Republicans should give up on abortion.

[retromike22]

Even though I'm a liberal Democrat, I find it more interesting to figure out how a party out of power can get back into the game.  I've been trying to figure out how the Republicans can come back on a national level, and I think I have one of the answers. (I hope I don't get stoned by the other liberals for this)

I think the Republicans should give up on abortion.  I'm using this 2003 CBS poll <a href="http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/01/22/opinion/polls/main537570.shtml">Strong Support for Abortion Rights</a> which asks if abortion should be generally available, available but with stricter limits, or not permitted.   It asks by party, and the results are very interesting.

29% of Republicans believe that Abortion should be generally available.
41% of Republicans believe that it should be available but with stricter limits.
ONLY 28% of Republicans believe that it should be not permitted.

So.... 70% of Republicans believe that abortion should be available.

I think if they shifted their official party position on abortion to a pro-choice view, they would be able to recieve much more votes from fiscal midwest conservatives and also western libertarians.

And for those who believe that this will doom the Republican party because the 28% of them who don't want to permit abortions will not vote (the social base)...... the poll shows that 21% of DEMOCRATS believe that abortion should not be permitted.  But they still vote Democrat.... possibly because they view the party's stance on fiscal and economic issues to be more important. Which is what the Republicans should do.

It completely confuses me that Republicans feel the need to legislate people's personal lives (abortion, gay marriage, etc.), while simultaneously advocating a limited government.

[retromike22]

Here's an interview with Utah Governor Jon Huntsman, who attracted some attention for favoring gay civil unions.  In this interview he talks about how having more moderate positions on social issues can bring the Republicans back.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0209/19181.html

Here's a excerpt:

Q: You've changed your position on gay rights. [Huntsman recently endorsed civil union legislation which would grant identical marriage rights to same-sex couples.] What prompted that?

HUNTSMAN: Well, I've always been in favor of greater equality. My first year in office I ran a reciprocal beneficiary rights piece of legislation. It failed, but my first year in office I wanted to see if we could do more in the name of individual rights. And I've always thought that we were a little bit behind in terms of equality for people born under the same constitution.

Q: In December you talked about people 40 and under having a very different view on the environment. Is there a similar generational gap on gay rights?

HUNTSMAN: You hit on the two issues that I think carry more of a generational component than anything else. And I would liken it a bit to the transformation of the Tory Party in the UK. They went two or three election cycles without recognizing the issues that the younger citizens in the UK really felt strongly about. They were a very narrow party of angry people. And they started branching out through, maybe, taking a second look at the issues of the day, much like we're going to have to do for the Republican Party, to reconnect with the youth, to reconnect with people of color, to reconnect with different geographies that we have lost.

[retromike22]

What do the Republicans on this board think about your chairman Michael Steele's comments that abortion is an "individual choice"?