Wednesday, February 14, 2007

Pro-Life After 9/11

Jonah Goldberg argues that after 9/11, conservatives now seem willing to do something once thought impossible: vote for a pro-choice candidate for president:
The war on terror . . . changed the attitudes of many Americans, particularly conservatives, about the central crisis facing the country. It's not that pro-lifers are less pro-life or that social conservatives are suddenly OK with homosexuality, gun control and other issues where Giuliani's dissent from mainstream conservative opinion would normally disqualify him. It's that they really, really believe the war on terror is for real. At conservative conferences, on blogs and on talk radio, pro-life issues have faded in their passion and intensity compared with the war on terror. Taken together, terrorism, Iraq and Islam have become the No. 1 social issue for conservative base of the party.

Note: I didn't say it's become the No. 1 foreign-policy or national-security issue for social conservatives. It's become the No. 1 social issue, at least for many of them.
Update: John Piper and Joe Carter have both explained why they are "single-issue voters."