John Irving, who warned you about Roe vs. Wade, hopes to die at his desk.
Irving, a retired journalist who was elected mayor of the small city of Riverdale, NY, on Tuesday, is the author of five previous bestsellers, including “The World According to Garp,” “What I Talk About When I Talk About Running” and “The Cider House Rules.”
Irving, a Republican, came to notoriety in the 1970s as a writer whose work focused on the role of media coverage of social issues like abortion in influencing social values. Irving’s book “The Revolution Will Not Be Microwaved” explored the question of whether the Supreme Court should reconsider Roe vs. Wade, a 1973 decision that legalized abortion nationwide.
The Supreme Court ruled on Friday that the Court’s 1973 abortion ruling “is settled law,” but in a statement that was in line with the official Republican Party position, the court said the decision was “irrelevant” to the question it confronted: “whether a State may prohibit or prohibit the performance of certain procedures in certain circumstances.”
After the ruling, Irving told me, “I have two things to say: that we are a nation of laws,” and that “abortion is an issue where government should not be engaged.”
Irving is not the only Republican who supports abortion rights, which means the same party’s policy that he supports is the one that has allowed the current wave of anti-choice politicians to dominate elected office.
On Friday, the American Conservative Union, the elite, politically-connected conservative think tank whose board includes media stars like Rush Limbaugh and Rupert Murdoch, announced that it was ending its funding of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as of June 30.
The ACU was an early and enthusiastic supporter of Newt Gingrich while he was Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but it hasn’t been the same since Gingrich lost the 1994 nomination for president to Bob Dole, the Senate Majority Leader.
In an open letter to Ayn Rand and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, AFA President