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Should the GOP dump social issues?
The Laura Ingraham Show ^ | March 31, 2013 | Laura Ingraham

Posted on 03/31/2013 10:26:22 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet

Recently reporter Thomas Edsall - who has spent most of the last 30 years covering politics for the Washington Post and the New Republic - had some advice for the GOP. He draws upon some recent polling data to argue that "the Republican Party can afford to marginalize . . . Christian right leaders because evangelical social conservatives . . . are not going to vote Democratic." Thus, he reasons that Republicans can, as he puts it, "concede defeat in the culture war" in the hopes of picking up more socially liberal voters.

Mr. Edsall might want to check with Governor Mike Huckabee, who knows a thing or two about evangelical voters. Huckabee suggested that evangelicals will "take a walk" from the GOP if the party supports gay marriage. He might also want to consider the 1996 Presidential election, when Bill Clinton carried red states such as Kentucky, Tennessee, West Virginia, Missouri, and Louisiana.

President Clinton's wife is the likely Democratic nominee in 2016, and it's safe to say that the Clintons - with their deep roots in Arkansas - know how to reach evangelical voters, especially if the GOP acts like it doesn't want them. I would also note that in both 2008 and 2012, the GOP did nominate Presidential candidates who were not popular with social conservatives - and those candidates fared poorly in the fall campaign. Next time around, conservative voters might just stay home, or throw their support to a democrat who they see as more sympathetic to the middle class. But, of course, the question of what sort of culture our children are going to inherit is a lot more important than the results of any one election.

The social issues are not merely a political football...

(Excerpt) Read more at lauraingraham.com ...


TOPICS: Arkansas; Issues; Parties; Polls
KEYWORDS: 2016; gop; gopcivilwar; hillary; socialconservatives
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Comments?
1 posted on 03/31/2013 10:26:23 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

I thought they already had.


2 posted on 03/31/2013 10:32:23 PM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (The GOP will never get another cent or vote from me. Thanks to the eight gangbangers.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Dumpe social issues?
hum?
Like life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.....sure why not, what good are they anyway.


3 posted on 03/31/2013 10:36:25 PM PDT by svcw (Why is one cell on another planet considered life, and in the womb it is not.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

This implies that they didn’t already dump them...not to mention every other type of issue.


4 posted on 03/31/2013 10:36:57 PM PDT by chris37 (Heartless.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

No! They should DEFINE them.


5 posted on 03/31/2013 10:37:59 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

and all those voters with them?


6 posted on 03/31/2013 10:41:04 PM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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Liberals keep moving the goal posts of what words mean.

Call them on it.


7 posted on 03/31/2013 10:41:11 PM PDT by mylife (The Roar Of The Masses Could Be Farts)
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To: svcw

its not like they are fiscally conservative either


8 posted on 03/31/2013 10:42:45 PM PDT by GeronL (http://asspos.blogspot.com)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet; Jim Robinson

//the Republican Party can afford to marginalize . . . Christian right leaders because evangelical social conservatives . . . are not going to vote Democratic.” //

Newsflash...some of us don’t vote Republican anymore either.

They dumped us a long time ago, Romney was the last straw. It is time to dump them for a CONSERVATIVE party and let them go the way of the whigs.

I am a Christian first, a conservative second, and left the GOP and joined the Constitution party.


9 posted on 03/31/2013 10:57:47 PM PDT by reaganaut (Kyrie eleison...Christe eleison...Kyrie eleison)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Hell NO!


10 posted on 03/31/2013 11:00:56 PM PDT by Jim Robinson (Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God!!)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Should the GOP keep selling out . . . ? What’s left to sell? They’ve all but signed their souls on the infernal dotted line in their own blood.


11 posted on 03/31/2013 11:04:20 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Absolutely NOT!!!


12 posted on 03/31/2013 11:12:39 PM PDT by tallyhoe
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Conservatives should, at the federal level, go back to defending the constitution. Period.

