Quote:
Originally posted by Spanky
I think that there are three issues that really hurt the Republicans:
1) Abortion: Most americans are not for making abortion illegal in the first trimester. This is a tough issue because the Democrats at least in California beat us over the head with it. Most Americans agree that Abortion is a bad thing, and would like like to see abortions decreased but making it illegal is not the practical course. The tough question is: If you make abortions illegal, how many years in prison do you give a woman who has had an abortion? I have never heard an effective political answer to that question in a political debate. As long as we don't push for making Abortion legal in the first trimester we are fine, once you cross that line there go the votes.
2) Guns: Assault weapons. If it is reasonable to make mahine guns legal why not assault weapons? What about armour piercingi bullets? The majority of Americans do not see the need to keep assault weapons nor armour piercing bullets legal.
2) Contraception: With 67% of teenagers sexually active, supressing contracpetion education just seems ridiculous. The majority seems to agree with that.
3) Televangalism: Every time you mix money, crass advertising and merchandizing with religion it makes a lot of people uncormfortable. Having these guys all support the GOP is harmful to the GOP image
As far as the Death Penalty is concerned that is one issue that does not hurt Republicans. You may be against it but that issue has been used by Republican in California to defeat Democrats. The Dems have simply stopped running ant-death penalty candidates statewide because it causes them so many problems.
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I sorta agree with one or more of these, but...
[Stop reading here if you know where this is going and don't want to hear it again]
Abortion: Surely a majority of Californians don't want abortion to be made illegal, but estimates by NARAL or whoever are that the day Roe is overturned, something like 30 or 35 states will be on the brink of banning it. There is a way to phrase the issue so that people in California aren't threatened with a ban, whereas people in Indiana aren't threatened by California feminists and activist federal judges. Namely, leave it up to the states. Just like how it was before Roe. It was legal in California before Roe. Sounds like the California Republican party has to take this bull by the horns and frame the issue in a way that doesn't sound personally threatening to the majority in California.
Assault weapons: Agreed, though there are at least a few Democrats who are affiliated with the gun nuts too. Not sure what Warner's big-picture positions are on this, but he was governor of VA, land of the NRA.
OTOH, permitted-concealed-carry is something that I don't really see too many strong arguments against. So its not like the Rs should be coming out entirely anti-gun. Anti-assault weapon I don't have a problem with, and I don't think most Americans do either... at least as long as it doesn't seem like the beginning of a wider ban on everything.
Contraception: Hillary Clinton has this right, at least in her public remarks. The country needs to focus more on getting people out of the position where they "need" to have abortions. No way should the Rs be seen as opposing anything along the lines of contraception, unless its on funding grounds, but certainly not on morality grounds.
Televangelism: Generally agreed.
Death penalty: I understand that the country doesn't have a big problem with the death penalty as a general matter. But the issue of putting to death juvenilles, the mentally retarded, and the innocent, is not something either party wants to be on the wrong side of. And the issue has come up in a few contexts where the Rs could actually use it for gain, instead of letting the Ds keep the public focused on the problems in Texas under Bush. Michigan, Virginia and Illinois all come to mind.
A great example is Illinois. Dozens and dozens of innocents put on death row in Cook County. Overwhelmingly Democratic, and overwhelmingly corrupt. There is no way a majority of the country doesn't have some level of concern about all of these cases. The Ds have just managed to steer the issue as a R problem in Texas.
ETA the first "don't"
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