Depending on one’s perspective, [tag]Republicans[/tag] in [tag]Congress[/tag] deserve credit or blame for throwing plenty of red meat at its base lately. They’ve held votes on a constitutional ban on gay marriage and a permanent repeal of the estate tax, and a vote on an amendment to ban flag burning is on the way.
Anything else on the far-right wish list on which the [tag]GOP[/tag] can pander? Funny you should ask. (thanks to reader R.M. for the tip)
Congress was trying to pass a war funding bill and members were heading for a weekend recess when Sen. Sam Brownback held a rushed subcommittee hearing.
The Kansas Republican, one of the Senate’s most socially conservative members, held the hearing to explore “the consequences of legalized [tag]assisted suicide[/tag] and [tag]euthanasia[/tag].”
No assisted-suicide bill has been introduced in the Senate, and none is expected this session. Brownback held the May 25th hearing purely to publicize the issue.
Republicans, confronting the possibility of losing control of Congress this November, are doing everything possible to mobilize their base of social conservatives, including a campaign emphasis on abortion, gay marriage and broadcasting decency. Now [tag]Oregon[/tag]’s assisted-suicide law — and the threat of euthanasia — may join the list of issues Republicans hope will win them political advantage.
This issue was supposed to be done. In mid-January, the [tag]Supreme Court[/tag], in a 6-3 ruling, upheld Oregon’s one-of-a-kind physician-assisted suicide law, and rejected the Bush administration’s effort to punish doctors who help terminally ill patients die.
And yet, here we have the states’-rights party bringing the issue up again. Brownback told the Oregonian that “doctor-assisted suicide can lead toward involuntary euthanasia,” so he, among other conservative lawmakers, are hoping to generate some renewed interest in federal action on the issue.
Not surprisingly, the GOP [tag]base[/tag] loves the idea.
“This would be something that our base is quite concerned about,” said Wendy Wright, president of Concerned Women for America, a conservative Christian group.
But unlike other social issues, assisted suicide hasn’t been at the forefront of national debate, creating challenges for Republicans who want to make it a campaign issue.
“This would certainly resonate with the base, the evangelicals and certainly also with Roman Catholics,” said Lee Edwards, a Heritage Foundation scholar who has written 16 books on the conservative movement. “But I don’t think it is an issue that’s of enormous impact because I don’t think people understand all that’s going on.”
For conservatives, Wright said, physician-assisted suicide and euthanasia are part of a broader range of “sanctity of life” issues. Those include embryonic stem-cell research and last year’s debate over Terri Schiavo, the Florida woman whose feeding tube was removed when she was in a persistent vegetative state.
“It’s the concept of the scientific or the medical community treating people with less dignity, as expendable,” Wright said. “With physician-assisted suicide, life is treated as a burden, that people who don’t meet a certain standard, that it is somehow better off for them to be dead.”
By all means, let’s have the debate — again. Republicans and their base can take up the [tag]Schiavo[/tag]-intervention/ignore-the-will-of-the-voters side, and Dems can argue the opposite.
The Heritage Foundation’s Edwards said euthanasia “might be something of a sleeper issue” that could have a bigger-than-expected political impact. My hunch is, if anything, the impact would hurt the GOP instead of help, but we’ll see what happens.