The Republican Agenda Is One Bad Idea After Another - Vanity Fair

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Republicans succeeded in getting Roe v. Wade overturned, and it cost them electorally. So, naturally, they turned to the also very unpopular ideas of loosening child labor laws, allowing for more guns, and banning books.

By Molly Jong-Fast

April 25, 2023

In the 1990s, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas wrote that the GOP “no longer identified as a party of ideas”; he was among many conservative pundits who lamented the end of the Reagan years. It’s more than 30 years later, and I would argue that Thomas shouldn’t have sold his party short: The GOP has ideas—they’re just bad, and wildly unpopular. Now with three of Donald Trump’s conservative justices on the Supreme Court and red state houses trying to race each other to the right, we’re seeing these “ideas” in action; they’re pushing for more ways to restrict reproductive health, trying to keep trans kids out of sports, banning books, and banning mention of gender identity and sexual orientation with Florida’s “Don’t Say Gay” law—and that’s only part of the agenda. These right-wing fantasies are finally coming to fruition and, it turns out, the American people don’t like it.

The Republican Party long dreamed of overturning Roe, and last June, a conservative-majority Supreme Court was finally able to achieve it. The results were dystopian: women driving for hours and sleeping in their cars, doctors refusing to treat them. Six months after the fall of Roe, 24 states had banned abortion or were planning to. Abortion rights have shot up in popularity: 62% in 2022 vs. 47% in 2009, according to the Pew Research Center. As the Democratic saying goes, “abortion is health care,” and now Republicans have shown voters what it means to strip health care away. Applications for ob-gyn residencies in states with abortion bans are reportedly down 10.5% compared to last year, and horrific stories of people who can’t get treatment for miscarriages appear on the regular.

Overturning Roe was so unpopular, the disapproval rating of the Supreme Court has since shot up to a historic high of 58%, according to Gallup. There seems to be some awareness among Republicans that the antiabortion agenda reeks; House Republicans are reportedly punting on the push for a national abortion ban, legislation they were expected to take up with their newfound majority. “Behind the scenes, Republicans acknowledge that the abortion ruling, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, hurt the GOP in the midterm elections, and they’re worried about a similar backlash in 2024 if they embrace a federal ban now that they’re in power,” CNN reported, in a story citing interviews with dozens of Republicans. Even Trump has avoided chatter of a national ban, despite claiming credit for overturning Roe. And more recently, Republicans have either stayed mum about the Trump-appointed Texas judge Matthew Kacsmaryk’s ruling to suspend FDA approval of an abortion medication, or even come out against it (See: Senator Susan Collins and Representative Nancy Mace). The most vocal proponent of the decision, which the Supreme Court put on hold and is currently facing appeal, came from Mississippi senator Cindy Hyde-Smith, who tweeted the nonsensical, “We will continue the fight as the case continues to hold the @US_FDA accountable for endangering moms & babies through chemical abortion drugs.”

Still, at the state level, Republicans are pushing forward with one extreme antiabortion measure after another. Because ultimately, the problem for Republicans with the abortion ban is the same as their problem with Trump: The base and, in this case, the evangelical wing of the base, is rapturous about abortion bans. It has gotten a taste of a 50-year fantasy, and it wants more.

We’re seeing this kind of extremism all over the Republican agenda. Florida-based conservative think tank the Foundation for Government Accountability has been pushing laws loosening child labor protections, according to The Washington Post. One law allowing children as young as 14 to work night shifts advanced through the Iowa state legislature last week, and another eliminating work permits for those under the age of 16 was recently signed into law in Arkansas. Similar child labor legislation is advancing in Ohio, Missouri, and Georgia. David Campbell, professor of American democracy at the University of Notre Dame, told the Post, “When you say that a bill will allow kids to work more or under dangerous conditions, it sounds wildly unpopular. You have to make the case that, no, this is really about parental rights, a very carefully chosen term that’s really hard to disagree with.” There’s clearly a corporate interest in loosening child labor laws—this can’t just be a love of Victorian values and a need to go back to one of the darker times in American history. But you don’t exactly see Americans clamoring for 14-year-olds to work night shifts in a factory.

And then there’s the guns. Recent weeks saw the shooting of a couple delivering groceries for Instacart, and nine teenagers at a post-prom party in Texas. Earlier this month, 16-year-old Ralph Yarl was shot for ringing the doorbell to the wrong home, and a six-year-old and her dad were shot when she tried to follow her ball into a neighbor’s yard. Most Americans want stricter gun laws, but Republicans like Ron DeSantis, whose entire governorship seems to be an exercise in trumping Trump in a hypothetical GOP primary (DeSantis hasn’t actually entered the race), keep signing laws like the “constitutional carry” law, permitless concealed carry by a different—less scary sounding—name.

Those aren’t even the GOP’s most unpopular ideas. There’s the push to cut Medicare and Social Security, which is so broadly disliked that most Republicans won’t admit they want to do it. Even Mitch McConnell had to publicly disavow fellow Republican senator Rick Scott’s plan that would have sunsetted all federal legislation every five years, claiming, “That’s not a Republican plan. That was the Rick Scott plan.” But it’s not just Scott (who eventually carved Social Security and Medicare out of his sunsetting idea). Utah senator Mike Lee told a group in 2010, “It will be my objective to phase out Social Security—to pull it up by the roots and get rid of it”; fast-forward to 2023, and he was furious about the implication he’d want to cut Social Security.

Republicans have painted themselves into a corner. The ideas their base and donors love are not only extremely dangerous policies but they’re also bad politics. The further right Republicans go, the scarier and authoritarian they seem (and likely are). In the 2022 election, democracy and the fear of losing it was a huge voting motivation for voters: “44% of voters said the future of democracy was their primary consideration, according to AP VoteCast, an extensive survey of more than 94,000 voters nationwide. That included about 56% of Democrats and 34% of Republicans.” Trump and Trumpism aren’t necessarily the Republican Party’s fundamental problems, they are but a symptom of the Republican Party’s addiction to bad ideas.