As left wins, GOP pivots
WASHINGTON — A cascade of events suggests that 2015 could be remembered as a Liberal Spring: the moment when deeply divisive and consuming questions of race, sexuality and broadened access to health care were settled in quick succession, and social tolerance was cemented as a cornerstone of American public life.
Yet what appears, in headlines and celebrations across the country, to represent an unalloyed victory for Democrats, in which lawmakers and judges alike seemed to give in to the leftward shift of public opinion, may contain an opening for the Republican Party to move beyond losing battles and seemingly lost causes.
Conservatives have, in short order, endured setbacks on ideas that, for some on the right, are definitional: that marriage is between a man and a woman, that Southern heritage and its symbols are to be revered and that the federal government should play a limited role in the lives of Americans. Remarkably, some of these verities have been challenged not by liberals but by figures from the right.
Culture war rout
The past week and the month that preceded it have been nothing short of a rout in the culture wars. The killings of nine black churchgoers in Charleston, S.C., at once rendered the Confederate battle flag unsuitable for government-sanctioned display. And Friday’s legalization of same-sex marriage nationwide elevated a community that had been consigned to the shadows for centuries of American life.
But even as conservatives appear under siege, some Republicans predict that this moment will be remembered as an effective wiping of the slate before the nation begins focusing in earnest on the presidential race.
As important as some of these issues may be to the most conservative elements of the party’s base and in the primaries ahead, few Republicans want to contest the 2016 elections on social or cultural ground, where polls suggest that they are sharply out of step with the American public.
Next generation
“Every once in a while, we bring down the curtain on the politics of a prior era,” said David Frum, a conservative writer. “The stage is now cleared for the next generation of issues.”
The critical question is whether the GOP will embrace such a message in order to seize what many party officials see as an opening to turn the election toward economic and national security issues.
“Our candidates running in a primary are put in a little bit of a box by the events of this week, but at the same time, it does change the landscape for the general election, which is a blessing,” said Carl Forti, a GOP strategist.