The "Main Street" Myth
By Ah, an article in Newsweek which inadvertently hits the themes of my last two posts. Fineman and Thomas are inexplicably shocked, shocked to see Republicans fudge the abortion issue:
Why such reticence to embrace glad tidings? After all, the abortion issue has been good to the Republican Party. It has energized Roman Catholic and evangelical grass-roots activists and allowed the GOP to paint pro-choice Democrats as cultural extremists, out of step with Main Street and the heartland. But a recent flurry of activity on abortion is making Republican politicians nervous. With states moving to restrict abortion and the Supreme Court drawing closer to the day when it might actually reverse Roe v. Wade, the 1973 decision guaranteeing a woman’s right to an abortion, GOP leaders see big political risks.
Some classic blunders here: as always, the gains that pro-lifers have made for Republicans are counted, but the voters lost never are, and no evidence is provided that the balance is a net positive. You might think that pundits would ask why the Democrats have NY and CA in the bag in every presidential election without spending a dime, when they’re traditionally Republican states that will still vote for pro-choice Republican governors, but for some reason this topic is off-limits. And, of course, there’s the classic “Main Street” tautology: Democrats must be “out-of-touch” with the “heartland” on abortion because Republicans say so, and people like Amy Sullivan gleefully repeat it. But I’m a little confused–if everyone but a few coastal elites like the Republican position on abortion, shouldn’t they be shouting it from the rafters? Wait–they have the answer, taking the atypical next step of actually citing some public opinion data:
They may be in the awkward position of getting more than they asked for. The South Dakota law, for instance, would allow abortions only to save the life of the mother, not in cases of rape or incest. That is further than most Americans want to go. By a roughly two-to-one margin, polls show, people want to uphold the basic abortion right enshrined in Roe v. Wade, even if they approve of some restrictions, like parental notification. “I’m pro-life, but you can’t wear the thing out,” says Clarke Reed, the legendary architect of the GOP in Mississippi. “I’m worried about it.” With reason: his own state legislature is moving in a direction similar to South Dakota’s.
So, as anyone who knew anything about the issue already knows, it’s Republicans (as well as some “liberal” elites who project their own disinterest in women’s rights onto the public) who are out of touch with “Main Street” on this issue. How people can live with this level of cognitive dissonance I have no idea, but I guess I should be grateful that mainstream reporters are at least taking some steps toward acknowledging the obvious truth that the Republican position on abortion is highly unpopular, and the Democrats should be mentioning it and forcing them to choose between their base and median public opinion as often as possible.
…Jane presents the unsurprising news that Dems plan to run away from one of their most popular domestic issues. More from Joe Gandelman.