Posted on 04/01/2015 7:08:08 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Over the course of this and last week, Indiana’s Religious Freedom and Restoration Act has set the nation’s hair ablaze as commentators and pundits on the left compete with one another in order to adopt the most disingenuously indignant posture over this relatively commonplace law.
I’ve written about why Indiana’s version of this law is not particularly different from the 19 other state-level RFRAs or the federal version. I have also remarked on the fact that a number of individuals, primarily religious minorities, have RFRAs to thank for the safeguarding of their religious sensibilities. I’ve written that these laws are not designed to facilitate discrimination, and those who say they are cannot cite a precedent because none exists. Finally, I have noted that familiar and contrived campaigns like these that are centered on identity politics burn hot and bright for a time, but they rarely have an impact on a presidential election that cannot be explained more convincingly by fundamental political conditions like war and peace, the state of the economy, and incumbency.
But not everyone on the right agrees the present fight over Indiana’s RFRA law is worth the cost. Some see conservative-friendly corporations like Angie’s List to NASCAR running away from Indiana lest they be tagged a bigoted organization and suffer commensurate financial hardship as a result. Some have noted that Gov. Mike Pence lit a fire under the political press and has become this week’s Rudy Giuliani. For the media, there is now no higher priority than seeking out Republican presidential aspirants and forcing them to either denounce Pence or to couple themselves with this RFRA law. It is a familiar dance, but it is also a fruitful one from a liberal’s perspective. Could the disproportionate tempest in the press sparked by this law be a prelude to a much longer, more involved campaign to discredit the GOP ahead of 2016? Has the now defunct “war on women” evolved into “the war on love,” or some other preposterous contrivance aimed at whipping up the lowest common denominators among us? And is the GOP falling for what is essentially a distraction from its core message?
Radio host, author, and columnist Michael Graham takes the latter view on this kerfuffle, and is asking if the GOP was led by the nose into a fight that it did not choose and cannot win. Below, he responds to my columns on this subject in detail:
“Can’t anybody here play this game?”—Casey Stengel, who managed the 1962 Mets to a 120-loss season.
Watching the “Indiana GOP Self-Immolation Show,” I thought once again of Casey.
The legendary manager has come to mind quite a lot lately: When Rudy Giuliani led Republicans up the “Obama’s not a real American!” hill; Listening to the vicious, compassionless response of Republicans to the shooting deaths of unarmed black men.
And again, four days into a GOP media-cycle pounding reminiscent of those delivered by a young Mike Tyson, I am reminded why I am a Casey Stengel Republican:
It’s a game. It’s called “politics.” If you don’t want to play it, and play it to win—stay off the field.
I understand the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. I understand that the people attacking it either don’t understand it or are lying about it. I understand that logic is on the GOP’s side.
But what difference does that make to swing and independent voters who are watching a non-stop, cable-news info-mercial that could be entitled: “Why GOP Means “Gays Out—Period!;”
While rational conservatives write reasonable columns explaining how RFRA is “a shield, not a sword,” the media have Republicans in a headlock and are beating them in the face as they shout “Explain this, you homophobic bigots!”
And for what? To defend religious liberty? As RFRA defenders keep saying, only this law impacts a few cases. Is it really worth the steady stream of “Republicans hate gay people” press that will be flowing until Election Day 2016?
Some conservatives say the fight is worth it. Who cares about the hundreds of millions of dollars in negative earned media—we stood up for principle. Except you haven’t. At least, not in Indiana.
Gov. Pence and the GOP legislature is rushing to amend their RFRA law, using the assumption that the critics were right and the law does legalize anti-gay discrimination. So after days of being beaten up by the media for a false charge of discrimination, the GOP’s answer is to confess to the crime and write a new law.
There’s a word for this, people: LOSING.
The question arises: Why does the GOP keep picking fights (government shutdown, executive amnesty, ObamaCare, RFRA, etc) it can’t win? Some Republicans are particularly frustrated by the Indiana mess because they believe, as Noah Rothman put it, “this is a good hill to defend.”
Sorry, Noah. The problem isn’t the hill. It’s the defenders. The GOP sucks at politics—sucks so badly that there is NO hill they can take, NO fight with the Democrats they can win.
If politics were a real battlefield, the GOP would be the Iraqi army. Yes, it’s that bad.
The “circle the wagons” GOP answer is “We control Congress and a huge number of governorships and local legislatures.” But these aren’t prizes the GOP fought for and captured. They’re gifts from the Democrats’ radical president. His decision to govern via hyperpartisanship has sent some voters into the GOP’s arms. But in 2016, Barack Obama won’t be on the ballot.
On foreign policy, Republicans are so politically inept they have to rely on foreign leaders like Netanyahu to make their case. On domestic policy, the GOP is irrelevant—even with control of the House and Senate.
Mike Pence taking on the Democrat/Media axis over gay rights is like sending in St. Mary’s School for Girls to take on Seattle Seahawks. The results were painfully predictable.
Also predictable is that a political movement dedicated to self-congratulatory ideology over political outreach is destined to fail. “Screw the voters—we’re right!” is a loser’s rallying cry.
Does this mean conservatives shouldn’t have principles? Of course not. But when your politicians are as bad as ours (reminder: at one point in 2012, the GOP front-runners were Newt Gingrich and Herman Cain) we can’t afford them.
