by digby
Ok, now we've got a genuine internal GOP problem:
Republican lawmakers are raising concerns that the party will alienate young voters and women by voting for an antiabortion bill coming to the House floor next week, on the 42nd anniversary of the Roe v. Wade Supreme Court decision.
In a closed-door open-mic session of House Republicans, Rep. Renee Ellmers spoke out against bringing up the Pain Capable Unborn Child Protection Act, which would ban abortion after 20 weeks, telling the conference that she believes the bill will cost the party support among millennials, according to several sources in the room.
"I have urged leadership to reconsider bringing it up next week.… We got into trouble last year, and I think we need to be careful again; we need to be smart about how we're moving forward," Ellmers said in an interview. "The first vote we take, or the second vote, or the fifth vote, shouldn't be on an issue where we know that millennials—social issues just aren't as important [to them]."
There is no political article of faith more important to the Christian Right than abortion. The GOP is their home and they just won't stand for this, especially after the Republicans pretty much caved on marriage equality.
I predict a shit storm. The GOP can't turn around on social issues and certainly not because of "optics." The social conservatives are their foot soldiers and denying them their vote on something like this is the equivalent of starving them. I can't imagine this will fly.
Moreover, the idea that millenials are more sensitive on the abortion issue unfortunately isn't true:
[S]trong millennial support for gay marriage has not translated into an uptick in acceptance of other sexual freedoms, like the right to an abortion. The Public Religion Research Institute notes that popular support for keeping abortion legal has dipped a percentage point since 1999, and young Americans are not swelling the ranks of abortion rights supporters. Today, while 57 percent of people under 30 see gay sex as "morally acceptable," only 46 percent of them would say the same thing about having an abortion.
The institute calls this a "decoupling of attitudes." Support for same-sex marriage and abortion rights have traditionally gone hand-in-hand, and that's changing. Though young people today are "more educated, more liberal, and more likely to be religiously unaffiliated" than their parents—all factors traditionally correlated with support of abortion rights—they are not actually more likely to support abortion.
Here's one explanation for the decoupling: Youth support of same-sex marriage does not reflect an embrace of progressive values, but rather an expansion of conservative ones. Over the past several decades, the mainstream gay rights movement has aligned its priorities with fundamentally conservative institutions: Gays and lesbians want the right to get married, adopt children, and serve in the military. These family-friendly, all-American demands appeal to the conservative base, and work in direct contrast to the lingering stereotyping of gays as promiscuous Communists. Today, support for gay marriage is nearing 50 percent among even the most conservative of American youth, like Republicans and white evangelical Christians.
The anti-abortion wingnuts aren't going to stand for this. Here's Erick Erickson:
Rep. Renee Ellmers (R-NC) is a lying waste of oxygen.
First, she campaigned aggressively in 2014 against amnesty, executive overreach, etc. Then she promptly got back to Washington and reversed herself on everything she had campaigned on.
Now, her knickers are in knots over pro-life legislation. Just as the GOP has decided to stand firm on a piece of legislation supported by +60% of the nation, she’s scared people won’t like her.
That’s right. The “pro-life” congresswoman now claims that putting pro-life legislation on the floor of the House of Representatives would be a terrible, awful thing to do.
She lied about her immigration position. Now she’s lying about her pro-life position.
Her phone number is 202-225-4531 and I hope you might call her and tell her to stand firm and stop being a sniveling liar.
He is a sniveling liar too, of course. 60% of the nation does not support the 20 week abortion bill or the requirement that women must officially report a rape to qualify for the "exception" (to allow her to exercise her fundamental human right to control her own reproduction.)
But he sounds pissed. I can only imagine what Ralph Reed and the boys are thinking. This is their bread and butter we're talking about.
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