{"id":611,"date":"2016-12-13T13:27:33","date_gmt":"2016-12-13T20:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=611"},"modified":"2017-01-03T20:41:06","modified_gmt":"2017-01-04T03:41:06","slug":"abortion-at-the-door","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/?p=611","title":{"rendered":"Abortion at the Door"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

Some folks would never vote for me. I accepted this. A frequent comment I made: \u201cI might get elected by 51% of the voters, but I represent 100% of the people in my district.\u201d Thus it was hard for me to dismiss my opponents. I thought I should listen to them, even when it was hard; maybe especially then.<\/p>\n

The limitations of time for door knocking and the numbers needed to contact imply one should aim for efficiency. If you find out right away a voter opposes you, thank them politely and go on. But the ongoing uncivil presidential race of 2016 was casting a dark shadow over my campaign. And I had listened to a US Senator from our state dismiss the possibility of civil discourse<\/a> around contentious issues. I thought his stance demeaning of the role we elected officials should serve, and cynical about the possibility of civil discourse in our society. So when I ran into this guy I did my best to listen. Now you get to hear him.<\/p>\n

\u201cHi I\u2019m Dan Schmidt your state senator and I\u2019m out talking to voters about getting reelected.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOh, hi Dan. No, I\u2019ll never vote for you, you\u2019re a Democrat.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo party affiliation is important to you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDemocrats support abortion. I can\u2019t vote for anybody who thinks it\u2019s ok to kill babies. 26 million babies have been killed by you guys. No, I\u2019ll never vote for you. I saw you as a doctor and I liked you, but you\u2019re a Democrat and you support killing babies.\u201d<\/p>\n

This was where I should have politely thanked him and moved on. But I thought he deserved some respect for his honesty.<\/em><\/p>\n

\u201cI get it that you feel pretty strong about abortion. Are you aware of any of the things I\u2019ve done in the Idaho legislature?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo, I\u2019m really not; I don\u2019t pay much attention to the legislature. But you support abortion, you support killing babies, don\u2019t you?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI support women having the right to control their own bodies, yes I do.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, that\u2019s what I thought: baby killer. No, I won\u2019t be voting for you.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cDo you know any women who have had abortions?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYes I do. And I\u2019ve told them they are evil and damned. They just do it for convenience that is all. They kill babies for their own convenience. They are going to hell. They know it too. No, this isn\u2019t something that can be compromised.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNot all women make the choice for convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSure they do. I\u2019ve talked with them. They have no consideration for the life they are taking.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you know I am a doctor. I\u2019ve had many conversations with women about this decision and convenience was not usually what we talked about<\/a>. So I\u2019m hearing you say the state should not allow a woman to control what happens with her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course not. The state should not allow murder. I know you\u2019ll go off on capital punishment now, but these are innocent babies that are being killed.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSometimes these are embryos or fetuses with anomalies that would not survive after birth. Is that murder too?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOf course it is. It\u2019s just for their convenience.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I\u2019m hearing that you believe you think you know best what a woman should be doing with her body.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWell I know that abortion of any kind should not be legal.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSo I guess we disagree. I thank you for spending the time you have with me.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cYeah, well, you were a good doctor, but I\u2019ll never vote for a Democrat. You guys are baby killers.\u201d<\/p>\n

I did then excuse myself and walk away. But just as I believe a woman deserves the respect (right) of controlling her body, and the man at the door thought the unborn deserve the respect (right) of \u00a0personhood, I believe civil discourse; honest, respectful conversations are the foundations for our communities, our nation. If we abandon discourse, we move on to violence, the ultimate in disrespect.<\/em><\/p>\n

I am sure I did not persuade this man to vote for me. But getting votes should not be the ultimate goal of public service.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

All comments are read but not posted.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Some folks would never vote for me. I accepted this. A frequent comment I made: \u201cI might get elected by 51% of the voters, but I represent 100% of the people in my district.\u201d Thus it was hard for me … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=611"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":628,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/611\/revisions\/628"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=611"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=611"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/danschmidtforsenate.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=611"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}