The Wheels of the Bus

Almost everyone has ridden a bus. School children, urban commuters, tourists, charter groups - we enjoy the convenience, the company, and the comfort of busses. But we don't usually think about the bus itself. We focus on the destination. The bus is just the best available vehicle to reach that end.

We certainly wouldn't take a bus going to New York if we had business in Miami. We wouldn't take a bus across the continent on a business trip when a plane covers the distance in a fraction of the time. We wouldn't remain seated in a stalled bus on a city street watching the time for a scheduled appointment pass when we could step out of that bus and into the street and hail a cab.

Could you imagine a bus driver in these situations telling us that we were being disloyal because we didn't continue to sit in his bus? We would laugh at such silliness.

A political party is like a bus. It was created as a vehicle to effect public policy by "driving" blocks of voters to the polls on election day to elect a particular group of candidates. Those candidates pledge to change public policy in a manner acceptable to the drivers of the bus. If the candidates fail to keep their campaign promises, the bus will not bring its passengers to the polls the next time around.

As long as the passengers and the drivers of the political bus are in agreement about destination and route, everything works pretty well. Passengers get information and support to help them make their voices heard in public policy, and the drivers of the bus get the clout they need to hold candidates to their campaign promises.

The problem arises when the drivers and the passengers disagree. If it were a physical bus, passengers who didn't like the destination or the route would just get off. And the bus would happily continue on its way with fewer passengers. But since this is a political bus, the drivers need to reach their destination with all the passengers still on board because the block of voters is the source of their clout.

So the drivers focus the attention of the passengers on the bus, instead of on its destination. They talk about loyalty; they promise to dialogue about the ultimate destination of the bus; they appoint representatives to listen to the concerns of the passengers and they give passengers positions of prestige on the bus. They know that as long as the passengers are fighting about the conditions on the bus those passengers won't leave the bus. They know that the longer they keep the passengers occupied in debating how decisions are made inside the bus, the more likely those passengers are to stay on the bus. And they know that once passengers start receiving prestige inside the bus, the more likely those passengers are to remain in it. Even if the destination of that bus is not where the passengers wanted to go in the first place.

The only way for the passengers to fight back is to GET OFF THE BUS! If the drivers reach their destination with an empty bus, they failed. Their power comes from delivering that block of voters. If there are no voters, there is no power. The passengers will always have the final say IF they are willing to get out of the bus.

Getting out of the bus has already changed American politics once. The passenger was named Rosa Parks. The bus was driven by segregation. As long as Rosa and the other passengers tolerated that driver, nothing changed. No matter how much they complained and grumbled, as long as they continued to pay their money and sit in that bus, the driver's agenda prevailed. It wasn't until Rosa got off that bus that things started to change. The bus boycott lasted over a year, but in the end, the bus needed the passengers more than the passengers needed the bus. So a new driver, called civil rights, was found.

Now pro-lifers are the passengers. The bus is moving toward a destination called tolerance of abortion. The drivers show no signs of veering from that direction. They have used every tactic at their disposal to keep us on their bus, so they can continue to deliver our block of voters for their candidates. Those candidates are embracing the bus's anti-life direction. In fact candidates who object to the new direction of the drivers are finding themselves pushed out of the bus entirely.

Some pro-lifers have gotten out of the bus. They are looking for other ways to reach their destination of total protection for all our children. And they are creating new vehicles to bring blocks of voters to the polls on Election Day for candidates who promise to promote public policy aimed at reaching that destination.

Some pro-lifers have gotten lost on the bus. They have forgotten why they got on the bus and have become more concerned about their position inside the bus. They often defend the bus driver's agenda to other pro-lifers, rather than defending the destination of the pro-life movement to the drivers of the bus. Their first loyalty has shifted from the unborn babies to the drivers.

Some pro-lifers are afraid to get out of the bus. They fear that they will not be able to find or create new vehicles. They fear that if they don't stay on the bus, they will allow an even more odious set of drivers to deliver voters and elect candidates. They keep hoping that they will be able to convince the drivers to turn around. So they argue and grumble and complain, but they keep delivering voters to candidates who don't agree with them. These pro-lifers have given the drivers no reason to change direction. The drivers accomplish their objective and get their candidates elected to move toward the new destination. The drivers don't care if the passengers are happy or not - they only care about delivering those passengers.

So to keep those ambivalent pro-life passengers on their bus, the drivers capitalize on the pro-lifers' fears.

They loudly point to busses even farther from the original destination than they are and ignore the fact that all the busses are moving in the wrong direction. So the pro-life passengers focus on the fact that the bus they are sitting in is not first in line instead of on the fact their bus is in the line moving toward abortion rights. The drivers stress their willingness to give their pro-life passengers "a seat at the table" where they can be heard and ignore the reality that no decisions about the bus's direction are made at that table. So the pro-life passengers focus on access to policy-makers instead of action of policy. And the drivers desperately attempt to instill in their pro-life passengers the belief that their bus is indispensable.

But in reality it is the passenger who is indispensable! Busses without passengers are just empty shells. Empty shells can't put candidates in office. Empty shells can't implement or enforce public policy. Empty shells have no clout. Emptiness is what the drivers fear the most.

So when the passengers get off the bus the drivers try to get them to return. Now the passengers have a bargaining position. They can tell the driver under what conditions they will return to the bus. They can demand that the bus change direction before they return to it. They can insist on becoming the driver, or on choosing the driver.

Passengers are most powerful when they do not see themselves as just passengers, but as travelers looking for the best vehicle to reach their destination. The drivers must convince that traveler that their bus will take him where he wants to go, at the best rate, and in the shortest time. The focus is on the final destination - protecting the innocent human life - and drivers are evaluated only against that destination.

There is a children's song that describes a bus. It focuses on the wheels, the horn, the driver and the other passengers on the bus. It never mentions the destination. As long as pro-lifers sing that song, the drivers are in control and our littlest children will continue to die.

It is time for pro-lifers to look beyond the wheels of the bus and insist that any vehicle in which we travel be aimed unswervingly toward our destination of total protection for all our children.