Cohen on "Alfie" and Abortion

Here is a very thoughtful and provocative op-ed by Washington Post columnist Richard Cohen.  Cohen remains, he says, "pro-choice."  Still:

[T]he Democratic Party still marches to the tune of "Alfie" ("What's it all about, Alfie?") as if nothing has changed in almost 40 years. Abortion remains a core party principle -- up there with civil rights and, more recently, gay rights. Gay rights is one thing. It is nothing more than an extension of the party's traditional -- and politically costly -- embrace of civil rights. But abortion is a different matter entirely. It is no longer what it was -- simply about women's rights and sexual freedom. It is, as its opponents say, about life -- arguably about the taking of it.

Yet the party insists otherwise. It entertains no doubts and counters reasonable questions and qualms with slogans -- a woman's right to choose, for instance. The party is downright inhospitable to abortion opponents.

Maybe Mr. Cohen would join Mark Sargent's "Seamless Garment Party"?

Rick