A choice in Rhode Island
Carlin, David R. Jr.
OF SEVERAL MINDS David R. Carlin, Jr. A CHOICE IN RHODE ISLAND CARLIN'S LIFE & HARD TIMES From time to time in this space I have made mention of my favorite vice: I have spent the last eleven...
...Commonweal13 March 1992: 11...
...He'll have much more money than I'll have, and members of Congress who run for reelection are almost never defeated...
...I don't have enough time or space...
...You will also forgive me, I hope, for not detailing my own political adventures in the past few years: how I was elected majority leader of the Senate by my Democratic colleagues following the 1988 elections: how my fellow Democrat and rival for the post (the son, incidentally, of the chief justice who resigned under threat of impeachment) teamed up with the Republican governor (the one recently fined $30,000 by the Ethics Commission) to create a coalition of minority Democrats and Republicans which controlled the Senate during 1989-90, leaving me with the majority leader title but scant power...
...A CHOICE IN RHODE ISLAND CARLIN'S LIFE & HARD TIMES From time to time in this space I have made mention of my favorite vice: I have spent the last eleven years as a member of the Rhode Island Senate...
...When these people hear the radical proabortion party describe itself as prochoice, they naturally assume they must be in agreement on the question, not realizing that the pro-abortion party favors abortion on demand, including no restrictions on late abortions (e.g., at six months) or abortions for trivial reasons (e.g., sex selection...
...and finally, how I lost the title itself following the 1990 elections...
...about the insiders, some of them prominent political figures (including one of my colleagues, the president pro tempore of the Senate) who withdrew large sums of money on the eve of the collapse...
...My purely theoretical attitude is about to come to an end...
...On the other hand, my opponent is an incumbent, with all the many advantages of incumbency...
...I have just used the term "pro-abortion," which is a departure from my usual usage of "prochoice...
...Yes, dear reader, condoms...
...But since they favor choice in some situations, they see themselves as prochoice...
...I am running as a Democrat for the U.S...
...It frequently happens that people who are far from being proponents of abortion on demand describe themselves as prochoice...
...But I've changed both my mind and my linguistic usage...
...second, though I have disagreed with their decision to give priority to choice over probable human life, still choice is a very great value, and it is to their credit that they recognize it...
...Now if you are in my situation, there are two possible things you can do...
...On the one hand, you can write a comic opera based on your experiences...
...They are two manifestations of America's increasing incapacity to tell the difference between right and wrong...
...about a judge who was recently convicted of a felony...
...about another judge who has been indicted for taking bribes...
...but up till now I have never had to deal with it as a practical question in my own political life...
...I would love to bring you up to date on Rhode Island politics generally, but unfortunately neither one column nor many columns would suffice for the melancholy/ hilarious task...
...and finally, about another of my colleagues— the state senator who was arrested in a drugstore for shoplifting condoms...
...And by the way, although this extremely well-publicized event took place only a few months before the 1990 election, his voters were kind enough to return him to office by an overwhelming margin...
...Regular readers of this column will recall that I have discussed the abortion question many times...
...about the governor who was defeated for reelection in 1990 and recently fined $30,000 by the state Ethics Commission for steering contracts to his campaign contributors...
...about the former chief justice of the Rhode Island Supreme Court (the state's highest court), who, under threat of impeachment because of mob connections, was forced to resign in 1986...
...about the mayor of Pawtucket, who was convicted recently for being the center of a ring of extortion and bribery...
...In the past I have made a point of saying "prochoice" for two reasons: first, as a matter of courtesy—if that's the name they prefer for themselves, then that should be their name...
...You will forgive me for not telling this story...
...you can call them "prochoice" all day long, but they will continue calling you "antichoice," not "prolife...
...I hope you won't mind if I use this column to give you an update...
...It's traditionally a Democratic district, and it looks like George Bush will run especially poorly in our state...
...They would like to see abortion remain legal in some cases and become illegal in others, especially when it takes place late in the pregnancy or for trivial reasons...
...Not only will the pending U.S...
...Somehow the words must be found to distinguish those who favor legalized abortion in any way and all situations from those who favor it in some situations only...
...The former is obviously the better way...
...For to get you up to speed on the full list of scandals and other bizarre happenings that have rocked our state, I would have to tell you about the mayor of Providence, who, after having been forced out of office because of a felony conviction in 1984, became a popular radio talk show host and was eventually reelected to his old job...
...And to top things off, since my views on the subject (which may be described as moderately prolife) are of course not acceptable to the pro-abortion wing of the Democratic party, I now have an announced opponent in the primary—a young man who is a member of the board of directors of Planned Parenthood of Rhode Island, which is one of the two busiest abortion providers in the state...
...Most important of all, though, is that "prochoice" is a fatally ambiguous term, covering a wide variety of attitudes and masking the abyss that separates the hard-core pro-abortion types from the rest of the population...
...on the other, you can run for Congress...
...Second, it turns out they are very selective in the application of their doctrine of free choice...
...House seat currently held by a second-term Republican, Congressman Ronald K. Machtley...
...thus they insist that taxpayers pay for certain abortions, thereby denying choice to those taxpayers who believe that abortion is a species of homicide...
...That's not a typo...
...And just to tie the first part and the second part of the column together, let me add that high rates of white collar crime and abortion are two parts of the same cultural package...
...Supreme Court decision in the Pennsylvania case thrust the abortion issue front and center in an election year, but the Republican incumbent in my district has a solidly proabortion voting record in the House...
...For the time being I am calling the former "proabortion" while reserving the term "prochoice" for the latter...
...about the collapse of much of our banking system...
...about the banker, with ties on the 10: 13 March 1992 Commonweal one hand to the mob and on the other to the former governor's office, who disappeared in November 1990 after apparently embezzling more than $12 million from his bank, thereby triggering the banking system collapse...
...but as I am musically untalented, I have opted for the latter...
...so, provided I am the Democratic nominee, my chances are not bad...
...First, the pro-abortion folk generally refuse to return the courtesy...
Vol. 119 • March 1992 • No. 5
