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February 10, 2012
They’re back: Social issues overtake U.S. politics
In this Feb. 7, 2012, photo, Karen Handel speaks during an interview in Atlanta. Supporters of Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, helped force the resignation of the Susan G. Komen For the Cure executive after the breast cancer research group cut grants to the organization, then reversed course.
(Full-size photo)
WASHINGTON — All of a sudden, abortion, contraception and gay marriage are at the center of American political discourse, with the struggling — though improving — economy pushed to the background.
Social issues don’t typically dominate the discussion in shaky economies. But they do raise emotions important to factors like voter turnout. And they can be key tools for political candidates clamoring for attention, campaign cash or just a change of subject in an election year.
“The public is reacting to what it’s hearing about,” said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center. In a political season, he said, “when the red meat is thrown out there, the politicians are going to go after it.”
The economy still tops the list of voters’ concerns and probably will still shape this presidential election. For now, at least, the culture wars of the 1990s are back. It’s not clear which party will benefit because the same group of voters that opposes abortion might split over gay marriage or whether cancer research should be immune from politics. And it’s not yet known to what extent, if at all, social issues will influence voters on Election Day.
Jobs, jobs, jobs — it’s been the governing mantra of both parties since the economic bust of 2008, through President Barack Obama’s sweeping overhaul of health insurance and the 2010 elections that returned control of the House to Republicans. Since then, voters have turned angry while remaining anxious over the economy’s crawl toward stability. Republicans have been keen to blame the slow-motion progress on Obama in their drive to deny him a second term.
Then, as the GOP nomination fight churned with no resolution in sight, the economy began to grow. Unemployment rates dipped. And a cascade of cultural political developments inspired a new set of talking points for the year’s crop of political hopefuls:
—Supporters of Planned Parenthood, which provides abortion services, helped force the resignation of Susan G. Komen For the Cure executive Karen Handel after the breast cancer research group cut grants to the organization, then reversed course.
—Catholic bishops began sparring with the White House over a new requirement that Catholic-affiliated institutions such as hospitals and schools must provide insurance coverage for birth control for their employees even though the church opposes artificial contraception. On Friday, Obama announced an update to the policy. Under the change, religious employers will not have to cover birth control for their employees. The government, instead, will demand that insurance companies be directly responsible for providing contraception.
—A federal appeals court in California struck down the state’s gay marriage ban, prompting criticism from the Republican presidential candidates and others who charged that unelected judges were overruling the will of voters.
For both parties, social policy puts key constituencies at stake. Republicans are courting the religious conservatives that populate their base, including Catholics in battleground states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. Obama, meanwhile, is trying to preserve support among women, moderates and independents.
Wednesday was a key pivot point.
Hours after GOP presidential hopeful Rick Santorum won all three states holding votes Tuesday night and stalled Mitt Romney’s modest winning streak, congressional leaders issued tightly coordinated statements on another subject: The White House’s policy on birth control coverage was a government mandate that threatens religious freedom and violates the Constitution.
In a floor speech rare for a speaker of the House, Ohioan John Boehner, a Catholic, accused the administration of undermining some of the country’s most vital institutions, such as Catholic charities, schools and hospitals. He demanded that Obama rescind the policy and pledged that Congress would if Obama didn’t.
“This attack by the federal government on religious freedom in our country cannot stand, and will not stand,” Boehner said.
Across the Capitol, one rising star made clear the matter was a starkly political issue in the year’s presidential and congressional elections.
“We have plenty of other issues to take to the American people throughout the year and in the November elections. This doesn’t have to be one of them,” Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., said in English. As he often does, Rubio repeated his statement in Spanish — an effort to make sure Hispanic voters in Florida and beyond, many of them Catholic, got the message.
But where Republicans cast the White House’s contraception policy as an assault on the freedom of religion itself, Democrats argued for the preservation of affordable birth control for women. The White House circulated letters from women’s groups defending the policy and signaled on Tuesday that a compromise was possible.
