It’s hard for ordinary people like me to fathom why anybody would want to be president, but a number of Republican politicians do, and they all have a problem.
Most Americans hate their positions on abortion and guns. On top of that, the GOP has long been a party for the rich, and often indifferent to the pressing needs of a majority of voters. Lately, they’ve also embraced and become synonymous with racism and bigotry, anti-science, reckless with public health, fans of crazy conspiracy theories, and anti-democracy.
That’s quite a package. It gives voters a lot to vote against, which makes the task of deciding on candidates simple. You don’t have to think about it anymore.
But two issues in particular are driving turnout against Republican candidates: People are worried about our democracy, and pissed off about abortion. The proliferation of guns, and accompanying gun violence that now reaches even into elementary schools, is on voters’ radar too.
Looking at Republicans’ positions, you’d think their party is trying to commit political suicide; but the GOP is dying hard. They’re trying to cling to power, despite being grossly unpopular, by thwarting democracy with gerrymandering, voter suppression, packing the courts with partisan judges, and even resorting to riots and threats of political violence.
Now pity poor Tim Scott, a black man and U.S. Senator who thinks he wants to be president, but has the misfortune of being a Republican. Even if he can get past Donald Trump to the GOP nomination, he still faces a very steep uphill climb with very unpopular positions around his neck.
When you’re a candidate, reporters ask you questions. It’s part of the business. A reporter asked Scott about abortion. If you’re a Republican, there’s no good answer. He has to be against abortion, or Republicans won’t vote for him. But if he’s against abortion, the majority of voters will be against him. So he tried to hem-and-haw his way out of this dilemma; or, as AOL News puts it, “he repeatedly sidestepped questions on the topic” (see story here).
When a candidate leaves things to your imagination, you’re entitled to assume the worst: If he’s elected, he’ll support a nationwide abortion ban, appoint anti-abortion judges, and pander to the GOP’s anti-abortion base voters: The people who want to imprison doctors who perform abortions, and women who get them. You might even see women who suffer miscarriages being prosecuted for baby murder, like they do in Guatemala.
He has no choice. He can’t get nominated if he doesn’t. But he can’t get elected if he does.
Don’t feel sorry for Scott, or any other Republican. They chose to be Republicans. No one put them in this position; they did it to themselves. To be GOP politicians, they have to be against abortion, gun control, public health, workers, and the poor; and look the other way at racism, bigotry, and rogue cops. Real leaders would try to steer their party away from unpopular policies that are dragging them down at the polls. But they’re all cowards, and Scott is no different from the others.
If he was, he wouldn’t dodge tough questions, he’d say what he believes and explain why he believes it, and try to win over voters to his point of view. But right out of the gate, at the very beginning of his presidential campaign, we see him running away from questions about his party’s unpopular position on abortion.
Republican politicians really should be trying to reshape their party into something people will vote for. That requires abandoning unpopular positions and getting more in sync with what voters want. But that requires stiff-spined leadership, and Scott isn’t that leader.