Posted on 07/31/2005 1:19:25 PM PDT by KMB
For the past 20 years, there's been a discussion in political circles and the media about the "fault lines" in the Republican party over the hot-button social issues such as the death penalty, abortion, affirmative action and gay rights.
The presumption has always been that these issues would ultimately cause a rift between conservatives and moderates that would split the Republican coalition. The pundits and the MSM have been expecting and predicting this split for as long as I've been watching politics and they've been puzzled by the fact that it has never occurred.
I believe that the reason that it hasn't occurred is that the underlying assumptions are wrong. There are no "moderate" Republicans. I think Republicans are almost all conservative. Today, there are no Republicans left who are philosophically in line with Nelson Rockefeller, John Anderson, Lowell Weicker or Mark Hatfield. I know that this line of reasoning may be challenged by the Maine & Rhode Island Republican senators but the Republicans in those states (who vote Republican in presidential elections) are conservatives. The New England Republican Senators get elected by appealing to Democrats in overwhelmingly Democratic states.
There were approximately 62 million people who voted for GW Bush in 2004. I believe that probably 61.5 million of those people (1) support the death penalty (2) oppose affirmative action and (3) oppose gay marriage. I also believe that an equally high percentage of Bush voters (even those who are pro-choice) believe that the Roe v. Wade case was a hideous decision.
Pro-choice Republicans also are aware of the dirty little secret of the abortion debate -- which is that even if Roe v. Wade were overturned tomorrow, there would probably be no effect... There are probably no more than 7 - 9 states where abortion would actually be outlawed and there are currently few (or no) abortion doctors practicing in those states today anyway. Overall, the number of abortions occurring in the next ten years would only be affected by 1% or less if Roe v. Wade were reversed.
So this is, I believe, why the Republican coalition never cracked or splintered. It has confounded and infuriated the opposition but the Republican coalition really never had the fault lines that so many people thought it had.
However, I now think that one may be developing. The impending divisions in the Republican party won't be "moderate" vs. "conservative". It will be "evangelical conservative" vs. "non evangelical conservative". The issues that cause the breach won't be abortion, the death penalty, gay marriage or affirmative action. Instead the divisions will be caused over: (1) stem cell research, (2) evolution and (3) the Terri Schiavo case.
I think that 25 years from now, we'll all look back on the Terri Schiavo case as a cataclysmic event in American politics. There were tens of millions of people who looked at the pictures of Terri Schiavo and thought just one thing: "My god, if that ever happens to me, pull the plug, stop the feeding or do whatever it takes to finish me off."
At the time many Republican leaders spoke of the fact that this was a unique case but the tone of the debate both in and out of the media was that this was essentially a first step.
I remember that pro-Brady Bill and pro-Assault weapons ban politicians repeatedly assured the public that this wouldn't mean banning guns while activists and media pundits indicated that this was a first step towards doing so.
With the Terri Schiavo case, activists -- evangelicals --similarly didn't view this as a unique case but as a first step towards preventing feeding tube or life support removal in any case regardless of living wills or not.
This had an effect on non-evangelical Republicans or "secular Republicans" . . . By itself, I don't think that it would be enough to cause a breach but this isn't just one issue. The other issues that are occurring at the same time are an inexplicable renewed debate over evolution and the stem cell research debate.
With regard to the former, there's no polite or nice way to put it so I'll just be direct. People who believe in evolution think that people who don't believe in evolution are idiots -- pure and simple. The perception that an evolution believer has of a non-evolution believer is of a person saying, "Duh, my grandfather wasn't no ape."
Secular Republicans look at people who publicly discuss their doubts about evolution and who don't want it taught in public schools with utter disgust.
With regard to stem cell research, secular Republicans are excited at the prospects and supportive of practically any scientific research and they simmer at the thought of obstruction of research on religious grounds.
These three issues: evolution, Terri Schiavo and stem cell research are close to causing (or may have already caused) an irrepairable breach in the Republican coalition.
I'm a conservative. I believed in a 2nd war against in Iraq to remove the regime of Saddam Hussein as early as 1998. I also believe in making the '01 & '03 tax cuts permanent; drilling in anwar; that members of al Qaeda who are captured are illegal soldiers and not entitled to due process. I believe in progressive indexing of SS benefits, support the confirmation of John Roberts, think Antonin Scalia is the ideal justice and favor ballistic missile defense.
