Posted on 03/23/2005 4:46:14 AM PST by billorites
Washington — THE Congressional vote on Monday allowing Terri Schiavo's parents to take her case to a federal court underscores the success of Christian conservatives in defining the last election as having been decided by moral values. But political strategists may not want to bank too heavily on this assessment. Especially on life-and-death issues, support for moral values among Americans must contend with a deeply held pragmatism.
It is rare for Washington politicians to buck public opinion. An ABC News poll conducted on Sunday found a 63 percent to 28 percent majority supporting removal of Ms. Schiavo's feeding tube. The poll also found that the public, by a margin of 70 percent to 27 percent, opposes Congressional involvement in the case. Fully 67 percent of the poll's participants thought members of Congress were more focused on using the Schiavo case for political advantage than on the principles involved.
The ABC poll tracks with a new Gallup poll and a Fox News survey in early March in which 59 percent of respondents said they would end Ms. Schiavo's life support if they were her guardian. Such wide margins in nationwide surveys reflect broad bipartisan support. The ABC survey had a 54 percent majority of conservatives and a 61 percent majority of Republicans supporting the decision to remove the feeding tube.
But despite such public sentiment, the Congressional vote was lopsided. Republicans encountered little resistance in their effort to give the federal courts jurisdiction over Ms. Schiavo's case. Many Democrats did not show up for the vote and those who did were split.
While there were probably more votes of conscience in Congress on the bill than the public thinks, it is also pretty clear that the Christian conservative movement now has the clout on life-and-death issues to do what the National Rifle Association has done for years on gun control. Strengthened by the results of the November elections, the movement can convey to legislators that the intensity of their constituents' beliefs is more important than the balance of national public opinion. Swayed by this reasoning, more than a few Democrats may be more interested in moving to the right on moral values than in staking out the middle of the political landscape.
The problem with this strategy for the Democrats, and even perhaps for many Republicans, is that Americans have a strong pragmatic streak. While most Americans may say they believe in creationism rather than evolution, on issues that directly affect their own lives, like health and protection of the quality of life, science wins.
Take note, for example, of the increasing support for stem-cell research. A nationwide Pew poll last August found respondents by a 52 percent to 34 percent margin saying it was more important to conduct stem-cell research that might result in new cures than to avoid destroying the potential life of embryos. Two years earlier, when this issue was first emerging, the public was more evenly divided, with 43 percent in favor and 38 percent against .
The August poll, taken during the presidential campaign, had another noteworthy lesson: the middle of the electorate, the swing voters, not only cared a lot about the stem-cell issue but also backed stem-cell research by nearly a two-to-one margin.
Demography is another cautionary constraint. As the electorate ages and baby boomers further dominate the political discussion, they will tend to push public opinion in the direction that reflects their own situations. Remember, Roe v. Wade was handed down in the 1970's, when this same generation was focused on procreation. Now it is struggling with aging, health care and end-of-life questions. As a consequence, these issues are as likely to evoke intense beliefs on both sides of the issue, not just on the conservative side. Witness the new ABC poll, which found that strong support for removing the feeding tubes was twice as great as strong support for keeping them in place.
Christian conservatives have a lot of political capital these days, most of it earned, some of it overstated. Public reaction to Congress's intervention in the Schiavo case may well test whether they have enough standing to run against public opinion on end-of-life issues. But unlike gun control, where groups like the National Rifle Association have disproportionate political power in rural areas and states, end-of-life issues are a full-court game.
Potentially arrayed against conservatives are elderly people, who vote heavily, as well as baby boomers, who always have numbers on their side. These voters, increasingly concerned about these issues in their own lives, may well be wary of political constraints on the tough choices they or their families may face.
One-third of the respondents to the ABC News poll reported that a friend or relative had died after life support was stopped. And more than half of these respondents were involved in the decision. Like Social Security, end-of-life issues hit close to home, where ideology and partisanship play much less of a role than an all-too-human self-interest.
Andrew Kohut is president of the Pew Research Center.
Who ever said this was a political strategy? The Republicans? NO. the MSM!
Unbelieveable that they state the public is against this, then feed the line they did this for political gain.
Oh yeah, the Pew Center. That non biased research place that admitted it engaged in political subterfuge in support of campaign finance reform. Uh huh.
This ABC Poll is being touted right and left by the MSM. Yet, take a look at the way the question was phrased and you will see that the respondents were duped into thinking that Terri was lying comatose in a bed with all manner of breathing apparatus and artificial life support sustaining her. A lot of mileage for a fraudulent poll.
Of course, you realize that they surveyed the women coming out of the Abortion Clinic, employees of the ACLU, employees of NOW, Cosmopolitan Magizne, etc.
They never asked ME!
The New York Slimes lives down to its own level.
GAG.
I am very glad that liberals are our opponents, they are too dumb to ever win again, ever.
And try as I might I can't come up with a word to describe what has gone along with Mr. Schiavo's actions over the past many years.
(Well, I can but I'd be thrown out of the "Christian Conservative Movement" if I repeated any of them.)
The big cautionary constraint is lack of knowledge. On both issues the truth is being hidden by the MSM. These demographics skew toward people who still get most of their information from the MSM and believe the MSM when they say, "And that's the way it is."
Terri Schiavo is not on life support, is not in a coma, and is not in a "permanent vegitative state." Fetal stem cell research shows almost no promise, especially when compared with umbilical and adult stem cell research. When people know these facts they answer differently than when they don't.
Shalom.
"A nationwide Pew poll last August found respondents by a 52 percent to 34 percent margin saying it was more important to conduct stem-cell research that might result in new cures than to avoid destroying the potential life of embryos."
I think we should trust Pew----NOT
THE STENCH FROM PEW (videotape exposes phony buzz created for McCain-Feingold CFR) ^http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=pew
and in this case, it is called leadership -- as opposed to a society and an elite that is callous about the value of human life.
The GOP has shown that they can draft a bill, pass it, and get it to the President's desk, all in a weekend, even if the public opinion polls are strongly pointing the other way.
I damn well expect them to show the same determination to get my taxes down to a reasonable level, stop 15.3% of my paycheck from vanishing down a black hole, win in Iraq or get the hell out of it (either would be an improvement), et cetera. I very much doubt that this is a unique opinion.
Libs too dumb to ever win, may you be right but they are evil and very, very immoral. Rules do not apply to Demon-crats
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