Hawley: Roe will help Republicans by compelling people to leave theocratic hellhole states like this one

Talk about saying the quiet parts loud:

U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley on Friday celebrated the U.S. Supreme court ruling eliminating the constitutional right to abortion, calling it a sweeping decision that would change the shape of American politics for the next decade. “I really do think this is going to be a watershed moment in American politics,” Hawley, a Republican from Missouri, said on a call with reporters. “I think another period of transformative change in American politics is now upon us.” The landmark decision, in which six conservative justices overturned a nearly 50-year-old precedent set in Roe v. Wade, is likely to send ripple effects through American politics as access to abortion will be determined by where someone lives.

Hawley said he welcomes the debate among states as some, like California, immediately moved to embrace abortion rights and others, like Missouri, immediately moved to restrict it. He predicted that people will base where they live on whether abortion is allowed and that the decision will end up redrawing demographic lines across the country. “I would predict that the effect is going to be that more and more red states are going to become more red, purple states are going to become red and the blue states are going to get a lot bluer,” Hawley said. “And I would look for Republicans as a result of this to extend their strength in the Electoral College. And that’s very good news.”

It is of course true that pretty much every anti-democratic mechanism in American politics will conspire to contain the political damage of Republicans overruling Roe and passing draconian abortion bans in the states they control, but it’s still striking to see Republicans just openly bragging about it rather than claiming to actually support what people want.