Forgive Me, Lord, for I Have Virtue-Signaled

"The urge to play along is irresistible."

American Spectator  "Ever since virtue signaling became a thing, and a sin, on both sides of the Atlantic, I’ve been determined never to indulge. Why? Because it’s the preserve of the needy and weak, and those who are more concerned with talking about their virtue than having any. How could I ever sink that low? I’ve valued my self-respect too much.
"For those who are yet to come across this nauseating vice, virtue signaling is officially “the action of publicly expressing opinions intended to demonstrate one’s moral correctness.” To put it another way, it’s the practice of gratuitously showing-off left-leaning, liberal, progressive viewpoints in order to make people admire you, and to position yourself in the mainstream of prevailing thought.
"You see, to be a virtue signaler, it’s not enough just to have progressive opinions; you must volunteer them — face-to-face, at work, with friends and especially through social media.
"So, for example, voting Remain here in the UK is virtuous, and ripe for signaling; voting Leave is your guilty secret. Pro-choice is good (tell as many people as you like), pro-life is bad (keep it to yourself at all costs). Believing in gay marriage is to be applauded (take a bow); believing only in a union between man and woman is backward (you’d better leave now, please). And so on.

"Alright, to some extent, virtue-signaling has been around for decades. But in recent years, with the rise of Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and their echo chambers, it has become more and more evident, so that it now threatens not just freedom of speech but independence of thought. After all, if only certain opinions are virtuous then the opposite views, by definition, must be morally suspect, if not downright evil. Forget about encouraging people to think for themselves, and to work things out. All they need do is follow the path of goodness and virtue, as defined by Twitter, and everything will be fine.

"It’s hideous and insidious, no doubt about it. But there’s an added problem. It’s catching. Even for people like me whose revulsion is so well-honed that we could be accused of the very thing that we rail against.

"I admit it, I’ve caught the bug." .

 . .

The Party of Death, Out in the Open

First this: USA Today: Most Americans don't want a standing ovation for abortions until birth. But Democrats do.

Townhall

American Greatness   "Safe, legal, and rare was a lie."  

"President Bill Clinton in 1996 told Americans abortion should be “safe, legal, and rare.” That was then. Now the cult of death, pro-abortion movement has taken over the Democratic Party whole-cloth, and the result is the infanticidal law passed in New York on the anniversary of Roe v. Wade. Now the party line has shifted to abortion on demand, paid for by taxpayers, at any time, even up until moments before birth: witness what just took place in New York state. The Empire State no more; New York is now the Abortion State."
. . . 

And you don’t even need a doctor to conduct this abortion; New Yorkers can have physician assistants and even midwives perform some abortions. New York’s new abortion laws put it in the same class as China, Vietnam, and North Korea, where abortion is available at most any point.

The bad company in which New York now finds itself should speak to the immorality of this law. Just because people pass a law and make something “legal” doesn’t mean an action thereby becomes moral or ethical or right: slavery was legal, too. To hear the cheers on the floor of the New York Senate when the law passed must have been the same sound slave owners made when a new big shipment of fresh slaves came pulling into port or the cheers that echoed through the Reichstag with the passage of the Nuremberg Laws.

"New York can legalize evil all day long, but it won’t change the brutal reality that a human child dies with every abortion. “Legality” didn’t justify the Nazis’ atrocities, nor did it legitimize institutionalized racism and slavery in America’s Antebellum South. Neither can it legitimize abortion on demand.

. . . "To add further to the sickness of it all, some of these same people, no doubt would be horrified by the killings of kittens or puppies or baby sea turtles, yet with a straight face and acting as though it’s perfectly normal they propose killing a human baby right at the moment of birth.

Liberal policies carried to their ultimate end:

Ben Sasse: Gov. Northam And Every 2020 Candidate Should Answer The Infanticide Question Or “Get The Hell Out Of Office” 

Smile, Democrats; your press has your back.

Washington Post rushes to rescue Virginia Democrat from her late-term abortion debacle  "If there’s a Democrat in trouble, you can be sure there's a newsroom nearby, ready to clean up the mess.
"Take, for example, the energy that the Washington Post has dedicated this week to rehabilitating the image of Virginia Del. Kathy Tran. Tran became a viral sensation for all the wrong reasons after she unveiled a bill allowing for late-term abortions up to birth, even in cases where the mother is dilating.

