With Roe v. Wade on the chopping block, there’s an interesting theory popping up in certain media outlets that the end of federal abortion could backfire on Republicans. How will the GOP gin up its base without the 1973 ruling to rally around, some pundits are wonder? Simple, conservatives say. Not only would a positive Supreme Court ruling kick off a furious battle over life in the states, but thanks to the Left, there’s no shortage of cultural outrage to unite the party together. Exhibit A? The transgender debate.
Ten years ago, no one could have imagined suspending teachers for calling a girl “she,” opening locker rooms to both sexes, or letting a biological man swim against women in the NCAA championships. The Democratic Party has made that America’s reality — and voters know it. “They’ve just lost common sense,” Rep. Vicky Hartzler (R-Mo.) said, referring to the president’s party. “And they’ve lost touch with the real Americans.”
“Everybody that I talk to back home in Missouri shakes their head that we’ve been discussing some of these things,” Hartzler told FRC President Tony Perkins on “Washington Watch.” “[Like the fact] that a biological male could even say, ‘Hey, I want to participate on a girls’ team and take over and win all the medals and set the records.’ And nobody says anything. Nobody stands up for the women because, boy, we don’t want to offend somebody. I mean, this is ridiculous. People have got to have that courage again to stand up. And that’s what I see happening all across this country.”
For Joe Biden’s party, who’ve hitched their wagon to this wildly unpopular agenda, it doesn’t appear to be a winning recipe. Late last week, the American Principles Project blew the doors off the idea that leaning into this LGBT extremism might help Democrats in November. In six battleground states — Arizona, Georgia, Nevada, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin — voters flocked to the GOP’s side on a whole host of gender and education issues. On the conservative approach to girls’ sports (56-33 percent), sex changes for minors (56-31 percent), schoolroom indoctrination (60-34 percent), and parental notification (59-30 percent), the GOP has up to a 29-point advantage over the Left’s positions.
Even more heartening, the support for conservative values crossed racial lines. “These numbers are yet another rebuke of the conventional wisdom championed by the RNC’s famous post-2012 election ‘autopsy,’” NRO’s Nate Hochman points out, “which argued for a softening of the GOP’s stance on cultural issues — and a recommitment to its Reaganite economic message — as a way to make inroads with nonwhite voters.” With out-of-control inflation hurting everyone, the GOP’s demand for fiscal sanity still resonates. “But this polling shows that cultural concerns should come first. Indeed, it reaffirms what many of us have been saying for years now: The GOP should embrace the culture war — not run from it.”
In Congress, Republicans seem to have heeded that message. Conservatives like Reps. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) and Greg Steube (R-Fla.) are doing their best to force a debate on the Left’s radicalism. Steube, who’s tried for a year and a half to get a vote on his federal Protection of Women and Girls in Sports Act, took the unusual step of filing a discharge petition. Under the House’s rules, if 218 members sign on, the measure would bypass Democratic leaders and trigger an immediate floor vote. In just two weeks, Steube has 169 signers.
“I hope my colleagues across the aisle will actually do something for women and girls by signing onto this petition,” the Florida congressman said. “As the Left perpetuates a craze to eliminate gender, the American people deserve to know where their elected representatives stand on protecting women’s sports.” Banks agreed, pointing out that “Congress passed Title IX 50 years ago, but the Left is now scheming to effectively destroy that important civil rights protection.” It’s up to the GOP, he agreed, to force Democrats “to publicly state whether they support women’s right to compete on a level playing field.”
Until they do, the president’s party is only cementing how out of touch they are with the rest of the country. That’s the unsettling reality of the Hill’s modern Democrats. They don’t care about truth, science, women, or privacy — and they don’t mind if voters know it.
How serious is your congressman about protecting girls’ sports? Find out by clicking here. To encourage your representative to sign on to Steube’s discharge petition — or thank them if they have — join FRC Action’s campaign today!
Suzanne Bowdey serves as editorial director and senior writer at The Washington Stand.
