From the ArcaMax Publishing, Politics Newsletter:
http://www.arcamax.com/news/politics/s-559186-712779
WASHINGTON -- Prior to recent events, I intended to write about the
GOP's message problem with the headline: "Shoot the Messenger."
Sunday's murder of abortion doctor George Tiller makes my title
inappropriate, but the idea remains relevant.
The adage, of course, is "Don't shoot the messenger," meaning
we shouldn't necessarily blame the person who delivers bad news. For
the GOP these days, however, the problem isn't so much the message.
It's the messenger.
By grotesque coincidence, Tiller's murderer furthers the point.
It has long been a problem for the GOP that some of the party's
cherished positions are embraced most enthusiastically by people whose
grip on reality is sometimes ... tenuous. This is especially true with
regard to abortion.
There are certainly compelling secular arguments against abortion that
one might be perfectly willing to hear. Then Randall Terry shows up.
Terry, the colorful founder of Operation Rescue, doesn't represent the
Republican Party, but he is nevertheless the most familiar face of the
anti-abortion movement. When President Obama recently gave the
commencement address at Notre Dame, who showed up to lead the protest
but Terry and the equally odd carnival performer Alan Keyes.
Rather than convincing people to think differently about abortion, the
Terry-Keyes act makes one want to write checks to Planned Parenthood.
And smart Catholics, who were perfectly capable of articulating their
objections to the president's invitation to America's premier Catholic
university, were suddenly stuck in the frame with rabble-rousers who
demean the message.
Such is the continuing dilemma of the GOP: How do you get out the
message when the messengers keep getting in the way?
Now comes a fanatic with a gun. Let me be clear: I don't mean to
compare Terry or Keyes to the shooter. The former are passionate
protesters; the latter is a murderer.
Nor do I join those who accuse talk show host Bill O'Reilly and others
who have spoken out against Tiller as somehow responsible for his
murder. The man who pulled the trigger is responsible for Tiller's
death. Period.
That said, fire-breathers on the right don't help, whatever the cause.
They may warm the base, but the Republican base is becoming a remote
island in Mainstream America. Everyone else is paddling away.
Accurately or not, the right-wing wacko contingent increasingly
dominates the public perception of the GOP. And, fairly or not, that
perception makes it easier for characters such as Scott Roeder, the
suspected shooter, to become associated with the party.
Already, Roeder's story is emerging to reveal a right-wing character
from central casting. Previously arrested on explosives charges,
Roeder was once attracted to the Montana Freemen, best known for
engaging FBI agents in an armed standoff in 1996. Roeder's ex-wife
told The Associated Press that he had become "very religious, in an
Old Testament, eye-for-an-eye way. ... That's all he cared about is
anti-abortion. 'The church is this. God is this.' Yadda yadda."
Indeed.
Some Internet commentary even refers to Roeder as a "Christian
terrorist." Let's see: Christian, pro-gun, anti-government, pro-life.
Sounds like a Republican, right? Oh, and he's suspected of being an
assassin. Connect them dots.
No, it isn't fair. The GOP can't control who joins the party, and
Republicans don't have a corner on random crazies. But what the
Democrats have that the Republicans lack is a moderating voice to
neutralize the party's more strident characters. While Democrats have
Obama, Republicans are stuck with the squeakiest wheel du jour.
One can convincingly argue that the media have a hand in perpetuating
the conservative caricature, but the GOP has contributed to the
distortion by pandering to its less rational elements. Still fresh in
our minds is the last presidential election -- a strange season that
might be attributed to desperation if not for a prior history in times
of political prosperity.
Two words: Terri Schiavo. During that 2005 Operation Rescue debacle --
complete with death vigils and lamentations -- Bill Frist, then the
Senate majority leader and a practicing physician, lent credibility to
the circus performers by diagnosing Schiavo via video and challenging
other medical opinion that she was in a persistent vegetative state.
And let's not forget how the GOP handled the 2004 U.S. Senate race in
Illinois against one Barack Obama. They inserted their own
African-American, none other than Alan Keyes. That worked out well.
We should never shoot the messenger, it should go without saying. But
until the Republicans marginalize those who belong in the margins,
they won't be attracting many new recruits. And the messengers will
continue to obscure the message.
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Kathleen Parker's e-mail address is kparker@kparker.com