Former Obama aide Jen Psaki suggested the uproar was due in part to the GOP nomination fight, noting that the administration’s directive requiring church-affiliated employers to cover birth control for their employees was based on a policy used by many states.
“Where has the outrage been up to now?” Psaki said.
On the presidential campaign trail, the GOP candidates competing for conservative votes presented themselves as foes of any efforts to remove religion and morals from public discourse. Some described those efforts in the language of war.
Romney, a Mormon, is embracing social issues in a way he hasn’t to this point in the campaign as he fends off threats from two challengers. The Obama administration, he says, is waging “an assault on religion.”
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, a Catholic, says Democrats have “declared war on the Catholic Church.”
Santorum’s resurgence has coincided with the surge in controversy over social issues. During a two-day sprint through Oklahoma and Texas, he used the marriage and contraception rulings on the two coasts to raise broader concerns that the courts and the Obama administration are “trying to shutter faith” and “push it out of the public square.”
“They are taking faith and crushing it,” he told a Texas rally Wednesday. “When you marginalize faith in America, when you remove the pillar of God-given rights, then what’s left?”
It’s powerful rhetoric, to be sure. But interviews Thursday with nearly two dozen attendees of the Conservative PAC convention in Washington produced remarkably similar sentiments: Even the most conservative voter cares most about the nation’s fiscal health.
“I really think this election will turn on the economy,” said Tina Katcheves, 38, a patent attorney from Howard County, Md.
© Copyright 2012 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Idaho pre-abortion ultrasound bill gets Senate OK 
drywitt99 on February 10 at 1:40 p.m.
It was fun today watching Republi-baggers push for Rick Santoram.
The thrust of their argument: Romney has only one issue…..the economy.
And THAT is turning around…..so the Republican party
MUST turn to someone with stronger
conservative/right-wing/wacko views!!.
Well….for ONCE….they are right! The economy IS TURNING AROUND
However….
Enter Rick Santoram…..whose views are:
Birth control is “not okay.”
Mormonism is viewed as “a dangerous cult.”
Compared homosexuality to: “…man on child, man on dog…..” sex.
YOUR TYPICAL REPUBLIC-BAGGER!
RedCedar on February 10 at 4:15 p.m.
I’m sorry to see this turn in the campaign. It’s like the ghosts of Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson have returned to haunt us. Why not revivify flag burning and gun control while we’re at it? It can be the 1980s all over again, except with less money and better Internet. Hopefully all of this silliness well get argued over for a couple of rounds during the winter when nobody’s paying much attention. With luck, they’ll all get it out of their systems and the real campaign can be about real issues. Yes I realize that will take a lot of luck.
I must say I’m surprised that the Democrats brought this hopeless issue back to life. One would expect the Republican primary candidates to toss it around some in order to solidify their credentials with the religious right, but why couldn’t the Democrats stay out of it? It can only be bad for them.
Congress has a bipartisan approval rating of something like 10% these days. It’s not because they haven’t banned abortion or made it free for everyone. It’s not because of gay marriage. It’s because they haven’t done the one thing their constitutionally obligated to do — pass a responsible budget. In fact, I don’t think they’ve truly passed any complete budget at all for several years now. It’s all just continuing resolutions and emergency appropriations.
idahocity on February 10 at 4:42 p.m.
it’s clear why these issues have come to the forefront. they are obviously more important than the imminence of world war 3 and the financial collapse of our country.
RedCedar on February 10 at 5:46 p.m.
WWIII isn’t immanent. It won’t happen until the US repudiates its debt to China and the Arabs, but the tritium in its H-bombs and the propellant in its ICBMs has not yet deteriorated. I give that at least 10 years, maybe 20. Financial collapse, maybe within 5 years, which is enough to give the next president and his backers time to suck everything they can out of the system before it goes down. Meanwhile just to distract the citizens so they don’t see what’s going on behind the curtain, let’s argue about about abortion and gay marriage for a while.
AnalyzeThat on February 10 at 10:44 p.m.
And this is why our country cannot move forward in the way the politicians think it should - give up focusing on the issues that were decided on 40 years ago already and look to the future!