Right grapples with social 'truce'

[WestVirginiaRebel]

Politico:

Social conservative leaders in the Republican Party are coming to grips with a new reality ahead of the 2012 presidential primary:

It’s not all about them.

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.

“You have to address the economy right now. It needs to stop, because it’s immoral what they’re doing on spending,” said Kim Lehman, the former president of Iowa Right to Life. “To think that our dollar doesn’t affect families is nonsense. As a social conservative, that’s also part of being focused on protecting families.”

Social conservatives are quick to emphasize that the issues they care about most — abortion, the definition of marriage, school choice, to name a few — haven’t gone away. Indeed, support for conservative stances on those issues is so widespread in the GOP that it’s hardly up for debate.

So even if the economy is at the top of the agenda, candidates still need to cross a “threshold” of credibility on social issues, said Susan B. Anthony List President Marjorie Dannenfelser, whose group is dedicated to fighting abortion.

“We’re not saying this has to be the only issue,” Dannenfelser said. “There’s not an insistence that it has to be No. 1, that it has to be made No. 1, when it defies the reality of the moment.”

“We’re saying it has to be part of the issue set that is vital,” she continued. “It has to be communicated as a set of issues — fiscal issues, foreign policy, social issues.”
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I think the problem with some socons is that they confuse winning over the GOP's base with being able to win the general election. You have to have a broad appeal to reach voters at the national level.