Americans may be focused on the economy at the moment, but conservative social issues will play a role in the Iowa GOP straw poll Saturday and beyond, according to state and national supporters of those issues.
This article first appeared online at NonpareilOnline.com on August 12, 2011.
Social issues still front and center
Conservative bus tour stops in C.B. before straw poll
By Tim Rohwer, [email protected]
Americans may be focused on the economy at the moment, but conservative social issues will play a role in the Iowa GOP straw poll Saturday and beyond, according to state and national supporters of those issues.
“These issues haven’t gone away,” said former Congresswoman Marilyn Musgrave. “They will have an impact on the straw poll.”
“(Traditional) marriage is a winning issue,” added Christopher Plante, Rhode Island director of the National Organization for Marriage. “The majority of Americans believe in that.”
Musgrave and Plante were part of a statewide bus tour promoting these and other conservative issues that stopped at Council Bluffs’ Bayliss Park Thursday afternoon. The bus tour will end Saturday in Ames, the site of the Iowa Republican Party’s straw poll that’s gaining in national attention as nearly all of the major GOP presidential candidates plan to attend.
“Iowa has an opportunity to send a message to the nation,” Musgrave said.
Six of the candidates have already signed a pledge to be a leader in pro-life causes, if elected to the White House, it was announced at the rally. The candidates are Congressman Michele Bachmann, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, Congressman Thaddeus McCotter, former Gov. Tim Pawlenty, former Sen. Rick Santorum and Congressman Ron Paul.
If elected, each would select only pro-life appointees for relevant cabinet and executive branch positions; advance pro-life legislation to end all taxpayer funding of abortions in all domestic and international spending programs, including defunding Planned Parenthood; advance and sign into law a bill to protect the unborn who are capable of feeling pain from abortion; and nominate judges to the U.S. Supreme Court and other federal courts who would not legislate from the bench but follow the U.S. Constitution.
“You don’t legislate from the bench,” said Rep. Louie Gohmert, R-Texas.
But, it wasn’t just the Saturday straw poll these conservative were talking about. There’s a state election next year in which one man in particular must be defeated, they said.
“It’s important that (Council Bluffs) Sen. Mike Gronstal is removed,” said Jenifer Bowen, Iowa Right to Life director, who criticized Gronstal, the Senate majority leader, for not allowing a Senate vote to ban late-term abortions.
Gronstal has refused to take action to start the process of giving Iowans a say on whether they support gay marriages, Plante said.
“Let the people vote,” he said.