The "social issues" would be properly addressed if "conservatives" would quit voting for statism and collectivism at the federal level. Look where were are now - about 3 X the global GDP in debt - $150+ TRILLION and counting.

Run for office or elect conservatives at the state and local level where social issues can be lawfully addressed.

13 posted on 03/31/2013 11:15:18 PM PDT by uncommonsense (Conservatives believe what they see; Liberals see what they believe.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

The GOP should focus on the budget and related economic issues. The cost of government is leading to many social ills.

But, the GOP will not focus on the budget and related economic issues because they are pigs at the trough not interested the least in reducing the size of government.


14 posted on 03/31/2013 11:39:46 PM PDT by gunsequalfreedom (Conservative is not a label of convenience. It is a guide to your actions.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

i don’t care , i am done with ‘em as a whole. until rino leadership is gone and conservatives run it, i’m done with em as a group.


15 posted on 03/31/2013 11:43:24 PM PDT by Secret Agent Man (I can neither confirm or deny that; even if I could, I couldn't - it's classified.)
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To: FlingWingFlyer

PELLEY: Well, the platform as written at this convention for the Republicans does not allow for exceptions on abortion with regard to the health of the mother or rape or incest. Is that where you are?

ROMNEY: No. My position has been clear throughout this campaign. I’m in favor of abortion being legal in the case of rape and incest, and the health and life of the mother.


16 posted on 04/01/2013 12:24:30 AM PDT by ansel12 (The lefts most effective quote-I'm libertarian on social issues, but conservative on economics.)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Should the GOP dump social issues?
***Speaking as a socon, they already have. The GOP is on the same road the Whigs were on when the Republican party was formed. How many Whigs do you know today? The GOP is similarly doomed.

From my home page...

___________________________________________________________________

I’m a big tent republican.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1821435/posts?page=18455
Here’s an analogy to work with. Take a small box and fill it with some rocks. Then add some rice, filling it to the top. Now take all the same stuff, but in a different order. Put in the rice first, then add the rocks. What you’ll find is that if you put in the big stuff first, the small stuff will fit around it. But if you put in the small stuff first, the big stuff won’t have room. The republican tent is the box. The Big issues are the socon issues, to be put in first. The little issues are things that can be accommodated around the bigger stuff. A candidate who tries to focus on the smaller issues first and leave out the bigger issues has no way of getting all of us into the tent. He splits the party. The candidate who gets the big stuff right and as much of the little stuff that will fit, he can fit more into the tent. We’re often amazed at how much rice can keep fitting in. Folks such as Rudy or Romney flunk some of the big issues, and on some of the little issues it looks to me like anyone else’s rice would do just as well. All that remains for us to agree on is which are the bedrock principles and which are not. Why would there be so much invective aimed at rudy or romney from the right? Because there are some bedrock principles that he is leaving out. Bad move. I see rudybot and romneybot postings all the time saying that they would vote for Hunter or Palin, and I see socon postings that say they would not vote for rudy or romney. That’s a BIG indicator of a few bedrock principles that are being left outside the tent in order to let in some rice.

___________________________________________________________________


17 posted on 04/01/2013 12:24:59 AM PDT by Kevmo ("A person's a person, no matter how small" ~Horton Hears a Who)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Should the GOP dump social issues?

"What difference does it make?"


18 posted on 04/01/2013 12:38:00 AM PDT by Lancey Howard
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To: 2ndDivisionVet

Only if they wish to win women’s votes.


19 posted on 04/01/2013 12:40:17 AM PDT by entropy12 (The republic is doomed cuz people have figured out they can get free stuff by voting democrats)
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To: 2ndDivisionVet
Should the GOP dump social issues?

The GOP doesn't have to dump social issues; they just need people who can argue their case like mature adults.

If the social issues had been debated from a constitutional perspective, the culture war would have been won forty years ago. The right to life would have been preserved as a 4th Amendment guarantee. Ditto the other blatant abuses of Amendments 1, 2, 4, 5, 9, and 10.

20 posted on 04/01/2013 1:03:10 AM PDT by meadsjn
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