W

hen 
the 
Supreme 
Court voted in June to 
overturn Roe v. Wade, 
all eyes turned to the states. 
While states such as California 
and New York have affirmed the 
right to an abortion, many others 
have banned the practice and, as a 
result, put many women in harm’s 
way.
Republicans argue that turning 
abortion back to the states is 
more democratic, as Roe v. Wade 
was decided by the United States 
Supreme Court, an unelected 
body. 
But 
the 
Republican 
supermajorities are not acting 
in accordance with the will of 
the people by banning abortion, 
as polling shows that 61% of 
Americans believe that abortion 
should be legal in all or most 
cases.
The reality is that Roe v. Wade 
has been overturned, and without 
a 60-vote majority in the Senate 
or the abolition of the filibuster, 
there’s nothing Democrats can do 
to protect abortion at the federal 
level. But states can protect, and 
have protected, abortion rights 
through ballot initiatives and 
constitutional amendments.
I want to emphasize that 
turning to the states is neither a 
perfect solution, nor a foolproof 
one. States have radically different 
laws regarding ballot measures. 
California, 
for 
example, 
has 
seven measures on the 2022 
ballot, while Michigan has only 
one. There is also the risk of this 
strategy backfiring, as states 
could vote to abolish abortion. 
But considering current federal 
law (or lack thereof) regarding 
abortion, placing initiatives or 
constitutional amendments on 
the ballot is one way to keep 
abortion legal in states.
One important reason that 

a state-based approach is a 
strategy that Democrats should 
embrace is that, as noted above, 
abortion 
is 
supported 
by 
a 
majority of Americans. While 61% 
of Americans believe abortion 
should remain legal in all or 
most cases, 73% of Americans 
believe abortion should be legal 
in cases of health of the mother, 
and 69% believe it should be legal 
in the case of rape or incest, the 
same poll shows. As pregnant 
women in states with abortion 
bans report difficulty accessing 
a medically necessary abortion, 
many Republicans are pushing 
for laws that do not include rape 
and incest exceptions. If abortion 
votes are put before the people of 
a state, it is likely that voters will 
enact abortion laws that ensure 
access to abortions in these cases.
In addition to the unpopularity 
of total abortion bans, putting 
abortion rights directly before 
the people would eliminate the 
problem of running candidates 
who are pro-choice. In today’s 
political climate, it is generally 
true that Democratic candidates 
support abortion rights, while 
Republicans 
want 
to 
restrict 
abortion. Yet Republican voters 
are often more supportive of 
abortion rights than Republican 
candidates.
According to the Pew Research 
Center, 
38% 
of 
Republicans 
support abortion access, but, 
based on their voting habits, it 
seems that these people care 
about 
other 
issues 
that 
are 
important to them, such as cutting 
taxes, supporting gun rights or 
creating a strong southern border. 
People who support such policies 
are unlikely to vote for the 
candidates who support abortion 
access: Democrats. Putting ballot 
initiatives directly before voters 
eliminates the problem of getting 
people to vote for candidates who 
support other policies they don’t 
agree with.

The state of Kansas gives an 
example of this idea in action. In 
August, Kansans voted against 
removing abortion rights from the 
state’s constitution by a whopping 
18 percentage points, 59 to 41. 
Kansas is a red state; former 
President Donald Trump won 
Kansas by about 15%, meaning 
that a fair number of Trump 
supporters voted in support of 
this ballot initiative.
Other 
conservative 
states 
would also vote to back abortion 
rights, according to a New York 
Times analysis. For example, 
voters in Nebraska, Missouri and 
Florida would support abortion 
rights 
in 
a 
ballot 
initiative 
similar to that in Kansas, the 
NYT estimates. Not only would 
expanding abortion access in such 
states help the women in these 
states, but it would also mean that 
women who live in neighboring 
states that might have abortion 
bans wouldn’t have to travel as far 
to receive an abortion.
This state-based strategy would 
require 
national 
Democratic 
leaders 
to 
listen 
to 
their 
colleagues in state governments. 
Because each state has a different 
system for placing initiatives or 
constitutional amendments on 
the ballot, pro-choice advocates in 
each state would have to run their 
own campaigns. But the localized 
effort will be worth it if abortion 
access is protected in states where 
it otherwise would not be. In 
November, Democrats will see if 
the strategy works; abortion is on 
the ballot in five states, including 
Michigan and Kentucky — which 
are not solid blue states.
Placing abortion initiatives on 
the ballot is a necessary strategy 
that could lead to the expansion of 
abortion rights in states where it 
may not have been possible to vote 
in a sizable number of pro-choice 
officials. 

