Can the GOP live without social conservatives?
In a column posted on GOPUSA.com, David Limbaugh says,
The Republican Party can choose to ostracize social conservatives and their issues, or try to purge them altogether from the party and its platform. But they better be careful what they wish for, because if they do, it will be the end of the party as we know it.
Would that be a bad thing?
Limbaugh says that Christians believe not only that social issues are the most important of the day, but that the underlying disintergration of the nation’s moral fabric is the root of our economic problems. They are probably right. He reports getting emails and reading articles from Christians who want to double down on social issues and some even suggesting that Christians redirect their focus away from politics and toward evangelism.
That is exactly what they should do.
Redirect their focus away from politics and toward evangelism. The GOP should not ostracise social conservatives. Social conservatives should redirect their focus away from politics and toward evangelism because their political efforts are not working. As the election results in Missouri and Indiana suggest, states that Mitt Romney won but where Republican social conservative Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Murdock lost very winnable races, the political efforts of social conservatives have become counterproductive.
Social conservatives are losing the political battles because a significant portion of the electorate who agree with their moral point of view and strive to live accordingly don’t believe that religious morality should have the force of secular law. They are losing the cultural battle because they are fighting it politically…attempting to force their moral point of view…rather than evangelically….sharing the Good News with free people who have choices.
Eliminating choices will not convert hearts and minds. Hearts and minds need to be converted freely before social conservatives will live in a world that reflects their moral vision. If that happens, there won’t be much of a political fight about the issues social conservatives consider the most important.
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It seems like the Ralph Reed/Rick Santorum wing of the GOP isnt about choice and freedom after all. They want big government to put its boot on your throat for THEIR issues…banning gay marriage, banning abnortion, banning porn, banning whatever doesn’t fit their specific set of morals.
I think people are sick of big government telling people how to live regardless if the stasi have a D or R after their name.
Republicans need to learn that economic issue trump social issues. Running elections on social issues is a losing battle. There is no reason that Republicans could not beat Obama with this state of the economy. However, we lost the battle because Obama deflected the attention of the economy towards social issues (like abortion). Look I am pro-life but my pro-life stance falls to #17 in terms of what matters most to me. Smaller government, free enterprise, accountability and less entitlement are my core beliefs. I truly believe that these are also the core beliefs of most Americans. However, the national GOP continues to fail in getting out that message. They fail because they have too many in the party who want to fight about preventing forced rape abortions rather than fighting against more taxes and bigger government.
We didn’t lose this last election because minorities voted for Obama. We lost this last election because white women voted for Obama. Change that and change the results going forward.
[…] Cross-Posted at MoreMonmouthMusings.com […]