The Republican Quest for a Wedge Issue for 2012

A column in The Hill looks at the Republican Party's quest to identify a so-called wedge issue to use against the Democrats and Barack Obama in particular. Fortunately, so far the effort seems to be lacking any real success and when an issue is found that excites the GOP base - typically based on hating some identified group - the issue seems to be falling flat with the larger electorate and independent voters. This circumstance and the ongoing circular firing squad amongst the GOP presidential candidate clown car must be driving the Kool-Aid drinkers to absolute distraction. Totally lacking, of course, from the GOP discourse are any positive proposals as to how the nations crumbling infrastructure, lagging economy and broken health cares system might be fixed. Instead all the pontificating is about what's wrong with Obama and/or who is deserving of hate and contempt. Here are some column highlights:

Abortion, same-sex marriage, stem-cell research and school prayer have been reliable “wedge issues” for the Republican Party since 1972, when President Nixon announced his opposition to “unrestricted abortion.”

The events of the last two weeks prove that the culture wars are still with us. And with the economy improving, the search is on for new wedge issues to help the GOP in the 2012 campaign. Here are some contenders:

• A federal appeals court in California overturned the state’s ban on same-sex marriage.
• The king of wedge issues — abortion — is back in the news after the Susan G. Komen Foundation cut support for Planned Parenthood based on a House investigation into its abortion services.
• But the big contender for the culture war crown is the Obama administration’s requirement that all employers, even schools and hospitals affiliated with the Catholic Church, provide birth control services as part of their healthcare insurance coverage.

The political irony here is that this culture war over insurance coverage for contraception shows little evidence of winning votes for Republicans — even among Catholics. As a wedge issue it is a political pretender.

So, what is this political fight about? At best it fires up the conservative GOP base. But absent a major shift in public opinion, the issue lacks the critical power to win over Catholics, independents and socially conservative Democrats to the Republican side.

One possible target is the Hispanic voter. . . . But out-of-wedlock births and teenagers giving birth are major problems among Hispanics. Again, for all the huffing and puffing, the issue lacks political bite. Republican nominee John McCain lost the votes of women to Obama by 13 percent in 2008. If the GOP candidate this year runs aggressively against universal coverage for birth control, that gulf will increase to a Grand Canyon.

The same is true of the gay marriage issue. Polls show too many Americans, including younger conservatives, are not opposed to the idea. It is lacking as a political wedge.

Similarly, the Komen Foundation’s attack on Planned Parenthood’s work in breast cancer screening — because of the congressional probe into its abortion work — turned into a political disaster for Komen. Planned Parenthood reported a surge in donations.

There are two ends to every wedge. At the moment the GOP is sliding down these wedges. But the search goes on.

Let's hope the quest remains unsuccessful and that the GOP must live or die on actual policy positions and proposals.