The AP has an article warning Republicans across the country that there might be a backlash if they pursue social issues. I guess the warning isn’t technically from the AP; the author stuck the fact in someone’s mouth when writing the article, so I guess that makes it a news piece. But, I have a hard time believing the author couldn’t have found a person willing to say there would be a backlash if they didn’t pursue social issues.
Anyway, the premise of the article is that voters voted for Republicans because of economic issues and they pursue social issues at their own peril. That might be true. In fact, I suspect it is true, but the article seems weird as a news piece instead of an opinion piece.
Anyway, I expect the temptation to go to the social legislation bag of tricks will prove irresistable. Economic solutions are difficult, painful, complicated, and unlikely to be rewarded by voters. Social issues are emotional and immediate, even if divisive. Social issue solutions don’t need to be effective to be popular in some quarters. (See, e.g., ‘abstinence only’ education’s ineffectiveness.) And they’re easy to talk about on the campaign trail. Try talking about homestead replacement credits, and watch eyes glaze over. Talk about how They are taking away Our country and how it’s time to Fight Back, and suddenly you’re William Wallace in Braveheart.
Doug, I keep telling my friends in the LGBT community that the social issues are easy for this majority. It doesn’t cost them much in votes and they reinforce their base. But as you notice with abortion, they often string those folks along.. knowing they don’t really want to do the heavier restrictions, but needing them to go out and beat on doors. They say the right rhetoric and never really change things when they have a chance. They stop all legislation to federalize a vegetative state case — Terry Schaivo — but do nothing to fund research that might find solutions.
I am amazed that more Christians don’t realize they get used by the right. You could probably say the same thing about unions & the left…
I know I’m preaching to the choir here, but Republicans have a pretty poor record when it comes to the social justice portions of Christianity.
It isn’t the right that use Christians; it is the unethical Republicans. The Republican party is not a right-based party. Christians get fooled because they are often ignorant, and have for generations believed many foolish ideas that necessitate they do foolish actions. I am also a Christian and embarrassed by their continued ignorance.
If conservative Christians were more concerned about truth than trying to find justification for a presupposed idea, their hearts wouldn’t be tagged by every politician that throws out buzz words. But the same can be said of the left. You say “social justice” and the leftist’s heart just melts.
IndyCAD
IndyCAD, if you want to separate out “the right” from “Republicans”, I understand your opinion, I just disagree with it. Going to need quite a bit longer of this Tea Party movement before I can say that Republicans no longer represent the right as a generalization.
Best I can tell right now, most of them are just operating on buzzwords – none of them have the guts to actually detail what they would cut, and how those cuts would be greater than keeping the Bush tax cuts for the super rich. It’s just insanity.
I don’t like the idea of raising taxes one bit, but if we as a country cannot cut spending (and we don’t seem to have the appetite to do so), the only fiscally responsible thing to do is raise taxes. You cannot spend more than you take in.
So true. As a friend once said, explaining a two-hour discussion of a trivial issue by a government board, people talk about what they understand. The implication is very depressing.