Photo by Andrea Piacquadio
Here is an interesting Politico story, which starts out as a piece about Republicans and their growing problems on the gun issue gradually turns into a story about Republicans and their growing problems on abortion1.
Last week, RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel declared that the party had a “messaging issue” surrounding abortion, citing recent GOP losses. The New York Times, meanwhile, reported on Tuesday that the RNC has been circulating a memo showing that voters are more comfortable with a 15-week abortion ban — even as state GOP lawmakers, including Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, embrace far more restrictive measures. Left unsaid in the article was that the memo had been put together back in September, well before the midterm elections.
Later:
Former Sen. Kelly Loeffler (R-Ga.), a donor who operates Greater Georgia, a GOP voter outreach group in her purple Southern state, agreed, arguing that Democrats calling for gun reform and expanded abortion access are “gaslighting the issues that Americans care about, which is the economy, crime, education, open borders, fair elections.”
A Republican pollster who has conducted surveys on the issue but declined to speak on the record said the problem was that party officials were “not articulating our position very well and so voters in the absence of information fill the void with what’s provided to them, and it’s largely provided by Democrats.”
The implict theme of complaints about “messaging” and “not articulating our position very well” is that Republicans have a position that might be popular with voters — if only somebody in the party could explain that position in a way that resonates.
But that’s probably not true.
Reality check: All the fine-tuned messaging in the world is probably not going to change the fact that Americans are seeing the reality on the ground with their own eyes. They see that a Republican Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. They see that red state legislatures have banned abortion, and the complications that have ensued for women with complicated pregnancies in those states. They see that a Trump-appointed judge just ordered an end to the FDA’s approval of the abortion pill.
And they don’t like it.
Pew:
Overall, 53% of adults say medication abortion – that is, the use of a prescription pill or a series of pills to end a pregnancy – should be legal in their state, while fewer than half as many (22%) say it should be illegal. About a quarter (24%) say they aren’t sure.
Today, a 61% majority of U.S. adults say abortion should be legal in all or most cases, while 37% think abortion should be illegal in all or most cases. These views are relatively unchanged in the past few years.
Listen: If you’re pro-life, the poll numbers won’t convince that you’re wrong — only that most Americans are on the bad side of the issue.
But if you’re somebody whose job is to get Republicans elected, these numbers are big trouble. And the Republicans whose job is to get Republicans elected? They know that.
Straight-up calling on Republicans to soften their approach on the issue, though, won’t go down well with the pro-lifers in their base. It might even split up the party, which of course would make getting Republicans elected even more difficult.
So to avoid the problem and hold the party together while still being seen as trying to be effective, folks talk about messaging. Or, in Loeffler’s case, they say that Americans really want to talk about something else. Actually, it’s pretty clearly Republicans who want to talk about something else. The party has a problem with abortion. But the problem isn’t messaging.
My standard caveat that you won’t care about but is ever-important to me to express: I have pro-life friends. I understand and even find the pro-life position sympathetic at times. Mostly, I want to treat those folks with respect even amidst disagreement. But I do disagree.