Why weren't Democrats prepared for the end of Roe?

The cynical, but not entirely illegitimate, answer is that Democrats liked to leave hanging over voters’ heads the possibility that Roe would be overturned. It was an effective “get out the vote” talking point, not to mention a fundraising boon. There’s an analogue for this on the right: For years, many Republican elites could have cared less about abortion and had little to no intention of ever actually acting on the issue. But they understood its political potency for turning out their base. Mac Stipanovich, who served as chief of staff to Bob Martinez, Florida’s former Republican governor, recently made a telling comment to a New Yorker reporter:

There was always an element of the Republican Party that was batsh** crazy. They had lots of different names — they were John Birchers, they were “movement conservatives,” they were the religious right. And we did what every other Republican candidate did: we exploited them. We got them to the polls. We talked about abortion. We promised — and we did nothing. They could grumble, but their choices were limited.

In other words, contempt for the base voters who care deeply about abortion is a bipartisan phenomenon. But the difference is that the GOP, unlike the Democrats, finally delivered. I am often a vocal critic of the Republican establishment, but we should give credit where credit is due. This was not something that happened in one fell swoop; it occurred over the course of five decades of work.