Posted by
Dan Abbett on Wednesday, January 02, 2008 2:22:24 PM
Single Issue Suicide
Listening recently to talk radio, one caller in particular caught my attention. This caller insisted that they could not, under any circumstances, vote for a candidate whose position on abortion was pro-choice. Part of me wanted to cheer such conviction to principle but it gave me cause to shudder regarding the greater impact on GOP chances in 2008. It made a clear statement as to the negative effect single-issue voters may have on who ever becomes the Republican candidate for president.
Unfortunately, many have a key issue that serves as the proverbial “litmus test” that a candidate must pass in order to meet the criteria for their vote. That which evidently served as this key issue in the elections of 2006 was Republican inaction. On this point, I will concede that Republicans deserved to lose the election but by the same criteria, Democrats even more decidedly did not deserve to win. But, win they did. As we now observe the calamity of their actions as the new majority in Congress, it underscores the axiom, “elections have consequences.”
For starters, we have the mentally challenged declaration of “support the troops – de-fund the war.” This position is absolute lunacy, unless you are a Democrat and believe you can be on both sides of an issue at once. Then there is the classic liberal ruse of “taxing the rich.” I could support this socialistic endeavor to redistribute the wealth, if, perhaps, the Dems were to adopt in principle, the recent law passed by the Iraqi Parliament to share oil revenues. I await my check.
And so it goes, as the Democrats vow to: Save our children -- from their parents; feed the homeless -- at your expense; rescue the planet -- from alien earthlings; invent a totally new source of energy to meet our energy demand; all while kissing the feet of our enemy and engaging in diplomatic efforts guaranteeing the humiliation of the United States. These were the thoughts that raced through my mind as I considered the Republican candidates for president in 2008, their past positions on key single issues affecting single-issue voters and the prospects it portends for the Democrats.
In my heart of hearts, I believe that a majority segment of American society is “fried to a crisp” over the political antics now being administered by the Democrats. This would be the huge segment of our society that doesn’t represent the extraordinarily small segment that responds to polls. Of greatest concern, is that in spite of the outrage of this majority segment of our population, at the partisan pandering for political power by the Democrats, single-issue voters will again fall silent, as they did in 2006.
Even though I have presented the “consequences” of having elected the liberal Democratic Party to majority status with a modicum of humor, those consequences, nonetheless, are real. The key point I want to make is that people, to include those who have chosen to seek the nation’s highest office, are going to be diverse in their positions on the range of issues most important to the American people.
It will be important to identify the range of issues important to you, assign a weight or value to those issues and evaluate the candidates with respect to your priorities. Even if a candidate receives a low score on your highest key issue, he or she still may receive a high score overall, based on the values you give to those issues. It is of the highest priority that “we” evaluate the candidates on the range of the issues and not simply reject them on a single-issue basis.
In 2006, the electorate rejected the Republican Party because they failed to perform. This was in essence a single-issue vote. We lost that election. There is no argument however, that conservative and Republican candidates for office in 2008 will have to demonstrate proven leadership ability coupled with a proven track record for achieving results.
So, whether your key issue is national security, right to life, the economy, health care or gun control, we must not lose the next election to single-issue myopia. To do so, will be tantamount to suicide for our national security, our Constitution, the civil liberties it guarantees and any chance to regain majority status. Please do not commit “single issue suicide” in 2008.