No Sign Of Social Issues As Conservative Leaders Preach To Activists

[DonViejo]

Cruz, Paul, and Huckabee compete for conservative activists’ attention — by ignoring marriage and abortion. “I think there’s an arrogance to having absolute litmus tests.”

posted on April 13, 2014 at 1:28am EDT

McKay Coppins
BuzzFeed Staff

MANCHESTER, N.H. — At a conservative conference Saturday billed as the “unofficial start” to the 2016 Republican primaries, right-wing heroes Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, and Mike Huckabee competed for activists’ attention with ready-made messages for the movement, replete with Obamacare-bashing, foreign policy tough talk, and more than a few NSA phone-hacking jokes.

Conspicuously missing from their pitches: social issues.

In a sign of just how marginalized the religious right has become within the Republican Party, not one of the Great Right Hopes positioning themselves for presidential bids at the New Hampshire Freedom Summit — an event sponsored by Citizens United and the Koch-funded Americans For Prosperity — tried to rally the crowd with condemnations of same-sex marriage, or abortion. And when reporters asked the prospective candidates about these issues, the replies that came back were feeble and vague, and studded with rhetoric about the importance of big-tent Republicanism.

Paul, who devoted a chunk of his speech to the need for softer criminal sentences for drug offenders, told reporters afterward that his light touch on traditional social issues is a function of his work to expand the Republican coalition. “I want a bigger party, not a smaller party. I want to win national elections, not lose them.”

more
http://www.buzzfeed.com/mckaycoppins/why-social-conservatives-could-be-in-trouble

[savalez]

1. lol

“I want a bigger party, not a smaller party. I want to win national elections, not lose them.”

In other words, the more Paul says, the less chance he has to win.

[blkmusclmachine]

2. Scratch the surface of the GOP, and the racism, bigotry, anti-woman stuff is all right there, alive

and well.

You betcha.

[daybranch]

3. the real dividing issue on policy is use of Government

The basic question should Government address social ills like helping the poor. Jesus said so and both Cruz and Huckabee should be forced to really answer that question as self-proclaimed Christians. I am sure Rand claims to be a Christian but not as stridently in order to avoid hypocrisy in his public statements and to ha Ha support freedom of all types (ha-Ha).

[davidpdx]

4. To deal with social issues you have to have a heart first

None of those buggers have one.

[reformist2]

5. Who are they kidding? The big money hates social issues, but their base is nothing but social issues