I also support the death penalty, oppose affirmative action, oppose gay marriage and think that the Roe v. Wade decision was a farce. I could go on but the point is made -- I'm a conservative....
But, I also accept the truth that the human species has a pre-history and I support stem cell research and I think that keeping Terri Schiavo's existance without life going was cruel and sadistic. That feeding tube should've never been inserted 14 years ago.
As a result of all of this, I now find myself in a position that I would have never dreamed of 5 or 10 years ago which is that I object to Hillary Clinton far, far less than I object to Tom Delay. Or Rick Santorum. Or Sam Brownback. Or Tom Tancredi.
Hopefully, Rudy Guiliani will be the nominee in '08 and make this all a moot point but if he isn't then I'm confronted with the possibility that I'll probably vote for Hillary Clinton despite the fact that she stands against so much that I believe in.
If there are others like me out there, and I think there are, then get ready for a 2nd Clinton Administration.
Huh! I'll have to try to remember that. Bill wants to do the Astronomy merit badge.
Right now he's driving us crazy with Food Safety!
I want light colors, that will make it seem warmer in the winter. In Oklahoma, we had the kitchen and dining room pale peach, and it looked like the lights were on even when they weren't. We'll probably do a bedroom that color, later in the year. Maybe the girls' room - girly, but not TOO girly :-). I told the kids they could have wallpaper borders, once we get the walls painted.
We did our living room in Laura Ashley's Cinnamon Swirl. It is kind of peachy, but not bright..just very warm.
Which one do you watch? I watch Days
I watch General Hospital. I wouldn't have started watching it except that in LV, the news came on at 11:30 in the morning, and rather than have to change in the middle of a show, I began to watch "Port Charles" which was half an hour. And then some of the characters from GH would show up on PC, and it made me curious. PC is no longer on except on Soapnet, but I can't get that, so I watch GH. *sigh* (I have no life, so I watch a soap...)
:o[
CG...
I showed that pic to my wife and she absolutely loves it......
Sounds pretty.
Hey you got the same dining room chairs we have! Good taste.
Hi there stranger! Long time no type.
hey!!
I've been doing more lurking than anything else, save one flame war the other day...
what's up?
Just waiting for college football here :)
football? not my forte! I do like basketball. The last 2 games of the Finals are the ones I watch. Fair weather fan I guess. I enjoyed the Detroit Pistons Final. Would have been better had they won.
LOL
I watch the NCAA finals, but pretty much once the Pacers and Suns and maybe even the Heat were out, I kinda lost interest.... :)
I talked my husband into doing our bedroom in PINK with sponging. Oh I think it's gorgeous, but he went out and bought some off white paint to re-do it. I guess he's having a hard time with the pink.
We put a jacuzzi in this summer and used some tile that looks cinnamon looking so we'll match one wall with that color I think...
Hi Laura E.
We are talking dogs.
I am about summered out.
Little guy is growing up.
Have you tried a magic eraser.
They actually work.
Sunspots and flares follow an eleven year cycle. The galactic dust appears to be an approximate 20,000 year rate.
On top of this, the nutation of the Earth's axis occurs in an eighteen point six year cycle, and the precession of the equinoxes takes 26000 years.
All of these cycles augment or dissipate each other to some degree, and the wild oscillations in climate over millenia are the result.
Some effects can be predicted, but precision is not guaranteed.
A comparison of the effects of galactic dust versus warm snow is that warm snow would cause snow cover on land, which would indeed cause cooling, much as volcanic dust may do, but it would be a temporary phenomenon.
The galactic dust could have much longer-term effects, perhaps lingering for much longer than volcanic dust might, or than the "warm snow" was projected to last.
The trick is, anything that can cause a massive shift in snow-cover or glaciation can have a very long term effect, if it lasts long enough to kick-start the ice-age.
Imperial Weatherman out.
You do good work. It is very attractive and very bold.
Want to come to my house.
I laugh daily with them.
Solly can run like the wind, Jackie with shorter legs doesn't stand a chance. Jackie is quick on the turns .
When they chase each other through the house, Jackie does donuts around furniture, and ducks under the coffee table to throw Solly off.
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