Taking a village approach to abortion and child care issues

OK, let's talk narcissism. Democrats brought the subject up in reference to Donald Trump, a man who truly does suffer from this personality disorder. Media coverage has since given the psychological term a prime spot on the national political stage.

Rather than engaging in discussion about the real dangers of a narcissistic commander in chief, a subset of Republicans would like to commandeer the term and spin it to apply to all things left/liberal/progressive/Democratic/etc. These are the same people who love to derisively call other people "snowflakes" when they do not agree with them. Unfortunately, they are also the loudest part of the Republican Party and the "squeakiest wheel."

These are the people who brought you President Trump. They have turned politics into a zero-sum game in which no win can be recorded for their side without a corresponding loss for the other. Similarly, any win for the other side is necessarily a loss for them. They are willing to overlook any transgression by their politicians and pundits, as long as those "leaders" help to defeat that scary other side. They believe that their own ends justify any means.

These are the people who think paying taxes is for chumps. Their own taxes are always too high, and others are never paying their fair share. They complain ceaselessly about the inefficiency and incompetence of government, while cheering the election and appointment of those who strive to make government fail. They believe that others should be happy to serve them by providing "approved" government services for free.

These are the people who think their own faith-based religious views should take precedence over those of others around them. Lack of proof for something they fiercely believe in does not deter them in the least from trying to impose the tenets of that belief system on others. They see themselves as paragons of virtue in a fallen world.

These are the people who first ignored, then ridiculed those warning about the dangers of global warming. Now they argue about the role of humans in climate change and whether it's even a bad thing. They might be the same people who at the end of the last century repeatedly claimed, in the face of all evidence otherwise, that smoking was not unhealthy. They don't even want to entertain the idea that they might need to change for their own good, let alone the good of those around them.

These are the people who believe that everything they've got has been earned of their own hard work, and that they owe nothing to the cooperative efforts of those around them. They believe that we all have access to the same opportunities, and those who find themselves in less fortunate circumstances do so as a result of inherent, unredeemable shortcomings and simple lack of effort.

I'm used to all of this claptrap, but I consider it a new low to insist that a woman who these people don't even know, somebody they know nothing about, is a narcissist because she has an unwanted pregnancy. I'm not a fan of abortion any more than anyone else is, but if you want to reduce the number of abortions in the world, you should address the root cause.

Abortions happen when people don't want to be pregnant. Accusing a woman of having a personality disorder because she considers having an abortion does not address the root issue of an unwanted pregnancy, and - like the legislation pushed by local Republican politicians - it does nothing to reduce the overall number of abortions.

Hampering efforts to expand family planning services in this country and around the world actually exacerbates the issue by creating more unwanted pregnancies. There are a number of things that can be done to actually reduce the number of abortions in the world. One is reduce the number of unplanned pregnancies through fact-based sex education and readily available contraception.

Another is to make having and raising children more appealing to a potential parent through access to a living wage, good education and affordable health care and childcare. It's just as true now as ever, that it takes a village to raise a child. We should all be trying to build a better, more effective, more informed, and more caring village. More people will choose to have children when doing so does not carry substantially increased risk of financial ruin.

The Republican Party used to stand for something more than lower taxes, unlimited military spending, power of corporations over people and control over the bodies of women. The ideologies pushed by Republican politicians and pundits are ruining the party. If you doubt this, spend some time reading quotes from Abraham Lincoln and ask yourself how he would be viewed by those in power today.

Murphey Johnson of Johnson City is an engineer. He can be reached at murph@murpheyjohnson.com.