Opinion

The power of states to protect 
abortion access

The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
6 — Wednesday, September 7, 2022 

F

or months, pundits have 
followed 
with 
close 
scrutiny 
Republican 
primaries nationwide in an 
attempt to parse out former 
President Donald Trump’s hold 
over the Republican Party. 
Though all of these primaries 
are relevant, no primary was 
as 
symbolic 
and 
reflective 
of 
political 
reality 
as 
the 
shellacking 
Congresswoman 
Liz Cheney (R-WY) received 
at the hands of Trump-backed 
Harriet Hageman. 
Cheney has been the most 
influential 
Republican 
to 
push back against the former 
president, most notably in her 
work on the January 6th Select 
Committee. She was ousted 
from her position in GOP 
leadership for her criticisms 
of the former president and 
had seen her political support 
collapse as a result of Trump’s 
attacks. 
Cheney 
wasn’t 
expected to win, but her loss, 
almost 40 points in margin, 
was even worse than expected.
As an iron-clad conservative, 
the idea that Liz Cheney would 
lose a primary, let alone lose 
a primary to someone who in 
some ways is to her right, would 
have been a foreign concept less 
than two years ago. As Trump 
and 
Cheney 
differed 
over 
made-up electoral fraud, and as 
January 6th and its subsequent 
impeachment and investigation 
played out, Cheney’s support 
among Republicans dwindled, 
all at the hands of Trump and 
his accomplices.
For Cheney, past is prologue. 
Out of the 231 candidates 
Trump 
has 
endorsed 
this 
primary season, 212 of them 
have won. And while many of 
these have been petty ways 

to rack up wins, such as his 
more than 60 endorsements 
in uncontested races, many 
races have been true contests 
where Trump inevitably played 
kingmaker. 
In many of the biggest races 
in the country, it’s Trump’s 
handpicked radical candidates 
carrying the banner for the 
GOP. JD Vance in Ohio, Kari 
Lake and Blake Masters in 
Arizona, and Herschel Walker 
in Georgia are some who have 
won statewide. Former daytime 
television host Mehmet Oz was 
also carried to a tight victory in 
Pennsylvania by Trump, as was 
Dan Cox in Maryland, a radical 
who, with the help of Trump, 
overcame 
establishment 
figures. 
And 
down 
ballot, 
Trump has orchestrated almost 
a complete erasure of the 10 
House Republicans who voted 
for his second impeachment.
While Cheney and others’ 
losses, and in turn Trump’s 
wins, have helped to illustrate 
a near-total changing of the 
Republican guard, one can also 
turn to multiple other aspects 
that 
have 
shown 
Trump’s 
cemented support. 
In 
arguably 
the 
most 
vulnerable moment for Trump 
since January 6 and its following 
impeachment, when the FBI 
conducted a search warrant at 
the Mar-a-Lago Club as part 
of a sprawling investigation 
into 
egregious 
mishandling 
of top secret documents, the 
near-unanimous 
and 
full-
throated defense 
of Trump by 
the GOP was quite astonishing.
Given a moment to once 
again inch away from the 
former president with at least 
a little less political pushback, 
prominent Republicans stood 
by him. The party cast the 
event as nothing more than a 
political hit job; a belief purely 
detached from reality, yet the 

dominating sentiment within 
the party.
It was no surprise that 
the party that once asked for 
prison for Hillary Clinton over 
the supposed mishandling of 
an email server had a much 
different tone when it came 
to 
Trump’s 
mishandling 
of 
documents. 
But 
GOP 
politicians didn’t simply stay 
silent or tip-toe the issue, they 
ate up every bit of Trump’s 
claims about the events at Mar-
a-Lago and ran with it. And 
notably, 
conservative 
media 
did the same.
Moreover, Trump’s support 
among Republican voters has 
remained rock solid beyond 
the beltway, and perhaps even 
more so at the grassroots level. 
While it is true that polling 
suggests many in the party 
would rather Trump take a 
backseat in 2024, when push 
comes to shove, and he is 
offered as a choice, he wins. 
Polling has consistently shown 
the former President receiving 
2-3 times more support than 
his leading competitor, Florida 
Governor Ron DeSantis. All 
other politicians seldom notch 
double digits in polls where 
Trump is included.
Similarly, 
the 
continued 
attempt to will Ron DeSantis to 
be the flag bearer of the GOP by 
the media and some in the party 
does not hold up to reality. Not 
only is Trump beating DeSantis 
by 2-3 times in polling, but he 
is doing so without attacking 
him. No one is better at labeling 
political opponents than him, 
and he has more control over 
his base than any Republican 
in the modern political era. His 
treatment of his rivals for the 
Republican nomination in 2016 
demonstrated that clearly.

