Zeno Swijtink
02-03-2009, 02:33 PM
Has a Stake Really Been Driven Through Social Wedge Issues? (https://online.wsj.com/article/SB123328235652232041.html)
NAFTALI BENDAVID - Wall Street Journal
The political culture wars may be going the way of the fights over the oil embargo or the Soviet missile gap.
Democrats have been de-emphasizing social issues for years, finding that their positions on abortion and gay rights didn't play well with many centrists. They also discovered that expanding the Democratic tent to include more social conservatives has boosted their appeal in Southern and Western states.
Candidates for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee debated early this month.
Some Republicans now worry that their recent focus on issues like gay marriage, gun rights, and late-term abortions -- considered a winning strategy for years -- may have backfired in the past two campaigns.
Now add in the financial crisis. With voters concerned about their finances to the near-exclusion of everything else, the next few elections are likely to revolve around jobs, stimulus and tax cuts, not abortion and gun rights.
"It's not to say these are just symbolic issues," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind. But in a time of war and financial crisis, "people tend to focus on pragmatic issues, rather than what the framers meant in 1789."
Polls suggest that few Americans now feel the government should be involved in social issues. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll earlier this month, 62% of adults surveyed said the economy was an important issue demanding government action, and 47% listed other domestic issues. Just 7% cited "social issues" compared with 21% a decade ago.
That may not signal a new, enduring era in American politics in which all culture wars are fought away from the political centerstage. But it is a clean break from recent campaigns.
In 2000, George W. Bush won in part by contrasting his religious and moral values with Bill Clinton's personal problems. In 2004, Republicans used state referendums on gay marriage to draw out conservatives and help deliver another victory.
But their sense of victory, some Republicans say, led them too far. The turning point may have been the Terri Schiavo case in March 2005, when a Florida man, Michael Schiavo, sought to remove the feeding tube from his wife who was in a persistent vegetative state. Republican leaders came back to Washington during a recess to pass a law preventing the tube's removal. Many voters reacted with distaste to politicians injecting themselves into this painful personal matter.
GOP strategist David Winston is among those who believe his party has stopped responding to the public's priorities. "Sometimes a party says, 'You are interested in this,' and the public says, 'No, really, I'm not,' " Mr. Winston said.
In the 2008 election, John McCain played down social issues, seeming to underscore the GOP's move away from them. As for Democrats, polls consistently showed over the past quarter century that voters in broad regions of the country disliked the party's positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights. When Al Gore narrowly lost the 2000 election, some strategists blamed the party's emphasis on gun control and abortion rights.
President Obama personifies the new politics in many ways. He is classically liberal on many social issues, but does not place them front-and-center on his agenda. He rose to prominence by opposing the Iraq war, and then rode to the presidency stressing economic issues, not social ones.
Mr. Obama supports gun control, but also the individual right to own guns; backs gay rights, but opposes same-sex marriage; is pro-choice, but voted "present" on abortion bills in the Illinois legislature.
And he has signaled his desire for a truce in the culture wars by selecting evangelical superstar Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, infuriating gay-rights activists, a reliable Democratic constituency, because of Mr. Warren's forceful opposition to gay marriage.
But liberal activists who campaigned for Mr. Obama are now seeking something in return. In his first days in office, the president overturned a rule that had forbidden groups overseas that receive U.S. aid from discussing abortion, performing abortions, or from advocating abortion rights. But he did it quietly, in an apparent attempt to reflect his party's longtime values without reigniting cultural conflict.
It is the Republicans, however, who face the toughest questions, given their defeats in the past two elections. The party's internal debate is exemplified by the unusually fierce contest for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee which will be decided Friday. Candidates range from Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state who is a favorite of evangelicals, to Michael Steele, the moderate former Maryland lieutenant governor.
The outcome may determine whether Republican leaders heed voices within the party fretting that the GOP has alienated independents. "They need a game plan to appeal to a large swath of the country that has said they don't want to be that conservative," said John Feehery, a former aide to Dennis Hastert, the former Republican House speaker.
But this is an ongoing debate. Republican consultant Gregory Mueller, for one, predicts that as Democrats press ahead with goals like taxpayer-funded abortions, they will overplay their hand and these issues will play well for Republicans.
"If Republicans ever want to find our way back to the majority," Mr. Mueller said, "it must start with stressing culture-of-life issues surrounding abortion and gay marriage, issues that we ran on in 2000 and 2004, but left off the issue table in 2008."
