There’s an old saying that you can’t control what other people do or don’t do, but only what you do. It’s true in politics as with most other things in life.
For decades conservatives have lost ground in the fight over religious liberty, primarily via our nation’s courts. But you can’t blame liberals for fighting in venues that play to their strengths (liberal judges), and avoids their weaknesses (public opinion). How conservatives “feel” about it however won’t change anything. Only raw political power does that.
For opinion to become political power it must be focused and organized, and currently for conservatives it’s not. We are scattered all around, constantly fighting defensive actions on numerous issues, rather than going on offense. And given that you can’t win on defense, that’s a recipe for long-term defeat.
Clearly we need a change in strategy, but how to go about it? The recent string of pro-life victories in the abortion debate points the way.
Thanks to technology, it is now possible to view an unborn child in the womb at an extremely early stage of development. And it is becoming more understood that, yes, they are capable of feeling pain, moving the practice of abortion closer to infanticide in the minds of many. The result is that people in the mushy middle of public opinion are becoming more likely to either oppose it, or at least support increasing restrictions on it simply because it is easier to view the unborn child as a victim.
That’s why polls show that younger voter groups are becoming pro-life in greater numbers than other age groups. They’re more liberty conscious; which presents a problem for liberals and an opportunity for conservatives.
Victimhood is the sweet spot in American politics, and liberals have effectively milked it to change our culture for decades. Supporters of gay marriage have worked to legalize such marriages in over a dozen states by casting themselves as the “victims” of bigoted traditionalists, so much so that five members of the Supreme Court recently got in on the act. But whether it’s mandates for abortion coverage under Obamacare, civil penalties for refusing to recognize gay marriages, or branding religious speech as “hate speech”, it’s clear that religious Americans are becoming the victims of government policies.
To effectively fight back there needs to be a rallying point; a specific call to action that conservatives could use as a focal point for messaging, tactics and organization. And politically, it needs to be something that could pull in the mushy moderates who tend to sit on the fence in such debates.
Focusing on “liberty” turns the current frame of the debate upside down and places the focus back where it belongs; on the people whose rights are being threatened and sometimes outright denied. It provides an overarching cause that ties all of these issues together, and offers an outlet that conservatives can focus on and directly see how it can impact the freedoms they are concerned about.
It’s time to begin pushing local and state lawmakers to amend or pass laws and state constitutional amendments to defend religious freedoms in everyday life.
Since the First Amendment is obviously no longer enough, it’s time to call for passage of a more specific religious freedom amendment to the US Constitution; to demand that state legislatures adopt resolutions calling on Congress to support such an amendment, and to pressure members of Congress to act on it.
Politically, it’s important to act while nerves are still raw and such abuses continue to grab headlines and percolate through the legal system. We can’t wait until after the anger dies down or for people to get used to being unable to live out their faith.
We’ve been down that road before with the Defense of Marriage Act.
Democrats supported DOMA in 1996 as a way to short circuit momentum for a constitutional amendment on the subject and give them an opportunity to vote “for” traditional marriage before the elections that year. All the while they were quietly hoping for a Supreme Court ruling to one day strike it down.
That strategy paid off earlier this year. And that’s why nothing less than a constitutional amendment on the subject of religious liberty will do today.
Political battles are all about ground, meaning wisely choosing where you fight, and controlling the debate as well as the language that is used in the debate. Focusing on religious liberty as an umbrella cause in the culture wars gives conservatives that opportunity.
It’s time to stop complaining about what the other side is doing and get busy.
Politics of Obamacare Gives Liberalism a Comeuppance
So said Nancy Pelosi in response to the Great Democrat Panic of 2013 over the general public’s reaction to the realities of Obamacare.
Democrats are in a tizzy, feigning shock and indignation because the law is doing precisely what it was designed to do – kick people off of their existing insurance plans in order to subsidize the new government insurance scheme, despite Obama’s promises to the contrary. Worse, the same government that managed to put a man on the moon (several times) and can read your emails, text messages and listen in on your phone calls can’t build a website to sell insurance.
About the only thing that could make it worse would be if using the website gave you rickets.
The panic dam officially burst when Bill Clinton gave worried Democrats cover to bail on Obama by saying “the president should honor the commitment the federal government made to these people and let them keep what they got.” Within days thirty-nine House Democrats ignored a White House veto threat and supported a Republican bill to allow insurance companies to continue selling the old policies.
As a famous Chicago pastor might put it, Obamacare’s political chickens are coming home to roost.
Even before the fiasco with the website Americans have been split over Obamacare, with those opposed to it outnumbering those in favor of it in most every poll conducted since the law was passed.
According to the latest Quinnipiac poll, just a month ago both Obama and Obamacare were at about 45% approval; today they’re both at 39%, the lowest ever. Only 36% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of health care in general, and 54% disapprove of his overall job performance. The same poll shows 52% of Americans agreeing that he isn’t trustworthy, and 56% say that he is incompetent. Worse yet, both Obama and his namesake law are upside-down among the 18-34 year old crowd that put him in the White House to begin with.
More amazingly, the latest Gallup poll shows a record 55% of Americans do not believe that it’s the federal government’s responsibility to provide everyone with health care – up from just 28% in 2008.
It turns out Joe Biden was right, it really is “a big ___ing deal”.
The problem for Democrats is that these numbers aren’t being driven by clever Republican messaging, but rather by the implementation of Obamacare itself.
So far over five million policies have been cancelled, while just over one-hundred thousand people have managed to get insurance through the new program, (with the vast majority of them actually signing up for Medicaid). But the number of people losing insurance now pales in comparison to the tens of millions more who will lose theirs when the employer mandate kicks in a year from now. Further, even the White House now admits that the “better” Obamacare policies chock full of things people don’t want (such as maternity coverage for men) costs more than their old “sub-standard” policies, (despite Obama’s other promise that the average family would save over $2,500 per year).
Of course the Democrats now running like scalded dogs are the same ones who voted for the law and stood by Obama when he said “If you like your plan, you can keep it”. In fact, many of them were saying the exact same thing, (which will make wonderful commercials in 2014).
The political damage goes deeper than the next election and extends to liberalism itself.
Setting aside the current debate, how many other big-government schemes are voters likely to shrug their shoulders at, or will Democrats in competitive seats embrace anytime soon?
It should be pointed out that part of the political strategy of Obamacare was to have government provide a tangible, personal benefit to voters in hope that they would see how great big government could be. But every cancelled plan, every rate hike, every deductable hike and every lost access to a personal physician is a personal story some potential voter will be sharing with other potential voters between now and next November.
Obamacare is the biggest, most personal opportunity Republicans have ever had to make the case against big government liberalism. It feeds perfectly into a strategy of focusing on issues with a liberty oriented message. To remind voters that elections matter, and that the people who bungled both the creation and implementation of this law are the same people who want to run other aspects of our lives, rather than leave us free to do it ourselves.
Democrat National Committee Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman-Shultz recently told CNN, “You’re darn right that our candidates are going to run on the advantage that Obamacare will be going into the 2014 election. The choice will be very clear.”
The challenge for Republicans is to make sure that it is.