Steve Schmidt recently spoke about how Religion Could Kill the Republican Party. He also talked about how the GOP should embrace same-sex marriage. This is all good news, especially from someone inside and should have the ears of more Republicans than most of the bloggers on TheDailyKos.com.
Now I am seeing the response and it brings up the question as to how do we welcome and encourage this sort of behavior.
Here are the options as I see them:
- Ignore them. They are on the losing side and don’t deserve the attention. They are just doing it to join the bandwagon and don’t really mean it anyway.
- Slap ‘em around. Acknowledge their conversion, but make sure that they are labeled as opportunists. It can make us feel superior that way, but probably won’t be much of an encouragement for others to follow in their footsteps.
- Make them go further. Now they might be mouthing the right words, but set up further requirements to gain full acceptance. If they come around on same-sex marriage, then make them sign up for a pro-life stance. If they now think that the Christian right is the root of all evil, make them swear allegiance to the Employee Free Choice Act. You got the idea. Someone has a scorecard we can use.
- Welcome them with open arms. No matter what their past sins might be, we can forgive and forget. We are just glad that they have seen the light. Hallelujah!
As in most things in life, there are no simple choices. Each option has its pros and cons. But what is the real objective here?
In the long run we want to have as many people on our side so we can get the right things accomplished. This takes time and smarts. When someone like Schmidt starts making sense, let’s encourage him as much as we can. Slapping him around and making him go further are not going to be the way to do it. Don’t we want others to follow in his footsteps?
But does this approach mean that we have to always welcome them with open arms? Of course not. Look at the person and the situation. I think there is a lot to be gained by making it easy for the opposition to convert. There is nothing Ann Coulter could say that would ever make me think she was finally making sense. But with Schmidt, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt.
We are in an era of being "inclusive". That is a good thing.