Remembering Richard Phelan

On abortion bans and David Axelrod [View this email in your browser]( [READER Logo]( Daily Reader | April 2, 2024 Reading through Saturday’s Sun-Times, I came upon a name I hadn’t seen in years: Richard Phelan, former president of the Cook County Board. In 1991, Phelan was the board president who, by executive order, started the process to reinstate abortion services to Cook County Hospital. A ban on abortion services at the hospital had been created (also by executive order) in 1980 by Phelan’s predecessor George Dunne. Phelan died last week at age 86. My condolences to his family. The part of the Sun-Times obituary that caught my eye was a few words of praise (I assume they were intended as praise) from David Axelrod, the political strategist who worked for Phelan’s campaign way back when. On Phelan, Axelrod told the Sun-Times, “He was a reformer, but a pragmatic one.” Hmm . . . Axelrod is known as a crafty thinker and brilliant at spin. His every word is calibrated as though he’s constantly trying to win over undecided voters in suburban swing districts. But I wasn’t sure what he was getting at here. He was speaking in swing state code that went over my little lefty brain. “A reformer but a pragmatic one” seems like a contradiction. Like saying someone’s principled enough to know the right thing to do—but smart enough to know not to do it. Which sounds like more than one alderperson who blindly followed Mayors Richard M. Daley and Rahm Emanuel. The irony is that Phelan was being praised in this obituary for putting his principles over pragmatism. Let me explain . . . Back in the 1970s, after the Roe decision, many Democrats proclaimed abortion was what it is: a legitimate medical service that should, as such, be available to all people, regardless of income. But then Congressman Henry Hyde contended that it was unconscionable to force anti-abortionists, like himself, to have a small (very small) portion of their tax dollars be spent on abortions for low-income women. And that no one should be obligated to pay for things they oppose. And so he proposed the Hyde Amendment, banning federal tax dollars from being used for abortions. (I sorta feel the same way about my tax dollars paying for new stadiums for the White Sox and the Bears. Though I doubt anyone is going to pass the Ben Amendment any time soon.) In their efforts to look moderate and reasonable, pragmatic Democrats caved and gave Hyde the votes he needed to pass his amendment. And with that the principle of abortion as a medical right for all was thrown out. And abortion became a privilege for the few. All in the name of pragmatism. Things seem to be changing. Apparently, more and more swing voters recognize abortion as a fundamental right, or, at least, none of the government’s business. And the movement to keep it legal may be the key issue that motivates millions of swing voters to vote Democrat and defeat Trump and his form of MAGA facism. We’ll see how that goes. Anyway, reading about Phelan’s one term as county president, I realized elected officials get so few chances to do the right thing. Sad to say, most of them chicken out and don’t do it. Give Phelan credit. On this issue he stood up for his principles and didn’t sell his soul in the market of the pragmatic. [Logo with text: The Ben Joravsky Show. 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