An unfortunate reality: it’s still 
Trump’s GOP

DEVON HESANO
Opinion Columnist

puzzle by sudokusnydictation.com

By Catherine Cetta
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
09/05/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

09/05/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, September 5, 2022

ACROSS
1 Private stash
6 Pizza serving
11 Dell products, for 
short
14 Approximately
15 Weighed down
16 Flamenco cheer
17 *Many an aria
19 Tiny
20 “Will I __ learn?”
21 Dark cloud, 
maybe
22 Noggin
23 1950s sitcom 
name
24 *Not quite 
apologetic
27 Historic Nevada 
city with a railway 
museum
29 __ suey
30 Salon offering
33 Ore-Ida nuggets
38 Here, in France
39 Name better 
left unsaid, or a 
description of the 
answers to the 
starred clues
41 Syrup source
42 Unlikely winners
44 “Best before” kin
46 Tune for two
47 Campus URL 
ender
48 *Persuaded with 
flattery
53 Frosted, as a 
cupcake
57 Periods of history
58 Horse rider’s strap
59 “Big Night” actor 
Shalhoub
60 Buddy
61 *In the near future
64 __-at-ease
65 Strainer
66 Plentiful
67 Stubborn beast
68 Great-
grandparent, say
69 Big buttes

DOWN
1 Scoped out with 
bad intentions
2 “Heavens __!”
3 Successfully 
handles a rough 
patch
4 Rushed

5 Greek letter 
between zeta 
and theta
6 Sports replay 
type, briefly
7 Pointer or printer 
lead-in
8 “__ have a clue”
9 Cartoon frame
10 Music producer 
Brian
11 Confident stance
12 Blue-skies 
forecast word
13 Far from swanky
18 Like a busybody
22 YA novel by Carl 
Hiaasen about a 
threatened owl 
habitat
25 Unreturnable 
serves
26 Hide from view
28 Red-ink amounts
30 Zip
31 __-friendly
32 Unexpected 
moments of good 
fortune
33 “__ Te Ching”: 
philosophical text
34 Unwelcome 
picnic guest

35 NFL six-pointers
36 Bar bill
37 James Bond, for 
one
40 “__ Be in Love”: 
Kate Bush song
43 “No __, no glory”
45 “I’m good with it”
47 Poet St. Vincent 
Millay
48 Old photo tone
49 Face-to-face 
exams

50 __ Forces Day
51 “Pet” annoyance
52 Pillow feathers
54 Henhouses
55 “__ Holmes”: 
Netflix film 
starring Millie 
Bobby Brown
56 Units of force that 
make up newtons
61 NNW opposite
62 Olive __
63 Orange tuber

SUDOKU

SUDOKU

MEDIUM

5

3

6

5
3
8

7

3

4

5
8

4

9

1
5

7

8

4
5

1

8

9

3
2
6

7

2

5

© sudokusolver.com. For personal use only.

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1 of 1
3/30/09 10:03 AM

WHISPER

“Go Blue!”
“The sprinkler 
tent outside the 
Big House is 
more fun than 
the game”

WHISPER

By Fred Piscop
©2022 Tribune Content Agency, LLC
08/29/22

Los Angeles Times Daily Crossword Puzzle

Edited by Patti Varol and Joyce Nichols Lewis

08/29/22

ANSWER TO PREVIOUS PUZZLE:

Release Date: Monday, August 29, 2022

ACROSS
1 Threaded 
fastener
6 Grilled sausage, 
for short
10 “__ the night 
before 
Christmas ... ”
14 Slacks fabric
15 Lasso
16 “How 
disappointing”
17 John Steinbeck 
novel set in the 
Salinas Valley
19 Algebra, trig, etc.
20 Suffix with neat 
or beat
21 Whacks with 
an ax
22 Numerical 
relationship
23 Make an attempt 
at
25 Delta Sigma __ 
sorority
27 Fourth film in a 
series starring 
Bob Hope, Bing 
Crosby, and 
Dorothy Lamour
32 “If the __ fits ... ”
35 Loewe’s partner
36 Post-op recovery 
area
37 Iron-rich meat
39 Girl of the fam
40 Wild West film
42 Sailor’s yes
43 Cover stories
46 Supermodel 
Banks
47 Epic poem by 
John Milton
50 Feature of italic 
letters
51 Principality on 
the French 
Riviera
55 Provide food 
service for
57 Prom couple’s 
ride
59 Parking area
60 Actor Sharif
61 Grammy-
nominated 
Keyshia Cole hit 
song
64 Baseball glove
65 Apex
66 Evade skillfully
67 Poetic tributes
68 A++
69 Helicopter blade

DOWN
1 Potpourri 
emanation
2 Part of a dinette 
set
3 Full of uncertainty
4 Sinus specialist, 
for short
5 “Yippee!”
6 Make, as coffee
7 Drapery holders
8 Big galoot
9 Low card in a 
royal flush
10 Gazpacho 
ingredient
11 “That’s too bad”
12 __-lock brakes
13 Nabe in London 
and Manhattan
18 Like many an 
alley cat
22 Fashionably 
nostalgic
24 Available for an 
appointment
25 Throat tissue
26 Shade on a paint 
color strip
28 Cease and __ 
order
29 Native American 
group
30 Cake prettifier
31 Subtle glow