NAFTALI BENDAVID - Wall Street Journal
The political culture wars may be going the way of the fights over the oil embargo or the Soviet missile gap.
Democrats have been de-emphasizing social issues for years, finding that their positions on abortion and gay rights didn't play well with many centrists. They also discovered that expanding the Democratic tent to include more social conservatives has boosted their appeal in Southern and Western states.
Candidates for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee debated early this month.
Some Republicans now worry that their recent focus on issues like gay marriage, gun rights, and late-term abortions -- considered a winning strategy for years -- may have backfired in the past two campaigns.
Now add in the financial crisis. With voters concerned about their finances to the near-exclusion of everything else, the next few elections are likely to revolve around jobs, stimulus and tax cuts, not abortion and gun rights.
"It's not to say these are just symbolic issues," said Paul Helmke, president of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence and a former Republican mayor of Fort Wayne, Ind. But in a time of war and financial crisis, "people tend to focus on pragmatic issues, rather than what the framers meant in 1789."
Polls suggest that few Americans now feel the government should be involved in social issues. In a Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll earlier this month, 62% of adults surveyed said the economy was an important issue demanding government action, and 47% listed other domestic issues. Just 7% cited "social issues" compared with 21% a decade ago.
That may not signal a new, enduring era in American politics in which all culture wars are fought away from the political centerstage. But it is a clean break from recent campaigns.
In 2000, George W. Bush won in part by contrasting his religious and moral values with Bill Clinton's personal problems. In 2004, Republicans used state referendums on gay marriage to draw out conservatives and help deliver another victory.
But their sense of victory, some Republicans say, led them too far. The turning point may have been the Terri Schiavo case in March 2005, when a Florida man, Michael Schiavo, sought to remove the feeding tube from his wife who was in a persistent vegetative state. Republican leaders came back to Washington during a recess to pass a law preventing the tube's removal. Many voters reacted with distaste to politicians injecting themselves into this painful personal matter.
GOP strategist David Winston is among those who believe his party has stopped responding to the public's priorities. "Sometimes a party says, 'You are interested in this,' and the public says, 'No, really, I'm not,' " Mr. Winston said.
In the 2008 election, John McCain played down social issues, seeming to underscore the GOP's move away from them. As for Democrats, polls consistently showed over the past quarter century that voters in broad regions of the country disliked the party's positions on abortion, gun control and gay rights. When Al Gore narrowly lost the 2000 election, some strategists blamed the party's emphasis on gun control and abortion rights.
President Obama personifies the new politics in many ways. He is classically liberal on many social issues, but does not place them front-and-center on his agenda. He rose to prominence by opposing the Iraq war, and then rode to the presidency stressing economic issues, not social ones.
Mr. Obama supports gun control, but also the individual right to own guns; backs gay rights, but opposes same-sex marriage; is pro-choice, but voted "present" on abortion bills in the Illinois legislature.
And he has signaled his desire for a truce in the culture wars by selecting evangelical superstar Rick Warren to deliver the invocation at his inauguration, infuriating gay-rights activists, a reliable Democratic constituency, because of Mr. Warren's forceful opposition to gay marriage.
But liberal activists who campaigned for Mr. Obama are now seeking something in return. In his first days in office, the president overturned a rule that had forbidden groups overseas that receive U.S. aid from discussing abortion, performing abortions, or from advocating abortion rights. But he did it quietly, in an apparent attempt to reflect his party's longtime values without reigniting cultural conflict.
It is the Republicans, however, who face the toughest questions, given their defeats in the past two elections. The party's internal debate is exemplified by the unusually fierce contest for the chairmanship of the Republican National Committee which will be decided Friday. Candidates range from Kenneth Blackwell, a former Ohio secretary of state who is a favorite of evangelicals, to Michael Steele, the moderate former Maryland lieutenant governor.
The outcome may determine whether Republican leaders heed voices within the party fretting that the GOP has alienated independents. "They need a game plan to appeal to a large swath of the country that has said they don't want to be that conservative," said John Feehery, a former aide to Dennis Hastert, the former Republican House speaker.
But this is an ongoing debate. Republican consultant Gregory Mueller, for one, predicts that as Democrats press ahead with goals like taxpayer-funded abortions, they will overplay their hand and these issues will play well for Republicans.
"If Republicans ever want to find our way back to the majority," Mr. Mueller said, "it must start with stressing culture-of-life issues surrounding abortion and gay marriage, issues that we ran on in 2000 and 2004, but left off the issue table in 2008."