Posted on 04/22/2014 5:26:46 AM PDT by xzins
Former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee warned if the Republican Party ignores social issues in the upcoming national elections, then evangelical voters will simply stay home.
The evangelical vote in America has been a key ingredient in deciding who becomes the Republican nominee for president. Polling bears that out.
Yet the social issues near and dear to the hearts of evangelicals are under attack within Republican circles.
A few years ago, former Gov. Mitch Daniels, R-Ind., wanted to declare a truce on the hot button social issues.
"All I was saying was we are going to need to unify all kinds of people. Freedom is going to need every friend it can get," he argued.
That's the line by some within the GOP who say that the only way the party can get more votes and win elections is by staying away from controversial social issues like abortion and gay marriage.
But Huckabee, who's considering running for president in 2016, told CBN News that ditching these issues may cost the GOP evangelical votes.
"It leaves them at home. They just don't go vote, which they didn't do very strongly in 2012. There were fewer evangelical voters who voted for Romney than McCain. If 10 percent more evangelicals had voted for Romney, Romney would be president right now," Huckabee said.
Nevertheless, many in the Republican Party appear intent on phasing out social issues.
Just this past week, the Nevada Republican Party stripped out all language pertaining to abortion and marriage.
And after President Barack Obama won re-election in 2012, a Republican National Committee document concluded the following: "When it comes to social issues, the party must in fact and deed be inclusive and welcoming."
But Huckabee suggested the GOP might want to rethink that strategy.
"This notion of 'don't mention those issues because you might offend the voters who are leaning left,' you better worry about who are you going to leave at home, cool off, and completely chill out the voters who just will say, 'Well, I really don't have anyone to carry the issues that matter for me,'" Huckabee warned.
Huckabee insists that social conservative candidates will need to stand firmly for their values and convince the party that issues like marriage and abortion are an important part of the total equation.
"I think it's a mistake to think that younger voters are going to make their entire election decisions on a candidate's position on same-sex marriage," Huckabee predicted.
"If a candidate can articulate the reason he's for traditional biblical marriage is because of his biblical viewpoint, then will they hold that against them anymore than they would hold it against a Muslim who won't eat pork or drink liquor? If they do, then the problem is bigger than what the position is; it's why they hold the position," he added.
Wrong.
Life will ALWAYS be the most critical issue. If they can indiscrimately take life, then nothing else matters.
What we almost saw at the Bundy ranch perpetrated by the big government BLM was an "abortion while living." They were ready to kill people.
And if they had, they would have gotten away with it.
LIFE....no compromise whatsoever.
Amnesty doesn't begin to get close to the importance of life.
I agree with you about the 2nd amendment...self-defense is subset of the LIFE issue. You are allowed to protect your life and those of your loved ones. Who says so?
God.
Even a stopped clock is right twice a day.
I disagree that it was more important than the stay-at-home social conservatives, but voter fraud was important.
I agree
I blame Romney for lots of things but he hardly had control of the the rest of the GOP.
Todd Akin certainly didn't run his idiotic comments through Romney before he went out and made a fool of himself.
He did more damage to so-con issues thana Democrat ever could.
As far as I’m concerned someone saying what you’ve said is no conservative.
Even murderers might want their accounts to balance and their health policy to be sound.
Aside from our disagreement over Akin & Romney, do you think the GOP should start supporting abortion and unnatural lifestyles by their silence which will not be silent?
Those bozos that support abortion don't have reducing the federal government as a priority. You are fooling yourself if you think otherwise.
/johnny
/johnny
I don't see many in the GOP ‘supporting abortion’, in fact many in the GOP are aggressively supporting laws to make it more difficult. Abortion is not a popular activity except in lib states like NY and CA.
As far as them ‘remaining silent’ on so-con issues, I think Todd Akin a few others demonstrated that GOP candidates should remain silent on some issues if the best they can do is stir up support for abortion, gay marriage, etic, like Akin did.
Anyone accepting the killing of babies and the spreading of diseased bodies and minds in our culture is no conservative.
If the choice is Hillary, or a pro abortion GOPe, who would you vote for?
I will not vote for either. I know that many will blame me, and use it as an excuse to further the liberal agenda in the GOP, but I will not vote for infanticide knowingly.
Do you support abortion?
okay, yes, that part is right….I thought you were indicating he was a legit tea party candidate. He was not at all. He played that card, and some folks fell for it, after the initial primary, but he was never a legit TP guy.
Some on FR refuse to accpt that, and I apologize if I mistook you for that.
What do you mean support?
there is no difference between a pro abortion goper and a pro abortion dem
None
they both support taking life at whim.
when they came for the babies, I didn’t speak up because I wasn’t a baby...
when they came for me, there was no one left to speak up.
The normal definition.
I think there’s often a fine line between “supporting with silence” and a situational awareness that there are seasons for every battle and proper venues for every battle.
While Repbulicans do much better when they run socially conservative candidates, this is only true when those candidates are NOT emphasizing the social issues. Not compromising mind you, but NOT emphasizing them. Reagan twice, the 94 mid terms, Bush twice, and the 2010 mid terms were all big wins for social conservatives, who were emphasizing other battles.
That tells me nothing.
The question is pretty simple, sol. Do you support abortion?
Yes, no, maybe...how hard can this be?
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