Where does it come from? Anti-Abortion Bills

[O Latin]

I've been reading the thread about the abortion bills in Ohio and it seems like there are a lot of anti-abortion bills in various states these days (I believe my state passed one in our last legislative session). It just seems to be THE issue of the moment for conservatives/right-wingers/fundies/whatever, even more than gay marriage and taxes. I'm starting to wonder where this comes from. I have always considered myself pro-life (although I think that may be changing, and I don't for one second believe that making abortion illegal will solve anything), but a lot of the people pushing these bills seem to believe that ending abortion will cure all of America's ills. That's what I don't get. Why is passing laws against abortion important at the expense of everything else?

And in the larger scheme of things, where does the Tea Party agenda come from? Is it the economy? Is it something else? I get the whole pendulum swinging analogy, but something has to happen to make the pendulum swing to such an extreme.

[Rosa]

Pro-life voters are often single-issue voters, and they are loyal as hell, plus they just don't seem to think things through and will vote for things that sound good even if they're going to be unworkable or get overturned. And their organizations buy a lot of issue ads, in election seasons.

Gay marriage, on the other hand, has no staying power -even young Evangelical voters are less and less anti-marriage-equality. It's a lost cause.

And the taxes thing - they cut taxes so sharply the last 20 years, there's no more cutting possible. Anti-tax elected officials in every state are negotiating how much they're going to have to raise taxes this budget cycle, trying to look tough but cut a slice on the side. They're not going to be able to campaign on it - even if they win, there's no percentage campaigning on "I cut senior health aides to the rural counties!" or "I closed 3 libraries!" like there is on anti-tax planks when the economy is good.