'Culture of Life' Issues Split GOP

[davidinalameda]

http://www.latimes.com/news/politics/la-na-assess28mar28,1,4233554.story?coll=la-headlines-politics

Over a roller-coaster week, the Terri Schiavo case demonstrated both the political gains religious conservatives have achieved over the last generation and the challenges they still face in building a consensus for their agenda.

The aggressive intervention by President Bush and congressional Republicans in the conflict underscored their commitment to social conservative causes, while the muted, hesitant response from most Democrats highlighted their uncertainty about handling values issues after the 2004 elections.

[deadparrot]

1. "Uncertainty"? Maybe it's

called butting out of personal family decisions.

[mondo joe]

2. Or they could have responded with certainty that these ARE private

decisions.

[Pachamama]

3. I think its a combination of both-Dems felt this was a private matter and

they still haven't figured out how to be an "opposition" party....

I feel that they should have stood up in Congress and the Senate said that the efforts by Delay and the rest of the GOP to butt themselves into a private family matter were unamerican and unconstitutional and that Government had no business being in people's private affairs, and then stepped back and let the fireworks begin....

They still need some work to do on their tactics....I hope and wish Dean will show them a few things....

[deadparrot]

5. They definitely do need to be a stronger voice.

Hopefully, Dean can do that; he's been pretty vocal, even though he's been traveling.

I wish that more Dems had voted against it, defninitely, but I just disagree with the analysis that it was *only* the Democrats who have been silent.

IMO, it's kind of an awkward silence. Republican know they were wrong from looking at the polling numbers, and Democrats have been extremely spineless thus far. :shrug:

[Freedom_from_Chains]

6. I'm with you

The silence from the Dems during this Constitutional crisis was deafening. However, I think they have allowed themselves to be so boxed in over they years, that now they don't really know which way to jump.

[mondo joe]

10. I wish they had simply abstained and issued a statement explaining

that this is a private matter, as well as a legal one, and not something Congress should intrude on.

[deadparrot]

4. Well, we know that the Dems

who voted against it in the house *did,* during the debate of the bill.

Since then, both those who were for the bill *and* against the bill have been pretty silent on it. There's no reason to single out Democrats, IMO.

[DearAbby]

7. Who says they are not being vocal? Media plays a huge role in this mess

If a Democrat stepped up to the plate, what media outlet would even cover it?

I heard the debates of those on both aisles of the parties, plainly say that this is a private family issue, are they being broadcast? Its the Delay's and the Frist's comments that gained air time.

The Media in this country has really let us down, and if the moderate Conservatives don't see this as this issue now, nothing will. The Media has played this in extremist point of view. Like they don't have a clue that the majority of the people in this country felt that this was a private family issue.

The glaring hypocrisy of the extreme right, and the media. Is now in the open.

[deadparrot]

8. Not arguing with you.

The article said it; I disagreed with the article.

[loyalsister]

9. I prefer silence, personally

Since I resent the intrusion into the private family decision, I certainly don't want Democrats using it as a springboard for political gain.

[EVDebs]

11. I note that the 'culture of life' NEVER mentions the QUALITY of such life

Poor, nasty, brutish, and short LIFE is what the Republican party is all about. Get with the program, and God bless.

Their Hobbesian worldview is as Seventeenth century Philosopher Thomas Hobbs noted famously, "Life in an unregulated state of nature is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish, and short." Republicans are really all about deregulation and a return to unregulated states...aren't they ?