Air2air, I don’t understand why something cannot be a social issue *and* a political one.
Maybe you see the battle lines on the right as being between the social conservatives and everyone else. I just don’t see it that way. I’m as anti-abortion as anyone on this thread, and I do consider myself to be a religious conservative. But from a public policy perspective, at the federal level, the only thing I advocate is to remove that spurious reading of the Constitution that defined abortion as a constitutional right. Let it fall to the states. I think that’s a perfectly reasonable position, and a moderate one. Or if it is not moderate, then how far have the strict constructionists fallen!
But if we concede to liberal Republicans that maybe Roe v. Wade has a point, we won’t have the principle of “strict constructionism” anymore. There’s more at stake, in other words, than abortion.
(I’m confident that pro-lifers would prevail at the state level in all but a few states.)
But the real issue is, when will Republicans realize that the anti-liberal coalition needs not just to be built, but to be maintained? For too long, they have come around every election year, hat in hand, and tried to energize the various factions of the right by demonizing the Left. Hey, you know, sometimes the Left deserves it. But then the Republicans themselves are more than happy to forget who voted for them and try to pander to the liberals. Big tents, and all that. It’s an insult, frankly, to the people who vote Republican.
Sometimes, it takes more than lip-service. Sometimes, it means allowing the more conservative Toomey to defeat Arlen Specter in the primary, rather than to rush in to assist Specter with personal appearances and party money, and consequently showing disrespect to the religious conservatives and strict constructionists who voted for you (and by the way, how did that turn out?).
Sometimes, it means not trying to avoid a debate in the Senate about constitutional interpretation, but relishing the opportunity and taking the initiative.
Sometimes, it means not raising steel tariffs because you know it’s economically counter-productive to do so.
Sometimes, it means opposing illegal immigration (against the corporations’ interests) and taking the initiative to defend ordinary Americans and their children from federally-subsidized multi-cultural brainwashing.
All of these issues and more are very important to several different brands of conservatives, including my own brand — but Republicans could not be bothered to articulate and defend these positions. They’d rather send the pusillanimous Sen. Graham out to call their own voters a bunch of bigots. They’d rather throw in the towel by appointing judges who appear on the Harry Reid short list. They’d rather spend money contributed by people who abhor everything Arlen Specter stands for, on protecting a powerful incumbent.
How did these guys get control of the Republican Party, anyway? And why do we let them set us on each other? Now that the Democrats have kicked their butts — the fruits of betrayal — it’s time for conservatives to warm up their kicking legs.
Religious conservatives and economic conservatives and law & order conservatives and national defense conservatives and traditionalist conservatives and libertarian/conservatives and strict-constructionist conservatives should not be fighting with each other. We should be united. We should be kicking the butts of establishment Republicans for botching their assignments and steadfastly refusing to take the fight to the liberals.
Face it, fellows: not every “conservative” cares as much about your pet institution under attack as you you do. As a religious conservative, boy, am I ever aware of this. But politics is about coalitions, and if there’s one thing that will never work, it’s giving one of your important factions the idea that their votes aren’t valued. Most of the calls for a “big tent” are simply a call for one of more of the factions to tolerate perennial betrayal.
Here’s a novel idea: let’s try defending our principles, rather than apologizing for them?
Let’s take the pointy end of our shoes, shall we, and take careful aim at the rear end of the GOP itself. We can work out the details about who gets what once we get power. There’s another way to make a big tent besides surrendering our principles. For a change, we can try winning the debates.
