Democratic Voters: Here Comes the Shun

The glass ceiling isn't the only thing Hillary Clinton shattered this week. She may have also fractured her own party. After adopting the most radical platform in DNC history, some Democrats worry that the party is about to learn a hard lesson about its extreme social stance. The incredible shrinking tent is having a major effect on the base, which warns that the country is nowhere near Clinton's fanatical approach to abortion.

Justin Giboney, a Clinton delegate from Atlanta didn't hide his frustration on the document, which he described as "reaching a point of irresponsibility." "It's one thing to say sometimes [abortion] is necessary," he told reporters. "It's another thing to say it's a social good." Others, like young medical student Christina Healy, feel like pro-life Democrats have been betrayed. "It feels like we are being pushed out of the party, but not for a good reason."

That's exactly the alarm Kristen Day sounded in her op-ed about the perils of drawing such a hard line on abortion. Pew Research backed up Day's warning with numbers that spell trouble for the DNC. According to their latest surveys, 28 percent of Democrats believe abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. In an election as tight as this one, that's a big slice of the DNC pie. And if the DNC thought their leaders would fall in line with this radical policy departure, they're mistaken. Already, Democratic senators are distancing themselves from the platform, which includes -- for the first time ever -- a call to repeal the Hyde amendment and force taxpayers to bankroll abortion-on-demand.

Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) was one of the first out of the gate, calling the idea "crazy." "It's something that I know most of the Democrats in West Virginia and most West Virginians would not agree with. I don't either," he told the Weekly Standard. His fellow Democrats, Senators Bob Casey (Pa.) and Joe Donnelly (Ind.), both self-proclaimed pro-lifers, reminded their party that the amendment was "a consensus-based policy." And Donnelly spokeswoman Sarah Rothschild insisted her boss wasn't about to change his mind on the issue. He "has long supported and continues to support the Hyde amendment." Even the liberal wing of the party couldn't believe their eyes.

Some of the staunchest supporters of abortion -- including President Obama and Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-N.D) -- at least give lip service to the wall between the barbaric practice and taxpayers. The divide between Hillary and the current White House was even more evident when Obama's former director of faith outreach, Michael Wear, called the platform "morally reprehensible." Yet, Hillary, in one of her biggest rallying cries of the night, insisted, "We wrote it together -- now let's go out there and make it happen together!" In this case "it" isn't just toppling Hyde, but sendingmore money to Planned Parenthood, labeling the killing of unborn children "a fundamental human right," fighting against laws that provide for safer and cleaner clinics for women, even taking away voters' rights to set the standard in their own states! And it could get worse. Their new nominee has also said that "religious beliefs" on abortion "have to be changed." How, she's never specified -- but the lack of religious liberty in the platform probably has something to do with it.

With their own party in disarray, Chelsea Clinton tried to distract people from the mess by attacking the GOP platform. Chelsea, who must have inherited her parents' allergy to the truth, insisted that the Republicans endorsed "child abuse" by supporting gay conversion therapy. As usual, a member of the Clinton family was twisting the facts. The reality is, the GOP platform doesn't even mention conversion therapy! This is what it doessay:

We support the right of parents to determine the proper medical treatment and therapy for their minor children. We support the right of parents to consent to medical treatment for their minor children and urge enactment of legislation that would require parental consent for their daughter to be transported across state lines for abortion.

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