GOP Must Renew Focus On 'Core' Social Values, Conservative Leader Says

Main Category: Abortion
Also Included In: Public Health
Article Date: 21 Nov 2008 - 5:00 PST

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The Republican Party will regain political power only if its leaders remain firm in their socially conservative positions, including the party's antiabortion stance, Richard Land of the Southern Baptist Convention said this week, the New Orleans Times-Picayune reports. Land is the president of the Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission -- SBC's public policy arm -- and serves as the main spokesperson for the group, according to the Times-Picayune.

The Times-Picayune reports that "conservatives have opened a vigorous debate over their future" since the victory of President-elect Barack Obama two weeks ago. Some conservatives are advocating for "a return to ideological purity," while "others argue that they must shift to the center to build a winning coalition with social and economic moderates." Land said the GOP must remain "faithful to core values" -- especially on the issue of abortion. Land also said that the four-year process of finding the next GOP leader begins immediately. He added that "there's not a pro-choice Republican among" the party's emerging leaders -- who include Govs. Bobby Jindal (La.), Sarah Palin (Alaska) and Tim Pawlenty (Minn.), as well as former Govs. Mike Huckabee (Ark.) and Mitt Romney (Mass.). Land said social conservatives should remain the base of the Republican Party, adding, "If the party's going to reject anyone, it should be the nativists" fighting for stiff anti-immigration measures.

Although exit polls showed a new wave of Catholic support for Obama, white evangelicals voted overwhelmingly for Republican Presidential nominee Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), the Times-Picayune reports. Land said that "evangelicals and Mormons voted their values," adding that the Republican Party "can't win with just pro-life votes. But without them they are doomed to electoral oblivion for a generation" (Nolan, New Orleans Times-Picayune, 11/19).

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