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.
Physics dictates that everything is reversible, so all we have to do is capture the outflowing information stream, and then reverse its operation in the reconstruction chamber.
Minus any insects, of course.
If it was started in second gear, then that's the gear you have to drive from...I drove an old Ford flatbed and it didn't even need a clutch, because the tranny was so "soft." (I had to remember to stop before I put it in reverse, however....)
It got me from Point A to Point B, and since my son was a toddler, I was grateful!
No, you don't! And I don't blame you.
You should go somewhere else, somewhere safe.
Just step up onto the platform and hold onto the handrail. There may be a moment of discomfort...
:7)
"...Minus any insects, of course."
You know as well as I do that La Cucaracha will most likely accompany us into space (inner OR outer) and that we will have to have certain *ahem* security measures to prevent the multiplication of said critters.
*shudder* I loathe and detest insects when they insist on taking back the space that I stole from them...
When you lock your front door, and go whistling off to work, you are temporarily "undomiciled."
I'm thinking there could be advantages to being in a place nobody could find, though. Especially the tax collector.
Reference: "Narrow Valley" short story from decades ago.
This was a reference to "The Fly" movie.
His "matter-transmitter" became a gene-splicer.
I think this could have been the story...
Narrow Valley • R. A. Lafferty • ss F&SF Sep ’66
Yah. Well. I didn't like flies then, and I don't like roaches now.
However, Vincent Price was to die for! AND! He was an excellent cook, with at least one book under his belt. ;o]
David Heddison, on the other hand, was kinda wimpy.
(Did I ever tell you that I met David Janssen's mom when I worked at the camera shop in Tarzana? She came in with photos of him that she wanted enlarged, so she could put them on her mantle. She was "my next door neighbor" for as long as I worked there, and she even asked for me on my days off. She was so proud of him.)
"...David Heddison, on the other hand, was kinda wimpy.
(Did I ever tell you that I met David Janssen's mom ..."
Word association...*ducking*
I'm a conservative Christian, and I will not be voting republican next time, unless Bush stops the influx of illegal aliens AND deports the ones already here.
I'm all tuckered out from being lead down the garden path by the republicrats for as long as I can remember. This is where I get off the merry-go-round.
I'm not Darks, but I think you are either angry or disgusted. Or maybe both.
I'm kinda lost in your statement, bnut I really would like to understand...
Talk to me. You can do it be FReepmail if that's easier for you.
You haven't been here long enough to be "tuckered out."
We're conservative here, (and on this thread, we're building a castle where you are most certainly welcome!) and you have a WONDERFUL screen name!
Please, don't judge all people by the few you have met here. And if you have questions, just ask, and I'll be more than happy to try and answer them. ;o]
Uh oh!
I thought you were a guy. Am I wrong about that?
Nice! Don't fear the reaper.
Whew!
I think no one will object to a free drink..."I think that I shall never see, a FReeper refuse a drink that's free." (My apologies to Whatsisname...)
I think that I shall never see
a billboard lovely as a tree.
Perhaps, unless the billboards fall,
I'll never see a tree at all.
Ogden Nash
US humorist & poet (1902 - 1971)
LOL!
I love Ogden Nash!
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