32 High-five sound
33 “How’s it goin’?”
34 Exaggerate
38 Storm tracker
41 Mailing label 
abbr.
44 “Hamilton” 
creator 
__-Manuel 
Miranda
45 French river 
to the English 
Channel
48 Tips off

49 “__ rather than 
later, please”
52 Alaskan native
53 Time-share unit, 
typically
54 Playful river 
animal
55 “¿__ está usted?”
56 Bunched in with
57 Reading light
58 Currier’s partner
61 Fez or fedora
62 Green prefix
63 __-pitch softball

The pollution paparazzi

LYDIA STORELLA
Opinion Columnist

T

his 
summer, 
social 
media was abuzz with 
information about the 
widespread private jet usage 
by many celebrities despite 
the negative environmental 
impact of private jet travel. 
Celebrities like Kylie Jenner 
were criticized for extensive 
private 
jet 
use, 
especially 
on short flights. Jenner had 
been 
documented 
taking 
a 
17-minute 
private 
flight 
between 
two 
California 
cities, instead of a 40-minute 
car ride, which would have 
produced significantly fewer 
emissions. 
Jenner 
likewise 
drew ire for an Instagram post 
that critics said made light of 
her and her boyfriend Travis 
Scott’s private jet use. 
Taylor Swift’s private jet 
use was also critiqued after 
it was revealed that a plane 
she owned had the highest 
amount of emissions when 
compared to other celebrity 
private jets. Swift’s publicist 
addressed this issue, claiming 
that Swift herself was not 
solely 
responsible 
for 
the 
significant private jet use as 
she frequently loans her plane 
for others to use. However, 
this does not change the fact 
that regardless of who is 
flying, Swift’s plane still had 
a larger carbon footprint last 
year than over 1,000 average 
people combined.
The 
topic 
of 
celebrities 
refusing to take action to 
help protect the environment 
has 
also 
been 
discussed 
surrounding a situation in 
California, 
where 
multiple 
celebrities have come under 
fire for their excessive water 
usage in the drought-stricken 
state. California is currently in 
the midst of the catastrophic 
drought, with the drinking 
water of more than 350,000 
Californians 
having 
been 
imperiled in the last few years. 
However, it was recently 
revealed that many celebrities 
have exceeded their water 
allocation 
by 
significant 
amounts. Sylvester Stallone, 
Dwyane Wade, Kevin Hart 
and 
Kourtney 
Kardashian 
all 
received 
a 
“notice 
of 
exceedance” 
from 
the 

water 
authority 
for 
using 
substantially more water than 
they were allocated. Kourtney 
Kardashian’s 
property 
exceeded 
its 
June 
water 
allocation by over 100,000 
gallons, and her sister Kim 
Kardashian was reported to 
have used nine years’ worth of 
water in just one month. 
The typical recourse for 
water 
over 
usage, 
fines, 
is likely to be a much less 
effective 
deterrent 
against 
celebrities for whom a weighty 
fine is a mere slap on the wrist. 
Another possible consequence 
is the installation of water flow 
restrictors, which can reduce 
the amount of water supplied 
to the houses. However, it is 
unclear if any celebrities have 
faced these repercussions. 
The impotence of fines as a 
deterrent against the wealthy 
speaks 
to 
fundamental 
inequalities of the climate 
crisis. The impacts of the 
climate 
crisis 
will 
almost 
certainly 
have 
a 
more 
pronounced impact on low-
income people — the vast 
majority of whom bear little 
culpability for the present crisis 
— with a recent Environmental 
Protection 
Agency 
study 
finding that “the most severe 
harms from climate change 
fall disproportionately upon 
underserved communities.”
There is an understandable 
feeling 
of 
frustration 
and 
disappointment 
from 
many 
people about how wealthy, 
famous individuals do not 
use their resources for good. 
Many 
of 
these 
celebrities 
have immense followings and 
the money and connections 
to help make a difference on 
climate issues. Even some 
celebrities who have spoken 
out about climate issues have 
been accused of a double 
standard 
for 
their 
private 
jet 
use. 
Actor 
Leonardo 
DiCaprio and Prince Harry 
and Meghan Markle, who have 
all supported environmental 
causes, have been criticized 
for 
taking 
private 
plane 
flights. Instead of using their 
power and privilege to help 
the environment, we see far 
too many celebrities setting 
the wrong example with their 
actions. 

ISABELLE SCHINDLER
Opinion Columnist

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com
 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

 Read more at MichiganDaily.com

