Republicans should avoid placing blame for this year’s election losses on social conservatives and evangelicals, says Ralph Reed, chairman of the Faith and Freedom Coalition.
“Despite the stinging defeat and a post-electoral narrative that suggests otherwise, Republicans need not abandon their principles,” Reed writes in
The Wall Street Journal. “They must resist the temptation to form a circular firing squad, especially one with evangelicals and their social-conservative allies in the middle.”
Republicans shouldn’t “give the cold shoulder to evangelicals and other voters of faith who make up the overwhelming majority of their voters,” Reed says. Instead, the party should find ways of reaching out to Hispanics, Asians, women, and young people, “millions of whom share these same time-honored values.”
The GOP can actually use social issues to draw these demographic groups into the party, Reed maintains. “Social issues properly framed are one of the keys to a stronger, more diverse Republican coalition.”
A majority of Americans now consider themselves pro-life, and 51 percent of college-age "millennials" believe abortion is morally wrong, polling shows. On the female front, Romney actually beat Obama by 7 percentage points among married women.
“If the GOP is serious about reaching out to minorities, social issues are rich soil for finding common ground,” Reed sates. “Most minority voters are either evangelicals or Catholics.”
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