What Brown’s Win Might Mean
January 20, 2010 5 Comments
In thinking about the big win for Republicans I am anticipating some I-told-you-sos from moderate factions within the Party. They will point to Brown’s win as evidence that moderate Republicans can win and suggest we run more of them. I think this may be reaching too far.
If anything, Brown’s win is a sign that there is still potential for a strong faction of New England Republicans, socially liberal and conservative on fiscal and foreign policy. I’m happy to see that and think it can certainly be good for the party. What I don’t think we should assume is that these moderates will have success everywhere. There are many Republican-leaning districts where a Scott Brown could not win because there would be more conservative challengers that voters would prefer.
Ultimately what I think this tells us is that we are going to have to fight each race on that battleground and tailor our candidates and messages to the prevailing sentiments of voters in that area. If we’re willing to do that, great things could happen in November.
What makes you say that Scott Brown represents the socially liberal? I’m just curious because I haven’t heard of him defending any stances I would characterize that way.
Although he’s given up on changing the law in Massachusetts, he voted over two dozen times against same sex marriage, and he opposes repealing Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell. He’s in favor of the death penalty. He tried to amend a bill, written to require hospitals to provide emergency contraception to rape victims, with an exemption in case doing so “conflicts with a sincerely held religious belief.” (Okay, he did ultimately vote for that bill after his amendment failed.) He’s in favor of strict parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions. He thinks that suspected terrorists should be tried in military tribunals, and thinks waterboarding them is fine. He takes an aggressive stand against illegal immigration, preferring increased border patrols to any kind of amnesty programs.
I’m not saying I disagree with every one of these views. A lot of them are complex issues. I’m just saying that these are all primarily “social” rather than primarily “fiscal” issues, and I can’t seem to find a single issue on which Brown comes out clearly socially liberal. If you know of any, I’d be really curious to hear about it.
I think it’s primarily his stance on abortion and gay marriage. By today’s standards those are considered left-of-center.
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Hmm. Brown doesn’t seem to take a “pro-” stance on gay marriage, and generally seems pretty “anti-” LGBT people in general, as far as I can tell. And I’m not sure what about his abortion views make him left of center. How you ask the polling question/s is obviously a tricky call, but I’ve read in several places that support for Roe v. Wade has been the majority opinion (with maybe one or two blips to the high 40s percent depending on who you ask) for over a couple decades now. If all you’re talking about is that he doesn’t want Roe v. Wade overturned, then that puts him in agreement with the median member of the public. I wouldn’t call that “left of center” — it sounds like “center” to me. And anyway, one hair-splitting of an issue does not a social liberal make. I think the fact that he posed nude in Cosmo may be making you imagine him to be a more liberal guy than he really is!
Brown is undoubtedly more moderate socially than many other prominent Republicans these days. But to say his election signals the potential strength of New England’s “socially liberal” Republicans still seems like a stretch.
He’s in favor of strict parental notification requirements for minors seeking abortions.
This floors me. What parent does not have the right to know that their child is undergoing a medical procedure? Until the point that a parent cannot be held responsible for that child, and be brought up on charges of neglect for dereliction of parental duties … they should have the right to be informed. This is only common sense.