Book Review: The Party of Death by Ramesh Ponnuru

I've decided to do my "Book Reviews" more often. Even if I don't get any credit for them, they're good exercises in Journalism. So, here's another one. Of course, half the work is picking the right book...

Ponnuru's book is a cool and streamlined defense of the Pro-Life philosophy; not just regarding Abortion but the sanctity of life in general—Euthanasia, the utterly bogus “Right-to-Die,” and the New Eugenics of the Left.

His arguments, when he deigns to give them, are excellently formed and well nuanced. They are just simple trains of logic; as all good arguments are. However, Ponnuru does not concentrate on giving a Pro-Life manifesto, although he certainly succeeds, but on the failures and outright intellectual dishonesty of the Left when it comes to the sanctity of life. He gently points out the inaccuracies and the lies of the original Roe v. Wade court decision, other court decisions, and the sometimes very odd screeds against Life.

It's interesting to note that Ponnuru focuses most on the court decisions regarding his subject matter. Although he never uses the term, he points out the Constitutional refutations of so-called “Judicial Activism.” He highlights the basic truths that made Roe v. Wade one of the worst, the most ill-thought-out court decisions in the history of American jurisprudence: that one court of nine people appointed by various Presidents, could change the laws of every single state with a single court decision. 35 years and 45 million destroyed lives later, we still haven't ridden ourselves of that misbegotten, amateurish and fanatical opinion.

Even at the very beginning, Ponnuru shows clear-headedness and a willingness to consider the evidence that I could never have done. He shows that he understands the Abortion debate clearly when he says on page 8, "Abortion is a sign that our society is pitting them [Women] against their children."

The book was widely panned on its release. After reading it, the only reason I can think of for this is that almost every member of the literary press in a FANATICAL PRO-CHOICE IDEOLOGUE. The Media whitewash of Abortion, in place since the 60s, has succeeded particularly well in the literary and Academic, who are generally the first to denounce the media as too of the people.

The book painstakingly tears apart Roe v. Wade and virtually every Higher-Court Abortion decision before and since. Ponnuru shows that he has a sense of humor when he talks about Justice Blackmun's bumbling opinion from the original Roe v. Wade case. Blackmun ludicrously mangled the Constitution, twisting himself in circles to show that the Constitution did not protect any rights of the unborn child; in fact, it prohibits any such rights. How? Geez, I don't know. I thought I knew the Constitution. Well, actually, the "Right to Abortion" was cunningly hidden in the "Right to Privacy" by the Founders, who by the way were all members of NARAL Pro-Choice America. Also, the Constitution DEFINITIVELY states that fetuses are not alive in when it talks about Extradition. You see, since fetuses aren't likely to commit crimes, they aren't alive. Well, as Ponnuru points out, neither do Toddlers.

Ponnuru also covers the Left-ward march of the Democratic party, showing how many rather well-known Democrats have been Pro-Life in the past. Harry Reid, The Rev. Jesse Jackson, and even Bill Clinton once counted themselves as Pro-Life, or said they did.

"'I was born out of wedlock (and against the advice that my mother received from her doctor) and therefore abortion is a person issue for me,' wrote the minister. He went on to compare Abortion to slavery. 'If one accepts the position that life is private, and therefore you must have the right to do with it as you please, one must also accept the conclusion of that logic. That was the premise of slavery. You could not protest the existence or treatment of slaves on the plantation because that was private and therefore outside of your right to be concerned.' He asked, 'What happens to the mind of a person, and the moral fabric of a nation, that accepts the aborting of the life of a baby without a pang of conscience?'" Was this a noted Pro-Lifer, a staunch Republican? It was neither. It was Jesse Jackson in 1977. In later years when Jackson ran for President, he shied away from defending life.

In conclusion, Ponnuru's book shows the utter depravity of a society that kills its young, when we have more than enough resources to care for them. There are forty-five million fewer Americans. More, actually. A person born in 1973 could have several children by now. Indeed, the Governor-elect of Louisiana, Republican Piyush "Bobby" Jindal, was born only two years before. Consider how many great Americans were never born. As Ponnuru says, "Perhaps some future society, no doubt with its own smugness and its own sins, will condemn our barbarity.”