“ 'Del. Kathy Tran was known for nursing her baby on the House floor. Now she’s getting death threats,” reads the headline to an article published Thursday. That’s an updated version of the original headline. The original version read, “Until this week, Del. Kathy Tran was known for nursing her daughter on the House floor. Now Republicans are calling her a baby killer.” 

"Oh, please" . . .

CNN Covers for Pro-Abortion Northam, Suggests Critics Misunderstood  "After initially ignoring the controversy surrounding Virginia Democratic Governor Ralph Northam suggesting it would be both legal and acceptable under a proposed new abortion law if a baby were delivered and then allowed to die outside the mother's body, CNN finally ran a few briefs on Thursday morning -- mostly early -- and MSNBC ran one.

"But the reports provided cover for Northam, with CNN host Dave Briggs in particular suggesting conservatives might have misunderstood him even though the Democratic governor clearly stated that not resuscitating a newborn baby would be an allowed option.

"By contrast, Fox News Channel's three-hour Fox and Friends show spent more than 28 minutes on the controversy in addition to the attention that it got from nearly all other Fox News shows. The morning show even spoke with three OB/GYN physicians who were horrified at Governor Northam's comments." . . .

Ocasio-Cortez Is Showing She’s Pretty Spooked Over Threat of Dem’s Plans to Primary Her

Brandon Morse  "The Democrats’ newest and shiniest lawmaker, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez of New York, may have a short-lived career in Washington if some of the Democrats get their way and primary her in 2020.

"After an article from The Hill broke that told the story of how various Democrat groups and politicians were planning to find candidates to run the young democratic socialist out of office after only one term, Ocasio-Cortez seems to have gotten a tad spooked, and is now buying up dozens of Facebook ads in order to fundraise in preparation for a 2020 battle.

"As well she should. Some of the groups angry with her are the Black Caucus, the Hispanic Caucus, and various politicians from her own district. While Ocasio-Cortez assures the Black Caucus that she’s not going after any black Democrats, she is brazenly going after one Hispanic Caucus member, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-Texas).

"As first reported by the Daily Caller, AOC’s camp has purchased as many as 90 ads on Facebook (Pictured below, TD) since the article from The Hill dropped, all of them bearing messages of Democrats coming after her for shaking things up." . . .

The Democrats stage their own Wansee Conference*

*Wansee Conference:  "On this day, Nazi officials meet to discuss the details of the “Final Solution” of the “Jewish question.' ”

Rich Terrell

The Federalist: Democrats’ Inexorable Abortion Logic Has Finally Caught Up With Them   "From unrestricted late-term abortions to infanticide, Democrats are now facing the consequences of a position that never had a limiting principle." . . . 
"This week, Democrats finally succumbed to the inescapable logic of abortion. They have admitted, perhaps against their better judgement, that there really is no difference between abortion and infanticide." . . .

 Memo to the people running the Trump 2020 campaign  . . . "It could go like this:  "I create jobs, he (or she) supports the abortion of babies".

"It's rough but someone has to hit Hispanics between the eyes and remind them that the party they support does not value life or marriage between a man and a woman."

Networks, Liberal Cable News Ignore Virginia Governor’s Endorsement of Aborting Delivered Babies . . . "The whole ordeal is a major lurch leftward for Democrats and a candid shot of their actual beliefs on abortion. Nevertheless, the story was blacked out of primetime coverage, not just on network news, but on CNN and MSNBC too." . . . 

John D. Dingell III: NY abortion bill promotes targeted slaughter of girls in the womb
. . . "The left's infatuation with abortion has now come full circle. It has become a blatant attack on women and the lower classes.  It will take a while for women and the lower classes to realize this.  Sadly, by the time they do, the damage will have been done."

Even the leftist pro-abortionists will not address the issue for what it  is. Watch how this Democrat reverts to bumper sticker slogans and liberal talking points. Naturally she uses the bromide "as a woman". TD    Rush Limbaugh introduces this clip:

So let’s go to the audio sound bites. We have Tucker Carlson interviewing Monica Klein. She is the founding partner of something called Seneca Strategies. And Tucker Carlson’s question, “I wonder what you think about what Dr. Northam, the governor of Virginia, said. The infant is born. There’s a point where the mother and the physician can decide whether to kill the infant or not.” I want you to listen to the anger and the hatred in this woman’s voice. She hates Republicans. She hates Trump. She hates Kavanaugh. Tucker asks her, “What do you think of what the governor of Virginia said?” . . .