The Riddler wrote:The core GOP strategy on this was about diversion, downplaying anti-choice policies in favor of economic ones to get votes, which always for decades left them unwilling to touch Roe because they knew it was a harder position to generate support.
I don't fully agree. They were very clear on their intent to overturn Roe; I think most people just ignored it or thought It Can't Happen Here.
It's true that, at a federal level, they'd run on culture-war issues like passing a constitutional amendment to ban abortion or gay marriage and then never actually do those things once in office. But their strategy's been clear for decades: attack abortion rights in state legislatures and the Supreme Court.
The difference between a 5-4 court and a 6-3 one is that Roberts cares about strategy. His approach to Roe has always been death by a thousand cuts: with every ruling, give the state more power to restrict abortions, but never actually come out and say you're overturning Roe. That was an effective strategy. Most people didn't see what was really happening, and the news media did their usual job uncritically repeating GOP spin.
Roberts would have preferred to maintain that strategy, but ACB's confirmation meant it wasn't his decision anymore. The GOP did exactly what it had been promising to do for decades: focused on state legislatures and the Supreme Court until Roe got overturned.