Smart and principled starts with “smart.” For example, it would have been smart for Republicans to spend time and money highlighting the cases of small business owners who were punished by the state for not participating in same-sex marriages that violated their faith. Design and execute a media strategy that forced Democrats to defend taking away a little old grandmother’s flower shop because she’s a believing Christian.
But where is the political strategy? Where’s the skilled politician making these Democrat bullies squirm for beating up on Granny? They don’t exist.
Instead we’ve got the Rush Limbaugh brigades: “Screw ‘em—they’re too stupid to understand anyway. Just pass the RFRA, shut down the government, call Obama a Communist—which he IS, by the way!!—and if the American voters are too dumb to understand how right we are, that’s THEIR problem!”
Hey, GOP dummies: The game is to get more Americans to vote for us than for the other guy. That means we want more people to like us. Doing things that make us look like a jerk to the average voter—like the current RFRA fight—don’t help.
To paraphrase the great American political scientist, Dean Wormer of Faber College: “Angry, humorless and off-putting is no way to go to the polls, son.”
The failures are the ones that cave.
This is EXACTLY what is going on. The corporate arm of the GOP is destroying the “culture” arm. Well, they are putting us at the kids table. They will still say all the right things, blame the Libtards and the “liberal media” etc. But they own our candidates and our Party. They own those that are loved by even some of us. And just because some of those corporations/billionaires say the right things (can was say Koch and Addleson), be assured they will throw us under the bus when the money suits them. And by then, there won’t be anything we can do about it as so many will be chasing what, on the surface is, a Conservative.
I guess don’t feel to bad as the LibTards do it too.
Why did NASCAR and Angie’s List run to the microphones to denounce the RFRA law?
Because the LGBT groups were banging on their door telling them they would be called bigots and boycotted if they didn’t.
Where were the Christian groups?
Its really sad that this guys negative words ring true, and sound like me.
He forgot to mention that many of these same 'real conservative' talk radio types also claim that all the GOP has to do to win like 1984 again is to increase their white over 50 vote, that they stayed home in 2012 and 2008 and a few shutdowns will bring them out again after 31 years.....
The only line I disagree with is this one: “But in 2016, Barack Obama won’t be on the ballot.”
Um, GWB wasn’t on the ballot in 2008, except he was in a very real way. Just wait until November of 2016. I say this within the context of my tag line.
And I do disagree with the author on a foundational interpretation of events. My take is that the R’s are not stupid. Rather, what they are exposing is that the game is totally rigged. The R’s and D’s are two sides of the same coin, playing us against each other.
At least in this way, George Carlin was right. It’s not that nobody can play the game. It’s that the game is utterly rigged. It might as well be pro wrestling.
Yeah....if we had 1984 demographics then McCain would have won, and Romney would have won easily.
No one wants to admit that this became inevitable over 50 years ago, with passage of the Civil Rights Act. Once the federal (and then states) government was able to sell the bizarre, mystical idea that private business owners weren’t free to discriminate based on whatever reason they bloody well pleased, it was only a matter of time before everyone jumped on the “discrimination” grievance train.
NO-NO, they are still all here, even the ones who voted for Reagan in 1984 when they were 60, 70, and 80, they can still vote at 110 if they wanted to.
They just refuse to come out (OK, maybe absentee ballot from their nursing homes) and vote until a real conservative candidate shuts down the government and KEEPs it shutdown, just ask Mark... he knows..he worked for the gipper, and James Madision before him.
We’re on the same page, I know that’s what they were saying.
I’M saying if we had ‘84 demos (we DON’T, obs) Obama wouldn’t have won. That ship has sailed.
Well we have a very similar law trying to claw its way out of committee here in GA. So it if it passes God willing I guess we will have weather the outrage also.
If you let the media twist you into a pretzel (and Pence has had some strong moments of not allowing it), then that is when you fail the test. If you stand firm, and simply state that you support the Constitutions, the rights of citizens to follow their conscience, and the federal law (promoted by Bill Clinton and Chuck Schumer), then you pass.
A proper test is not a trap.
I was just continuing my rant.
My problem with talk radio is their arguments are typically framed for the choir and not to convince those who disagree .
One big problem with this bill and fighting for it is that the way it is worded neutrally, it could apply to mixed race marriages as well as same sex marriages.
That gives libs great ammunition to demonize it, because they love to claim opposition to same sex marriages is the same thing as opposing mixed races marriages over religion in the 1960s.( Morning Joe got hit with this by Eugene Robinson this morning )
But the Pence crowd acted like they never anticipated this argument as they have no answer to it (they wont say that gays are not the same as blacks as victims).
The Democrats have been putting points in the Gay Bank for 6 + years now ,just for something like this and they think it’s a Road back to POWER
oh noes the news media will say we are bad and are bigots and we wont win anymore elections, so lets just always accept the premise and move on to the other controversy they pull outta the hat. Tired of this and seems to always work.
Pence can kiss any talk of running for POTUS goodbye. Every conservative talkie was busy defending it and his decision then he vacilates to the godless sodomites using politcal correctness who’ve declared war on Christianity. Proves he’s no crusader for conservativism.
Until a gay, no wait, better yet, a lesbian couple marches their behinds into a mosque or muslim place of business and demands a marriage ceremony or gay friendly service then this is nothing more than the usual disingenuous bs from the left to make the Christian religious right look bad. Until they do this, they only prove that they don’t really care about the rights they are screaming their heads about.
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