meg in real life

"I really do think that it is the great tragedy of American politics that this issue divides us so profoundly. It’s a very painful issue to talk to just about anyone with, and I think there’s a surprising lack of basic human charity when people talk about this issue, no matter what their position. I feel that so much of the kind of murderous rhetoric of American politics and what we decry as the decline of civility, or hyperpartisanship, these things are really troubling as a citizen to watch, right? I do think that even when we’re not talking about abortion, we are often talking about abortion. So much of American politics has a kind of good-and-evil cast, a do-or-die, life-or-death intensity, and I think a lot of that comes from the moral posturing around this issue. I think we would do better if we could have these conversations outside of a partisan arena, where there’s far too much to gain by making these issues partisan. And you can track over the course of American history how much people have gained by staking out these partisan positions, and I think it’s a real tragedy."

Jill Lepore on Fresh Air