As far as the Republican base is concerned, the lesson of the 2006 elections is that the GOP hasn’t been nearly right-wing enough. The key to getting the party back on track, activists say, is embracing as many far-right initiatives as possible between now and the next election cycle.
In Georgia, which has become one of the more reliably “red” states in the Union in recent years, the remnants of the state’s massive Christian Coalition operation has already drawn up a lengthy wish list. With a Republican governor and GOP majority in the legislature, the Georgia Christian Alliance expects lawmakers to take on abortion bans, support state-sponsored Ten Commandments displays, taxpayer-financed vouchers for private religious schools, and even a measure to “clarify” that students and state workers have the right to say “Merry Christmas” on public property.
Georgia’s Republican officials, however, have decided that they’re not particularly interested in the far-right base’s demands right now.
“I don’t have any predisposed agenda, other than less is more,” [State House Speaker Glenn Richardson] told The Associated Press. “It’s OK with me if we do very little. I believe we have enough laws for our citizens.” […]
[I]n the days leading up to the 2007 session, Republican leaders aren’t sounding like they’re apt to take on too many of those causes.
“I’m going to very much govern from the center on mainstream ideas and mainstream issues,” said Casey Cagle, a 12-year senator from Gainesville who will be sworn in Jan. 8 as the state’s first Republican lieutenant governor, responsible for presiding over the state Senate.
Mike Digby, a Georgia College & State University political science professor, said the state GOP has apparently noticed that the national trends, which have pushed Republican leaders to tread lightly on issues that some voters may view as too extreme. “If there’s anything that’s picked up from the national campaign, it’s that you can’t always depend on the hot social issues to win elections,” he said.
Of course, there’s good news and bad news here.
The good news is, officials and lawmakers in Georgia are basically telling their base to settle down and stop asking for so many right-wing agenda items.
The bad news is, the base has already won far too much of it wanted in the first place.
Two years ago, the Legislature successfully tacked a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage onto the state’s existing law against it, and the new measure was overwhelmingly supported by Georgia voters.
Lawmakers stiffened penalties last year for when an attack on a pregnant woman harms a fetus and made it OK for courthouses to display the Ten Commandments – an effort critics say is ripe for a court challenge. The Legislature also approved a Republican version of a plan to make Bible classes available in public schools after Democrats originally rolled out their own version.
“I think we’re just about as far at the margins of what is constitutional on abortion legislation,” said Republican Eric Johnson, the Senate’s leader. “I think we’ve sort of pushed as far as we can on things like the Ten Commandments and some of the social issues.”
I’m glad Georgia is going to catch its breath and tell the religious right to cool it, but it’d be far more encouraging if the state hadn’t already delivered so much to the Taliban wing of the party in the first place.