From John Tabin in the American Spectator:
As John Fund has noted, the dark spot on the GOP’s election came in the state legislatures, where increasing polarization flipped the balance in the Democrats’ very narrow favor. “Republicans shouldn’t forget that their new dominance is tenuous and is unlikely to last if the party remains uncompetitive on both coasts,” writes Fund, and he’s right. Governors like Arnold Schwarzenegger in California, Linda Lingle in Hawaii, and Bob Ehrlich in Maryland are successful at sticking to Republican principles on economic issues even as they sit across the divide on cultural issues, but they all face solidly Democratic legislatures — which this election has made even more solidly Democratic in the former two cases (Maryland did not elect state legislators last week). State Republican parties, it seems, are having trouble striking the balance necessary to win in Blue territory, particularly during a presidential election year.
Federalism lights the way out of this conundrum. The recognition of gay unions should be entirely a matter for the states, and state parties should be free to differ as to the proper political approach; if a constitutional amendment is necessary, it is to restrain the courts rather than to define marriage for the nation. (Senator Orrin Hatch was toying earlier this year with introducing an amendment that would be ideal.) Likewise, the overturning of Roe vs. Wade ought to be the end-point of the pro-life movement on the federal level; abortion after Roe should become — as it was before Roe — a state matter.
I’d better admit that I’ll be on the opposite side of many conservatives in these state-level battles: I favor gay marriage, and though I’d love to see a judiciary that would overturn Roe, a proxy for so much judicial mischief, I’d prefer to see early-term abortion stay legal. But we’ll remain bound on foreign policy and economic issues in a strong Republican coalition despite our differences. And that’s the point, isn’t it?
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