Social Conservatives Whack Daniels
IN Gov. Mitch Daniels (R) is the latest potential WH'12 contender to take his turn in the DC spotlight, but an offhand remark has some social conservatives skeptical of his commitment to their issues.
In a weekly newsletter, Family Research Council Tony Perkins spotlighted Daniels' comment that the next GOP president would have to call a "truce" on social issues. At an event with reporters earlier this week, Daniels reiterated his insistence that the economic crisis and the nation's ballooning budget were the first issues a GOP WH should tackle.
"Not only is he noncommittal about his role as a pro-life leader, but the Governor wouldn't even agree to a modest step like banning taxpayer-funded promotion of abortion overseas," Perkins wrote in his newsletter today. "I support the Governor 100% on the call for fiscal responsibility, but nothing is more fiscally responsible than ending the taxpayer funding of abortion and abortion promotion."
"Regardless of what the Establishment believes, fiscal and social conservatism have never been mutually exclusive. Without life, there is no pursuit of happiness," Perkins wrote. "Thank goodness the Founding Fathers were not timid in their leadership; they understood that "truce" was nothing more than surrender."
Daniels, the former OMB director under George W. Bush, is known more for his fiscal chops than for his outspokenness on any particular social issues. But his stumble demonstrates the trouble any national candidate will go through while navigating the myriad interest groups who will have a say in a GOP primary.
Meanwhile, Perkins' high-profile slap at the man of the moment also points to the difficulty social conservatives are having during difficult economic times. With the electorate focused on jobs and the economy, social issues have dropped down the list of voters' priorities.
Though social conservatives have still played a major role in GOP primaries -- including in SEN races in NV, KY, CA and elsewhere -- GOPers have focused more on spending and the economy than on abortion and other social issues.
The dirty little secret about the GOP is they _always_ give lip service to the evangelical wing of the party, but little else. Even Ronald Reagan, Maximum Hero to the right did little more than talk about abortion. Ditto other GOP presidents in modern times.
But the party will gladly accept your vote (and donation) every 2/4 years if you're an evangelical. So, please write that check and don't forget to come out on Nov 2 so that we could beat those wicked, gubmit-loving Democrats. Oh, and Praise Be Jesus.
Sure, Rev. G, maybe what you say is true. But it's the Democrats who showed me the door when I was a pro-life liberal. So where do I go? Where I am hated or where I am merely tolerated? While the Republicans may be using me [I mean, that's your point right?], the Democrats have no use for me at all. Lip service is still better than the naked hatred Dems have for pro-lifers.
Hate you, Lar? No. Maybe some Democrats do, but the majority of us are quite willing to tolerate differing opinions. The problem is that too many Republicans are not willing to do the same. Your "pro-life" beliefs are faith-based in nature (whether they stem from your religious beliefs or otherwise). Only faith can sustain the belief that humanity starts at conception, before consciousness, before a brain. I'll freely concede that doesn't automatically make that belief wrong, but not everyone shares your faith.
I, along with many other Democrats, do not wish to be forced to do so. We think that people who believe that abortions are wrong shouldn't have them. They should adopt unwanted children (I have four adopted siblings and several adopted cousins--it's not that much harder than any other kind of childrearing). They shouldn't make exceptions for rape or incest, as so many opponents of abortion do. After all, a man's crimes have nothing whatsoever to do with the purported humanity of the blastocyst he's responsible for engendering. They shouldn't value the "unborn children" so much more than children who have been born already and who need better schools and choices and love. What most Democrats can't stand is not the foes of abortion but the hypocrisy of so many of them. My best friends are liberal Democrats who are devout Catholics and fervent opponents of abortion. I don't argue with them. They walk the walk with their beliefs. I wish more Republicans were like them.
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As a pro-life conservative, I would gladly vote for Daniels and take my chances that he will appoint the right judges and have a better understanding of my position than Obama. But I guess if you're a one note band, you play that one note loudly. So take you ball and go home, Mr. Perkins, and watch from your window as Obama subsidizes millions of abortions and cozies up to Planned Parenthood. I'm sure the pureness of your vote will comfort you in the dark hours. Jeeze! Get some smarts, people.
I never thought I would agree with this opinion, but I’m starting to see things differently.
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