Posted on 12/07/2008 3:37:53 PM PST by neverdem
AN iron law of recent American politics dictates that any Republican setback at the polls will be quickly pinned on the pro-life movement. You might think that the Republican Party’s 2008 debacle would be an exception to this rule. John McCain probably mentioned earmarks about a thousand times more often than he let the word “abortion” slip his lips. The Republican ticket’s weak attempts to play the culture-war card — a Bill Ayers here, a Joe the Plumber there — had nothing whatsoever to do with Roe v. Wade. And why should abortion opponents, of all conservative factions, take the blame for the financial meltdown, or the bungled occupation of Iraq, or the handling of Hurricane Katrina?
But never mind. Pro-choice Republicans, in particular, know exactly whom to blame for their party’s showing. As Christie Whitman, the former New Jersey governor and Bush administration E.P.A. chief, explained after the election, it lost because “the party was taken hostage by ‘social fundamentalists,’ the people who base their votes on such social issues as abortion.”
The conservative columnist Kathleen Parker made the same point more vividly: “The evangelical, right-wing, oogedy-boogedy branch of the G.O.P. is what ails the erstwhile conservative party.” The neoconservative writer Max Boot was diffident about the matter (“I don’t think Republicans need to panic,” he wrote, but “one area where I do see some room for adjustment is on the issue of abortion”) and the right-wing humorist P. J. O’Rourke was blunt (pro-lifers should “give the issue a rest”). The message is clear: If the Republican Party would only jettison its position on abortion, it would be back on its feet in no time.
For pro-lifers, these refrains are as frustrating as they are familiar. But more frustrating than the blame game is the equally familiar advice that...
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
Apparently not. McCain did not run commercials stating that he was Pro-Life and pointing out that Obama is Pro-Death.
I thought that the Evangelicals were the current favorite for who was at fault. Now it’s the pro-life movement?!?
Next, we’ll find that gore-bull warming is to blame!
Not to mix football with the subject of abortion....
....but I was so impressed with Tim Tibow's takedown of #1 Alabama, carrying his own team on his back, that I looked up his bio in wikipedia. It says his mother was advised to get an abortion when she was pregnant with him. Amazing.
Ross Douthat wrote a book called “Grand New Party” this summer. It talks about how Republicans need to prove to the world that they must be pro-problem solvers and pro-competent. Douthat seems to be quite moderate in his views, but is for building consensus with Socons.
>> what doomed the GOP was the Lehman’s initiated crash followed by the bailout
We were doomed at the point the primaries began. Too bad Sarah was part of that process.
If the 21st Century Republican Congress is a measure of the GOP field, the problem continues. I think it’s going to take more than donations to fix the GOP — grassroots activism may be the only option — and the door-to-door activism needs to begin right away.
The Fundamentalists are the ones who got Bush elected. I guess they still have he liberals nervous because they realize they didn’t support McCain and that is why he lost.
I would like to see Catholics fired up like the Evangelists and then we would defeinitly take this country back. We need a real person like Palin or Jindall to motivate people.
God Bless President Bush. He is certainly a martyr.I regret not being more vocally supportive of him.
Exactly. McCain ran the most anemic campaign I have ever seen. Perhaps he did not want to be leader of a country on the verge of economic collapse. Non-campaign.
You're right. The NYT has made it crystal clear that they are no friend of conservatives. I have trouble believing all of the people on FR who pay attention to their drivel. You can bet that they're not going to make any recommendations to us which would improve our lot.....if anything; we should consider what they say and do the opposite.
they told this story last year when he won the Heisman. His mother was sick, they recommended abortion, she refuse, and we got a wonderful, caring young man named Tim. Pro=aborts hate this story.
It seems there is no place for us in either party.
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