Republicans on a slippery slope

Edward Cone
News & Record
11-14-04

Now comes the fight for the soul of the Republican Party.

Religious conservatives played a substantial role in re-electing George W. Bush, and they expect their share of the victory spoils. It's a delicate situation for the GOP. Too much swag for social conservatives could chase more centrist voters back toward the Democrats, but too paltry a payoff could sideline disappointed social-issues voters in 2008 and beyond.

And it's a delicate situation for the country. We face some big questions about the nature of our democracy and the extent of our freedoms and who gets to make the rules in a pluralistic society. One segment of the electorate is ready to make those choices, not just for themselves but for everyone on issues like abortion and gay rights.

Already the demands are tendered. The Senate Judiciary Committee chairmanship due under long-standing seniority rules to Pennsylvania Republican Arlen Specter, who prefers that abortion remain legal, has been challenged by highly conservative senators and activists. Bush adviser Karl Rove says the president will pursue a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.

The talk is bold and uncompromising. James Dobson, head of the powerful Focus on the Family group, is a big Specter foe. Last week he defended his earlier statement that another senator who opposed his views thus hates "God's people." Said conservative strategist Richard Viguerie in The New York Times, "Now comes the revolution."

Revolution? Well, you know, we all want to change the world, but is that what most Republicans signed up for? None of it sounds very conservative to me. Wall Street and Main Street endorsed the war and lower taxes. Did they also vote for this?

For the moment, given Republican control of all of the federal government's moving parts, these are questions for Republicans to decide. Democrats can help -- political writer Chris Nolan has used her weblog to urge Democrats to send money to Specter -- but this is a defining moment for the party of Lincoln.

You can see the social moderates and libertarians scrambling for traction. Pro-war blogger Glenn Reynolds has defended Specter at his influential Instapundit site. Even David Brooks, The New York Times columnist who has done as much as anyone to codify the notion of a Red-Blue cultural divide, wrote last week that reports of said divide are greatly exaggerated.

Brooks is right that the Red-Blue divide is overblown, and the color-coded map doesn't adequately show the complexities of politics within states and counties and households. The influence of evangelical and fundamentalist voters, while important, was just one factor in the election. But religious conservatives, like any group in their position, are going to make as much of that influence as they can.

All of this seems distressing to people in big city newsrooms who don't know many Republicans, much less many Christian conservatives, and assume that everyone who voted for Bush is in ideological lockstep. Things look more complex, and more hopeful, when viewed from this bluish county in a state that went Bush-Burr-Easley in the election. That's not to say the situation is not serious, just that Republican voters, including religious conservatives, are more diverse than is commonly understood in Manhattan or San Francisco.

(I'm reminded of the time my friend the Marxist academic said to me about my other friend, the evangelist: You know he thinks you're going to Hell, don't you? Sure, I said, but he feels terrible about it.)

Religious conservatives do this country a service by speaking out on the importance of moral values. They have every right to voice their opinions and vote their consciences. But they don't own morality, or religion for that matter. Moderates and liberals love their children, too, and conservatives tend not to like the government telling people what they can and can't do. Ultimately, a country that allows for multiple beliefs and practices will have to allow people to do things that some other people abhor. As long as those things are allowed, but not required, the system is working.

Americans have civil rights -- some of us might say God-given rights -- to live according to their own beliefs and values. That is the principle that mainstream Republicans will have to stand up for. The political cost of making that stand may seem high, but the price of inaction will be higher.

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.

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