CQ TODAY PRINT EDITION
May 16, 2008 – 12:58 p.m.
House GOP Goes Low-Profile on Social Issues
By Edward Epstein, CQ Staff
Something big is missing from House Republicans’ 2008 campaign agenda for American families — and that is no accident.
There’s not a single mention in the 47-point program of such red-meat GOP issues as banning abortion, outlawing same-sex marriage, allowing prayer in the public schools, banning flag burning and protecting the Pledge of Allegiance.
Instead, the plan focuses on such GOP-introduced ideas as allowing private sector workers to take compensatory time instead of premium pay for overtime worked (
In an effort to appeal to moderates in their uphill push to retake the House, Republicans have pushed divisive social issues off center stage and replaced them with a host of pocketbook items they hope will appeal to working women, moderates and even some Democrats.
“This may not be the family agenda you expected from Republicans,’’ said Kay Granger , R-Texas, who was in charge of formulating the “American Families Agenda,’’ the first part of the party’s 2008 platform.
“In the past, the Republican agenda for families was about social issues. This is more straightforward, talking to families where they are, not where you want them to be,’’ Granger added.
De-emphasizing issues that were Republican signatures for many years is tricky. It risks alienating the party’s base in a challenging election year when it needs loyalists to turn out. And it does so when conservative Republicans are already uneasy about their party’s presumed presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain of Arizona.
But GOP leaders see little choice. Democrats this year won three special elections in House districts long held by Republicans. The party’s campaign unit is struggling to raise funds. And polls show a strong generic preference for Democrats this year.
A Matter of Emphasis
Conservatives say they don’t think the GOP leadership is softening its support for their positions, but rather changing its public agenda emphasis in a bid to broaden the GOP’s appeal to voters.
But events outside the leadership’s control could yet force social issues to the fore, as Thursday’s California Supreme Court ruling legalizing gay marriage showed. An effort to overturn that decision through a ballot proposition amending the state constitution could keep gay marriage in the news all the way to November.
Rep. Joe Pitts of Pennsylvania, head of the House Republicans’ 70-member Values Action Team, said he wasn’t concerned by the omission of social issues from the House GOP platform. “I have no assurance from the leaders about this. But I know the leaders and I know that when we come out with the whole big picture, these are all things we will stand for,’’ Pitts said.
“The worst thing you can do in an election year is deflate your base,” he warned. “They won’t vote against you, they’ll just stay home’’ if they feel abandoned by the party.
House GOP Goes Low-Profile on Social Issues
Rep. Jeb Hensarling of Texas, leader of the conservative Republican Study Committee, said there’s no concern about where Republican leaders stand. “We are the family party, for heavens’ sake. I have no fear on that score,’’ said Hensarling, whose group of more than 100 conservatives is the largest bloc in the House GOP caucus.
Hensarling has called a special meeting of the House Republican Conference for midday Tuesday to discuss “how best to go forward and define House Republicans’’ and keep conservative issues center stage. On Friday, he sent out a memo appealing to members to return from their districts in time to attend the session.
Pitts said conservative voters are rallying around McCain in part because he has indicated that as president he would appoint Supreme Court justices in the mold of President Bush’s conservative picks, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. and Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. Conservatives feel that with one or two more like-minded justices, the high court could overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade decision legalizing abortion nationwide and issue other decisions they would support.
Pelosi Playbook?
In moving issues near and dear to their base to the back burner, Republicans are following the lead of Speaker Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif., whose “Six for ’06’’ platform two years ago was drafted to appeal to swing-district voters. It made no mention of such longtime liberal Democratic issues as protecting abortion rights or expanding gun control.
Julian Zelizer, a congressional scholar at Princeton University, said the two parties’ tactics are similar. “They’re saying let’s not talk about these divisive issues. This is generally done by a divided party or a party on the ropes,’’ he said, adding that Republicans this year fall into the second category.
But Zelizer said one problem for the GOP is that social issues have been a core building block for the party for decades. De-emphasizing them now may look opportunistic to voters.
“When you’re losing, people are suspicious if you change. Republicans have defined themselves on these issues for three decades. It’s much harder to divorce yourselves from them.’’
Democratic leaders say the switch is a transparent and ultimately losing ploy.
“The Republicans’ problem is that principles they have allegedly been standing on, independents feel don’t represent them. And if they change, their base will feel abandoned,’’ said House Majority Leader Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md.
Pelosi said she sees the switch in emphasis as part of a general loss of focus by her opponents.
“What I see coming out of there is disarray, chaos, dissatisfaction, and uncertainty about the future,’’ she said.
