Dear Republicans:
I know that you don’t like me criticizing your political party, but I have good cause for doing so.
Our nation needs at least two major political parties in order to prevent the nation from drifting into any kind of extremism. So, I want the Republican Party to survive.
Right now, your Party is ill. It isn’t on life support yet, but it could get there.
Your Party can recover from its illness, but the road to recovery will require changes on your part. Pointing fingers at the mainstream media, at other political parties or at independent observers like me isn’t going to help.
What will help is for you to acknowledge the world that we have.
Perhaps it is different in other nations, but in the USA, the people have some common likes and some common dislikes. Among the latter is the dislike of government intrusion into private lives.
Two topics that Republicans routinely rail against are the topics of same-sex marriage and abortion. Those topics pertain to one’s privacy, and Americans are generally opposed to an invasion of privacy. Yet, the GOP is filled with members who insist that privacy be invaded.
In case you haven’t noticed, the GOP argument against same-sex marriage is primarily based on religion. Like it or not, the rule of law in the USA doesn’t permit people to use the State to impose their religious standards on others.
Sure, Republicans have also claimed to be promoting a “traditional” form of marriage, but a tradition cannot override the rule of law, either.
When it comes to same-sex marriage, the GOP acts like an elderly Japanese soldier who hides on a South Pacific island and continues to fight World War II because he never received word that the war ended.
The debate about abortion has its own problems. If one’s argument against abortion were based purely on medical science, then one would at least have common ground with those on the opposite side of the debate. However, one errs by bringing religion into the debate. As I said before, the rule of law in the USA doesn’t permit people to use the State to impose their religious standards on others.
Even if abortion were treated as a medical issue alone, one still needs to respect the privacy of a pregnant woman. Complete strangers have no right to tell her what she can or cannot do with her own body.
I dislike abortion. I wish that it didn’t exist. However, it does, and I cannot rule out the possibility of it being necessary in some cases. Republicans can’t rule out that possibility, either.
Besides, the general American public frowns on any attempt to completely outlaw abortion. In an article for The Hill, Gloria Totten writes the following:
“Political candidates, consultants and the media generally misunderstand the politics of abortion rights. They tend to believe either that most voters oppose abortion or that the anti-abortion base is larger than the abortion rights base. But neither is true.
A recent nationwide poll by Ann Selzer (declared “The Best Pollster in Politics” by FiveThirtyEight), commissioned by the Public Leadership Institute, proves that voters overwhelmingly support abortion rights both in general and when asked about specific reproductive rights policies. In addition, the poll shows that those who “strongly support” abortion rights substantially outnumber those who “strongly oppose” it.
Our poll found that by a margin of 69-to-27 percent, American voters approve of the constitutional right to abortion established by the Supreme Court in Roe v. Wade. This result is similar to many polls over the years that have found Americans approving Roe by margins of 2-to-1 or greater.”
In short, regarding abortion, the GOP has been out of tune with the majority of the American public. Making opposition to abortion a top political priority right now is simply going to alienate the majority of voters.
So, it would be helpful for the GOP to set the aforementioned topics aside right now, because they make Republicans look like religious bullies.
To be continued.
The “Wanted” posters say the following about David: “Wanted: A refugee from planet Melmac masquerading as a human. Loves cats. If seen, contact the Alien Task Force.”