but stricter Not permitted DK/NA
    5/18-23/07 All adults 39 37 21 2
    6/15-23/07 Age 17-29 37 38 24 1

    While “stricter” gives a lot of wiggle room for what exactly the respondents meant, I think a fair it would be fair to characterize the poll as saying that as many as 75% of young adults disagree with Dobson’s position on abortion.

    Dobson’s position on gay marriage and civil unions

    Marriage is a sacred, legal, and social union ordained by God to be a life-long, sexually exclusive relationship between one man and one woman. Focus on the Family holds this institution in the highest esteem, and strongly opposes any legal sanction of marriage counterfeits, such as the legalization of same-sex “marriage” or the granting of marriage-like benefits to same-sex couples,

    The poll results.

    47. Which comes closest to your view?…Gay couples should be allowed to legally marry, gay couples should be allowed to form civil unions but not legally marry, there should be no legal recognition of a gay couple’s relationship?
    Marry Civil unions No legal recognition DK/NA
    3/7-11/07 All adults 28 32 35 5
    6/15-23/07 Age 17-29 44 24 30

    Here a fair and unabiguous characterization of the poll is that 78% of young adults disagree with Dobson’s position on same-sex relationships.

  • “Each of us born after 1973 could have been legally aborted by our parents.” — Danielle Huntley, a student at Boston College Law School and president of Students for Life of America

    I guess an illegal abortion would have been OK with Ms. Huntley.

    Or maybe she’s just burping out talking points. “OMG WHUT IF UR MOM ABORTED U!?!?!” gets my vote for 2nd most amusing pro-zygote argument. The grand prize is reserved for “What if Mary Had an Abortion?” Yeah. ‘Cos God wouldn’t have seen that coming.

    Cretins.

  • Dear Neil Wilson: you suffer from Cranial-Rectal Adhesion Syndrome (i.e., you have your head firmly planted up your ass). As someone who has gone through the process of making such a decision, the last thing we needed was some halfwitted moron like you having anything to do with it.

    Please go fall off a cliff, you semiliterate moron.

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