Republicans fail to advance 'social issues'
March 27, 2012
Commenting on Jeffrey Bell’s new book The Case for Polarized Politics, Hadley Arkes remarks that the Republican Party in the US, which has generally commanded the support of voters devoted to the “social issues,” has rarely advanced those causes, even when they might have commanded widespread support. The plans of social conservatives, he writes, have been “undercut by a political leadership that hasn’t cultivated the knack of speaking in public to these issues that people care about most deeply because they run to the core.”
For all current news, visit our News home page.
Further information:
All comments are moderated. To lighten our editing burden, only current donors are allowed to Sound Off. If you are a current donor, log in to see the comment form; otherwise please support our work, and Sound Off!
-
Posted by: -
Mar. 28, 2012 8:42 AM ET USA
". . . political leadership that hasn’t cultivated the knack of speaking in public to these issues". Believing in the importance of these issues must precede development of the knack of speaking about them. And I don't think most of our political leaders have reached even that point yet. John McCain is a conspicuous example. I recall at his nominating convention speech in 2008 he said that education is THE defining civil rights issue of our time. What? While millions of babies are aborted?