By John Sykes
If you think that conservatives or tea partiers or GOPers shouldn’t be facing or more strongly presenting social issues, you really need to read this post. In A 'Truce' on Social Issues William McGurn opines:
To the contrary, the agitation will continue. Ultimately it will force a president's hand on a host of issues—not least his judicial nominees. A far better way to unite Republicans and independents and tea partiers would be to talk about returning these hot-button issues to where they belong: with the states and localities, acting through the people's elected governors and legislators.
Mr. McGurn goes on to discuss the different approaches to discussion of the social issues by Rick Daniels who calls for a truce, Rick Santorum who says we need to face and use these same issues, Mitt Romney who sends mixed signals and Bob McDonnell who has stood and faced these social issues.
So what's a Republican to do? A good start might be to contrast two other recent GOP candidates. Per McGurn:
A far better way to unite Republicans and independents and tea partiers would be to talk about returning these hot-button issues to where they belong: with the states and localities, acting through the people's elected governors and legislators…
"The sizable majority among Republican caucus-goers and primary voters is economic conservative, social-issue conservative and agrees with the tea party," says pollster John McLaughlin, whose firm has surveyed both Republicans and tea partiers. "As for tea partiers, we found that they are both more pro-life and more frequent churchgoers than the electorate. Social issues may not be what gets people out to tea parties, but neither are social issues going to turn them off the GOP."
Surely the most obvious point is that a call for a truce on any issue will be persuasive only to those who don't care about the issue in the first place. To those who do care, it sounds awfully condescending. In Mr. Daniels' case, it was also unnecessary: He is hardly a social liberal and has good pro-life credentials.
Other candidates might do well to take note. The governor's [ Rick Daniels] difficulty isn't that he's wrong about national priorities. His difficulty is that six months after he first used the t-word, he's still trying to explain what he meant.
In summary, candidates need to strongly make their views known on the social issues so they don’t need to spend their time on defending those same issues. Make those issues as local as possible. Liberals, who aren’t going to change their stances anyway, love to misdirect the voters.
So, Conservatives, go for it! Let us know where you stand and get back to the business of We The People!
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