What Do Social Conservatives Want?

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Over at Cato, David Boaz considers the recent “Values Voter Summit” and blogs:

Social conservatives talk about real problems but offer irrelevant solutions. They act like the man who searched for his keys under the streetlight because the light was better there….

Why all the focus on issues that would do nothing to solve the problems of “breakdown of the basic family structure” and “the high cost of a dysfunctional society”? Well, solving the problems of divorce and unwed motherhood is hard. And lots of Republican and conservative voters have been divorced. A constitutional amendment to ban divorce wouldn’t go over very well with even the social-conservative constituency. Far better to pick on a small group, a group not perceived to be part of the Republican constituency, and blame them for social breakdown and its associated costs.

But you won’t find your keys on Main Street if you dropped them on Green Street, and you won’t reduce the costs of social breakdown by keeping gays unmarried and not letting them adopt orphans.

Read the whole post. Plus Jonathan Rauch’s thoughts, below.

9 Comments for “What Do Social Conservatives Want?”

  1. posted by Amicus on

    Amen!

    But, it is even worse than this, as you well know, because the “social conservatives” has embraced “Big Government”, with the co-opt of social spending, under the rubric “Faith-based initiatives.”

    Now, one might find merit in putting dollars among those who know their communities best or be most effective, but you have to admit it is an ideological mess, potentially as troublesome as, you know, thinking that gay marriage is somehow going to “cost” us all more than polluting the watersheds in mindless gas exploration, for instance.

  2. posted by Jorge on

    Good news. Yahoo News reports that the Senate will vote tomorrow on the Don’t Ask/Don’t Tell compromise repeal.

    Here’s the bad news: it’s a cloiture need 60 votes to avoid filibuster vote. And it’s too close to call.

    Doesn’t matter to me. That vote’s my ticket to a guilt-free incumbent vote.

  3. posted by Orval Faubus on

    Mr Miller –

    Now that Susan Collins is supporting the filibuster of DADT, do you want to stick by your assertion that lack of movement on gay issues is all the Democrats’ fault.

    Sincerely,

    Orval

  4. posted by Jeremy on

    I am not too worried about the vote. If they fail to repeal DADT, then we will probably get a global injunction against DADT in the next 3 days (thank you Log Cabin Republicans for the backup plan).

  5. posted by Bobby on

    Maybe we should wait until that military commission concludes their study on DADT. This tactic of inserting repeal of DADT and the Dream Act in a DOD bill is very shady, even liberal republican Olympia Snow complained about it, and she supports repealing DADT.

  6. posted by BobN on

    It’s no more “shady” than how DADT was instituted. The DOD bill is routinely used — especially by the GOP — this way.

  7. posted by Bobby on

    “It’s no more “shady” than how DADT was instituted. The DOD bill is routinely used — especially by the GOP — this way.”

    —Ended DADT is a big deal, it must be done the right way and not like a drug dealer smuggling drugs across the border. People are tired of the government sneaking things in, today I read that Obamacare includes a provision that will require a real estate sale tax of 3.8% for homes sold for more than $200,000. That’s a whopping $15,200 on a $400,000 home. How the hell is a realtor supposed to make a living if he has to tell a client “Gee, Mr. Doe, not only you have to pay a 3% comission between the buyer and seller agent, but now Uncle Sam wants an additional 3.8%.” The result is more people selling properties without a realtor, gee, thanks Obama for creating jobs.

    So you see, in Obama’s America, we cannot trust senators to insert weird things into bills. You want to repeal DADT? You want the Dream Act? Debate that motherfucker then! But don’t put a poison pill in the bill and tell me I have to swallow it.

  8. posted by Jorge on

    Okay, I guess we all know where Bobby stands. The bill failed the cloiture vote.

    The lawsuit is a big deal, but with this vote, we know where our elected officials stand. So let’s get the dissention started.

    We already know where all of the members of the House of Representatives stand. This was addressed several months ago, and we had an opportunity to hold them accountable even before their primary elections. Now we have the senators.

    The fact is that President Obama campaigned on ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and he failed to deliver before the clock ran out on his political power. The commission of a study to examine the impact of ending Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell was excellent. But he failed to initiate it in time to repeal DA/DT. President Obama demonstrated a lack of commitment to the gay community and sold us short.

    I will not fault my own Democratic representatives. Some say that the Democrats weren’t sufficiently enthusiastic about the compromise bill. They voted on it. As for John McCain and the Republicans, I respect them on the surface, but they have failed to explain to my satisfaction why they oppose such a reasonable compromise. That goes for Olympia Snowe as well. This is a power play on a good bill, and on an issue in which decisionmaking power should rightfully be deferred to our commander-in-chief. There is no reason why every single Republican should be voting against this (nor, for that matter, why every single Democrat should be voting for it).

  9. posted by Houndentenor on

    Social conservatives want what they always wanted: for the rest of us to be hypocrites like they are.

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