For some reason, Politico's Alexander Burns completely buys the fiction that there is a truce on social issues within the Republican Party:
For the first time in three decades, a wide-open Republican presidential primary is unfolding in the shadow of an economic recession. That means even in the heavily socially conservative GOP, voters are more focused on the pocketbook than the Good Book.A host of leaders on the cultural right told POLITICO they don't intend to fight it. Instead, they hope to protect their role in the campaign by ensuring that social issues are part of a larger conservative message.
Republicans have been asserting this for the last year — and reporters have gone along with it — but outside of a few quotes, there is very little evidence to show that it's actually true. Indeed, not only have Republicans been vocal about their commitment to social conservatism, but they have been completely energetic about assaulting women's rights with radically conservative legislation from the state and federal level. Seriously, in the last month, Republicans have passed bills to defund Planned Parenthood, enshrine the Hyde Amendment in all federal legislation, redefine rape, and allow hospitals to deny life-saving care to women if it harms the fetus or requires an abortion. On the state level, Republicans have pushed legislation to expand justifiable homicide to include abortion doctors, outlaw abortion through backdoor regulation, and — in the case of a successful Virginia bill — shut down most abortion clinics.
If anything, Republicans have doubled-down on their social conservatism, which is why I'm continually shocked by journalists who uncritically pass along the notion that this GOP is somehow "different." Newsflash: It isn't, at all.
