A SUBURBAN GOP MANIFESTO
November 16, 2006
Michael Smerconish
LAST
WEEK, I offered my personal political manifesto - the world according to me on
15 hot-button issues.
Writing
it was part of my post-election catharsis. Addressing everything from Iraq to
gay rights, I shared my views with you, and then with my radio audience. Next,
I posted the opinions on my Web site and invited people to weigh in and see
where we agreed.
Last
weekend, 3,449 people did just that. That's a healthy sample by conventional
polling standards, although I'm not qualified to tell you its statistical
significance. Common sense would dictate that it's too large a group to be
ignored.
Of
course, I'm mindful that the respondents were probably radio listeners who were
largely suburban, Republican and ideologically in the center, or to its right.
That's an important consideration. But it makes the results even more telling
for the GOP as it looks to the future.
So
what did I learn?
For
starters, that, on average, people who responded agreed with 10 out of my 15
positions.
Specifically,
there was significant agreement on the need for an Iraq exit strategy, even a
timetable, and on the subject of hunting down and killing bin Laden - even if
he's in Pakistan, where President Pervez Musharraf has struck a truce with
tribal leaders.
With
a total of 80 percent, people agreed with me that we need to screen everyone at
airports and borders, but some more than others. (Yes, I refer to the dreaded
p-word, profiling.)
And
also, by a similar margin, we agreed on something future House Speaker Nancy
Pelosi has embraced: that the 9/11 Commission recommendations be enacted. There
was overwhelming support for my view that the borders be closed before we deal
with the illegals already here, the estate tax ended and term limits imposed.
Each of these items was supported by 70 percent or more of my respondents.
Already,
I could see why the GOP got drubbed. These views should have been the core of
the GOP platform, but they weren't.
And
the social issues were even more revealing.
My
support of less-conservative social positions didn't win such decided support,
but I wasn't in a lopsided minority, either. On embracing embryonic stem-cell
research, half of the respondents agreed. The same result greeted my arguing for
a party that has room for both pro-life and pro-choice folks, makes Plan B
available over the counter and rejects federal intervention in end-of-life
cases like Terri Schiavo's. Even when I said marriage between a man and woman
is not threatened by same-sex unions, half agreed.
So,
when the GOP leadership is decidedly pro-life, against Plan B dissemination and
for federal intervention a la Schiavo, or opposes gay rights on the grounds
that it has an effect on heterosexual marriage, we are turning off 50 percent
of the suburban base.
And
therein lies the future for the GOP. It's time for moderation on social issues
in order to advance a suburban agenda for the GOP. There seem to be many of us
who want a party ready to kill bin Laden, willing to profile at airports,
desirous of closing the borders, looking for an Iraq endgame, tolerant of
homosexuals, willing to entertain multiple views on abortion and stem cells.
In
short, a party that's tough on the bad guys and not too preachy, and no longer
willing to allow fringe elements to take over their platform. We're not
monolithic and should not be treated as such.
The
GOP future depends on a blend of pragmatism, moderation and conservatism of the
kind advanced by Barry Goldwater, the man who started the movement and simply
wanted government off our backs, and out of our pocketbooks and our bedrooms.
Michael Smerconish can be heard weekdays 5:30-9
a.m. on the Big Talker, 1210/AM. Contact him via the Web at www.mastalk.com.