An e-mail:
I think the message that the anti-2 forces need to get out in the
final days, is for the undecided. That is, that if you are
undecided, vote NO. If you are unsure, then don’t vote to amend the
MO constitution. That way nothing changes, cloning is not made a
right and there are no MO laws regarding stem cell research. We can
always decide later.
That is, as it happens, the main message of opponents’ “2tricky” message. Here’s what I wrote about it on the 19th elsewhere on NRO:
in Missouri, anti-cloning activists may have hit on the perfect strategy. To reach normal busy people who don’t have time to get into the science and ethics, their simple message is that this is simply too tricky — the website is 2tricky.org. “Amendment 2 is deceptive, with more than 2,000 words of fine print,” a TV ad states. “They say it bans human cloning, but that’s not true. Amendment 2 specifically protects human cloning for research.” It continues, “The fine print even protects the buying and selling of human eggs.” The ad ends “Vote no on Amendment 2. Too slick, too deceptive, too tricky.”
The message: You don’t have to decide your position on the science. You don’t even have to understand the science. Just know that this is a complicated initiative with some loaded implications and that you’re not getting the full story. There’s no reason to rush into changing the Missouri constitution because folks with oodles of money want you to.
This approach from activists opposed to Amendment 2 has nothing with “anti-science” scare tactics. It’s simply practical: Odds are that, with less than 20 days before the election, activists wouldn’t be able to win over voters with explanations about the ethics of somatic-cell nuclear transfer (cloning). But “Hey, you’re being lied to and there’s no reason we should rush into this radical and unnecessary constitutional change” — yeah, that might give the average voter pause. And that’s just what’s happening here: If the opponents of Amendment 2 aren’t focusing primarily on the science and ethics, at least they’re not obscuring and misrepresenting the issues, as the advocates are.