Ross Douthat argues that the Roe decision divided the country and was a major factor in our current level of polarization. Is he correct?
He has confused cause and effect. Abortion was not a partisan issue when Roe was decided in the 1970s, as evidenced by the fact that the majority consisted primarily of GOP nominees. While opposition to abortion became identified more or less exclusively with the Republican Party in the 1980s, the country was not as polarized then as it is now. It was only when white Christians started to feel threatened– in their own eyes, they were no longer a moral majority–that our politics turned rancid. That was the result of changing attitudes about sex and religion among the young, legal victories for the LGBTQ community, the election of a black president, the evolution of the knowledge economy, to the detriment of white workers, and demographic changes that appeared apocalyptic to a large segment of the white population.