Posted on 10/17/2006 7:22:11 PM PDT by Aussie Dasher
Even before U.S. Rep. Mark Foley's cybersex scandal, Republicans fighting to keep control of Congress were struggling to hold on to "values voters" who usually are energized by issues like gay marriage and abortion.
While such issues motivated the Republicans' social-conservative base in the past, they are overshadowed in this year's congressional election campaign by concerns about the Iraq war, the economy and national security, according to opinion polls and political strategists.
"Poverty, the wealth gap, health care - people can't afford Medicare. Something's got to be done about that," Sue Harrell, a school teacher in Monroe City, Indiana, said recently.
She said "Christian values" were important in previous votes but her top issues now are education and the prevalence of methamphetamine abuse and poverty in Knox County, Indiana.
Such talk has Republicans nervous and Democrats scenting opportunities to recapture the House after 12 years in the minority, as well as reduce the Republican advantage in the Senate.
An ABC-Washington Post poll released last week found that 23 percent of Americans surveyed cited Iraq or the war on terrorism as their top concerns in the Nov. 7 elections. Another 23 percent cited the economy. Democrats held the advantage in dealing with all three issues.
Just 2 percent of those surveyed cited either abortion or same-sex marriage as a top concern.
The scandal that began last month over former Florida Republican Rep. Foley's tawdry computer messages to teenage congressional assistants has only served to further dampen Republican enthusiasm.
"The social conservatives are ticked off by Foley," said Democratic pollster Doug Schoen. "The economic conservatives are ticked off by spending. And those who are concerned about foreign policy are ticked off by an America that is less safe and secure because of the war in Iraq. There's no real room for people to vote on social 'values' issues."
Democrats, in contrast, are highly motivated to vote, said American University political scientist Candice Nelson.
Support for Democrats by white evangelical Protestants, a core group of the so-called values voters, also has risen this year from 2004, the ABC/Washington Post poll showed.
Since his re-election in 2004, President Bush has catered to social-conservative priorities by appointing two conservatives to the U.S. Supreme Court and by issuing his first veto against a bill that would have expanded federal funding of embryonic stem cell research.
But few individual races this year are turning on such issues.
In Pennsylvania's Senate race, for instance, Democrats sidestepped an abortion fight by running anti-abortion Catholic Bob Casey against Sen. Rick Santorum, the anti-abortion Catholic Republican incumbent. Santorum is trailing in polls.
Similarly, several House races in conservative regions such as Harrell's Indiana district feature anti-abortion Democrats challenging Republican incumbents.
In Virginia, however, Republican Sen. George Allen's unexpectedly tight re-election bid could get a boost from a ballot measure to ban same-sex marriage. A Washington Post poll released Tuesday found that a fragile majority of state voters backed the ban.
More broadly, voters in states with such measures are paying less attention than in 2004, a Pew Research poll last week found.
Republicans have sought to highlight the prospect of Rep. Nancy Pelosi, a liberal Californian, becoming speaker of the House - the most powerful job in the House - should Democrats win.
Socially conservative voters "are no longer in love with the Republican majority but it is their distaste and fear of a Democratic majority that may drive them to vote," said Republican strategist Neil Newhouse.
Conservative leader Gary Bauer says a last-minute surge among values voters remains a strong possibility. Otherwise, "they really may wake up the next morning and find (liberal Democrat) Ted Kennedy in a leadership position in the Senate and Nancy Pelosi running the House," he said.
If they don't, there goes control of the Supreme Court. We lose the War on Terror. Pelosi, Lard Ass, F'n Kerry & comrades gain control of Congress and the next two years will be tied up with impeachment proceedings against the President.
For God's sake (literally), GET OUT and VOTE!!!!
I am a value voter. I value living in a country without Al Qaida and Al Qaida enablers running our country. I will be at the polls at 6am.
God bless yer!!!!!
Values-voters won't turn out and the democrats will gain in both chambers... and rightly so. The Republican party has failed to represent the views of its constituency and should be punished. I dread the day when Kerry/Clinton/Obam... whoever enters the white house with the other two branches in hand, but it will quicken the day when a third party, or a reformed Republican Party, will take up the agenda of the fundamentalist Christians. This is wishful thinking. I imagine the backlash to liberals gaining control will come in the form of a bastardized christian facism.
Hell of a price to pay because you're ticked off with the pubbies!!!
I imagine all the Republicans will be satisfied in the next 50 years. A strong conservative back-lash will come, if for no other reason than birth rates. "Liberals" don't have babies.
Mind-bloggling to think anyone could vote for Dems thinking they're going to
--reduce spending (aside from gutting defense)
--make America more secure from terrorist threats (when they provide legal and rhetorical aid and comfort to the enemy at every opportunity)
--stop spiraling healthcare costs (when they refuse to deal with the looming Social Security problem)
--Improve the moral climate of Congress (when they're led by Ted Kennedy, Barny Frank, Robert Byrd and Harry Reid)
--improve the economy (when they've already pledged to rescind tax cuts and push for Kyoto-type regulations on business)
The ideologues in control of the Democratic Party hate the successes of political/economic/cultural instutions they fundamentally abhor. They're not out to improve things, except by a twisted doublespeak. Destroying the America that is, and radically remaking it into the Amerika of their "progressive" (Marxist) vision, would be their "improvement".
50 YEARS??? I'm not that patient...
sorry, I wasn't clear. I'm under the impression that conservative ideals, not particularly Christian Conservatism, will dominate for the next 50 years.
Starting now? Oh, that's better!
Wealth gap? The middle went up, and there's nothing (other than productivity) from keeping the low from rising to the middle.
Way to spite your face. If you bleed to death from the face where your nose used to be, I can't say I will have any sympathy for you!
Yeah, right! Under the thugs you want to take over the country, your rights will be disolved and Christian Conservatism will be outlawed in less than 10 years.
Me thinks thou art a fool!
Christian voters are satisfied with their GOP Congressman/Senator even if they're angry at the party in general.
Since there's no way in Hell that they're going to vote Democrat, they're going to go out and vote Republican. Yeah, they'll hold the ole nose or curse under their breath, but they'll still vote nevertheless.
I expect the GOP to retain Congress and pick up several key Governor seats as well.
Just completed my Arizona mail-in ballot. Yes, I had to hold my nose a few times. But, that's politics, don't you know? That's being a grownup living in a grownup world. But I did my best to keep the damp paws of liberals off the levers of government and out of the pockets of the taxpayers. Now, my friends, you have to help me.
I don't wish that the dems take over, but I don't also don't want a party that panders to the fundamentalists long enough to get them to the polls. For various reasons, I do believe that conservatives will dominate for quite a long time... divorced (at least realistically) from the church.
Bob Casey isn't as pro-life as he is portrayed.
So...Because conservatives are supposedly p.o.'d at the Republicans, they're going to vote Democratic? That's like the chickens, being mad at the rooster, elect the fox to be in charge of the hen house. I don't believe people who traditionally have voted conservative are that intellectually challenged. I suspect the base will plod to the poles and do its duty as always, saving the unhappiness with their party for more constructive outlets of protest.
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