Policing Ideological Turf

Bret Stephens wants the GOP to “get a grip” and “tone down the abortion extremism.” So let’s do a hypothetical exercise. Imagine that the 2012 Republican nominee believed in the rape, incest and life of the mother exceptions to abortion restrictions. Now let us further imagine that the same GOP nominee ran on a Wall Street Journal-approved “growth” plan involving marginal tax rate cuts for high earners. Surely this hypothetical Republican would wipe the floor with an incumbent Democrat presiding over a weak economy. Oh, wait a minute.

I get what Stephens is up to. It is obvious something has gone wrong and people in the center-right coalition are looking around to figure out what needs to change. Better to heap blame on the pro-lifers or else more people might notice that cutting taxes for high earners isn’t the answer for every political and economic situation.

Next
YOU MIGHT ALSO LIKE

Rome and the Church in the United States

George Weigel

Archbishop Michael J. Curley of Baltimore, who confirmed my father, was a pugnacious Irishman with a taste…

Marriage Annulment and False Mercy

Luma Simms

Pope Leo XIV recently told participants in a juridical-pastoral formation course of the Roman Rota that the…

Undercover in Canada’s Lawless Abortion Industry

Jonathon Van Maren

On November 27, 2023, thirty-six-year-old Alissa Golob walked through the doors of the Cabbagetown Women’s Clinic in…