In fact, mainstream Democrats are talking about abortion and gay marriage at their convention more than any Republican not explicitly associated with the Christian right ever has. The Bush campaign generally used microtargeting and insider lingo like “culture of life” to communicate its social issues positions, not primetime.
Mitt Romney devoted little more than a sentence to social issues, while most other major GOP speakers other than Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee generally ignored them entirely.
Obama is betting he can get his supporters to the polls by portraying the Romney-Ryan ticket as a threat to their way of life. Perhaps his effort to become the Karl Rove of the left will pay off.
But the pro-choice men responsible for building the Democratic congressional majorities in 2006-08 as the chairmen of the party’s House and Senate campaign committees — particularly Rahm Emanuel and Chuck Schumer — heeded Kerry instead. They recruited pro-life candidates whenever it increased the Democrats’ odds.
Pro-life Democrats like Bob Casey Jr., Heath Shuler and Brad Ellsworth helped the Democrats retake Congress.
Will Obama’s walking vaginas be as successful? In culture wars, many swing voters instinctively side against whichever party is seen as the aggressor. This is definitely a strategy that carries some risk.
W. James Antle III is the editor of The Daily Caller News Foundation. Follow him on Twitter.