“I assume that this Republican caucus will advance an agenda that they believe in, as we do with our agenda. And I think what they believe in is something far different from where the mainstream of America is,’’ Pelosi added.
House GOP Goes Low-Profile on Social Issues
The Republicans plan to unveil other parts of their platform over coming weeks. Energy issues are next, followed by the economy, national security and health care.
Comments
It's about time. I'm a Republican. I do NOT get up in the morning thinking about the red meat social issues, but I do get up in the morning thinking about the cost of health insurance. Our health insurance goes up 20% a year, if we can find someone to sell it to us.
"There's not a single mention in the 47-point program of such red-meat GOP issues as banning abortion, outlawing same-sex marriage, allowing prayer in the public schools, banning flag burning and protecting the Pledge of Allegiance." Congratulations, CQ, you are 20% accurate in matching "red-meat GOP issues" with the actual GOP.
Yeah. The republicans suddenly care about women and regular working people? For eight years they've molded our laws to benefit corporations, big business, special interest and fat cats while regular people have less and less. And now that it's election time again and the old, rhetorical scare tactics aren't working as well, they say, trust us. We really care about all you little people? Right. Time to run the bums out of D.C. town.
Is this a joke? I guess the electorate cannot eat gay marriage or guns, or burn the flag to pay for health insurance!
This may come as a news flash to Karela, but the Democrats care less about her "women and working people" than the Republicans. Oh, the Democrats talk a good game, claiming they will raise taxes only on the rich - until they define the rich way down into what most people consider the middle class. It is Democrats who legislate mandatory health coverage for every special interest group (chiropractors, nurse practitioners, fertility treatment providers, you name it) regardless of whether most people want such coverage, then they are shocked! Shocked, I tell you, when the health insurance premiums go through the roof. It is Democrats who con you into thinking there is some easy, cheap solution to developing alternative energy sources. You know, like wind mills off Cape Cod (except the Kennedys cry foul - not in THEIR backyard), or ethynol (driving up the price of food while actually producing more carbon dioxide than oil-based energy), or solar (requiring hundreds of square miles of panels that no environmentalist will tolerate). It is Democrats who front for the trial lawyers, adding an estimated $7,000 per year burden to every family in the costs of frivilous lawsuits. It was the Democrats in the Clinton administration that created rules inhibiting our intelligence agencies (including the FBI) from connecting the dots prior to 9/11. There were lots of women and working people who died that day. So, Karela, feel free to "run the bums" out. When you can't find a doctor to take Medicare, and you can't find health insurance at any price, when fuel is $8 a gallon (as it is in Europe) and ever more jobs are moved overseas because it is impossible to do business in the USA, remember it is the Democrats who are taking care of you. Jonathan Kahnoski Sunriver, Oregon
molly, so, why exactly are you a Republican, if social issues don't matter? It's the only thing Republicans care about at the national level. If Dems had control, there would have been a viable health care program five years ago.
Please the only "family" issues they are really concerned about is the Bush crime family. From Prescott Bush's Nazi dealings to Neil Bush's "educational" scams to George HW Bush's meal with bin Laden's brother during 9/11 and the squirreling the bin Laden famiily back to Saudi Arabia immediately after 9/11.
The GOP I knew as a kid wasn't about all that junk, nor was Christianity seemingly dominated by rabid, superstitious bigots. The so-called "red meat issues" propelled the extremists to success but it burned out because it's hateful, narrow and ignores real problems and opportunities. The GOP downfall began in 2005, was profound in 2006 and will continue in 2008. You say "red meat," I say "ballast" -- the GOP is dumping dead weight to stay afloat. And that's good for all Americans, maybe the whole world. Lesson learned? I hope so!
It's called bait and switch. The voters are not that stupid.
One of the best lines in recent films comes from "There Will Be Blood" when at the beginning of the movie Paul Dano sits in front of Daniel Day-Lewis and says, "I'd like it better if you didn't think I was stupid." Until the day the Repulithugs APOLOGIZE to the American people for mishandling their trust I refuse to vote for them and hope they get ground into dust so they can live with the vermin of their own kind.
"Is not life more important than food...?"
I'm surprised the dems haven't seized on the Republican bankruptcy law change giveaway to the credit card companies that prevents people who are bankrupted as a result of medical bills from declaring bankruptcy.
An interesting turn, and not surprising given the circumstances. In the early 90s it was "stealth candidates," as Ralph Reed and others put it at the time, saying something relatively harmless-sounding, and meaning another. Now that the country's in the dumps they're bowing to reality again, and hoping that the American Idol culture's short-term memory will block out the past eight years.
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